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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


High School Coaches of the Year

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SOUTH

Dale Mueller, Highland HS, Ft. Thomas, KY
1998: 15-0 record, 3A state champs
Record at school: 61-9, 5 years

Despite being a 3A school, Highland left little doubt it was the best the state of Kentucky had to offer in 1998.

Not only did coach Dale Mueller's squad post a perfect 15-0 mark, but it knocked off the 4A state champion during the regular season to lay claim to being the best of the best. Along the way, an amazing 801 points were scored, the sixth-best total ever recorded by a high school team in the U.S.

"It was a heck of a year," Mueller said. "We got up a bunch on a lot of teams. Our ones (first-stringers) would come out at the half in most games. At some times they'd come out in the second quarter."

This from a squad that returned just five starters from an 11-2 team that lost in double-OT in the second round of the playoffs the previous fall.

Leading the way were two of the best players of the state, and quite possibly two of Kentucky's best athletes. Quarterback Jared Lorenzen threw 47 TDs and just 5 interceptions, and tight end Derek Smith battled his QB for each of the state's top football honors.

Lorenzen and Smith went 1-2 in the Mr. Kentucky Football honors and the two players went 1-2 in each of the state's top six awards. The pair of stars is now at Kentucky on football scholarships.

Should opponents feel sorry for Highland with the absence of those two superstars? No, says Mueller, who also posted a 15-0 state championship campaign in 1996.

"Highlands has a great football tradition," he said. "Our players are really dedicated. They really will work as hard as we want year round. It's a small community. We get people who have been dying to play for Highlands since the second grade."

Despite just eight seniors, this year's squad is ranked 19th in Fox Sports Fab 50, thanks in large part to an outstanding junior class. Seven sophomores started on last year's title squad, a team that had one "close game," a 28-12 victory in the regular season and a team that went on to build a 56-0 lead in the championship game before winning 56-7. Of course, the opponents' late score came with Mueller's ones on the bench watching.

MIDWEST

John Thorne, Wheaton Warrenville South
1998 : 14-0, Illinois Class 6A Champs
Record at School: 159-55, 19 seasons

It's hard to get John Thorne to talk about himself and his accomplishments at Wheaton Warrenville South, yet it's impossible to ignore the Tigers' great success under his guidance.

Thorne's 1998 football team dominated the sport like few have ever done before. Not only did the Tigers go 14-0 and capture their fourth state title, but they piled up 615 points while allowing just 136. Wheaton South scored more points in the first quarter of its games last year than it allowed in the entire season.

Thorne's Tigers have gone 113-18 since 1989 and have played in six of the nine state championship games in the 1990s. Yet Thorne likes to talk about his assistant coaches and his players' attitudes and actions most.

"It's great fun to use a game like football to help kids at life," Thorne says. "In life, every one faces adversity and you should not be afraid of it. In football there's a lot of adversity and you have to learn to get back up and not give up."

Thorne is known for switching players' positions from one year to the next, as well as taking undersized linemen on both sides of the ball and developing solid units as the season goes along.

Thorne's quick to credit his assistant coaches including several volunteer members who play key roles. "It's not me," he says modestly. "We have great coaches here and a great freshman coach who starts things off for us. We have 18 volunteer coaches, and when one of the paid coaches scolds a player, one of those (volunteer) guys comes over and lets the kid know that we like him, that we're just trying to change a technique or something he did. We don't want anyone to ever walk off the field feeling worthless."


SOUTHEAST

Don Shows, West Monroe HS, Monroe, LA
1998: 15-0, 5A state champs
Record at school: 99-25, 10 years

Look out for the Rebels. We've heard that before, yet it hasn't done opponents any good in trying to stop the West Monroe High School football team that has won three straight state titles and 37 consecutive games heading into this fall.

And the scary thing is, coach Don Shows says, "I really think we've got a chance to be better on offense this year."

That comment, coupled with the fact that last year's defense was filled with sophomore starters, means the Rebels don't plan to let their impressive win streak end without a fight. And that's what most games are for the school playing in one of the toughest districts around.

However, the Rebels haven't always been able to play with the best.

"When I got here, West Monroe had not won in 40 years," Shows said. "We've turned it around. It's the total whole program. What we do with the weights. . . we teach kids to work hard and not to do the things that beat yourself."

Shows' teams runs the option with the tailback lined up almost 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Even though the school has not produced any college tailbacks in recent years, the Rebels have averaged 40 points a game over the last 10 years. But 1998 was a special group - averaging 47 points a game.

"It was one of the best I've been around top to bottom," the veteran coach said. "They played hard. Played as a team. We were ready."

Rebels players work hard in the offseason and even harder during games.

The formula is working. The school has over 5,000 season-ticket holders and takes in about $300,000 a year at the gates, compared to the $19,000 it took in in Shows' first year.

NORTH

Mike Pettine, Central Bucks West HS, Doylestown, PA
1998: 15-0, 4A state champion
Record at school: 315-42-4, 32 years

Talk about pressure. At Central Bucks West High School, it's almost not enough to win the state title.

Last year's squad went 15-0 to repeat it's perfect championship campaign of 1997. But even with 30 straight wins and back-to-back state titles, the players have some bigger shoes to fill. The school won a Pennsylvania state record 53 consecutive games in the late 1980s and early '90s.

"There's some pressure for the hat trick," said head coach Mike Pettine, whose teams have won three state titles since the state instituted a playoff system in 1989. Prior to that, Central Bucks West had claimed four mythical state crowns based on rankings.

"Tradition. It's hard to build, but not to feed on. It started here in the seventies. Once you do something considerable, people start to notice."

What's Pettine's secret to success?

"A lot of little things go into success. We have a lot of role players that don't get a lot of credit. Our backs block great. We tell our kids, 'Hey, anybody can carry the football.' "

But it's not just the backs who block. Pettine's teams pride themselves on downfield blocking and last year's team featured the school's best-ever offensive line.

But even with most of that offensive line gone to graduation, Central Bucks West looks to be in pretty good position to carry on the winning ways.

Junior Mike Orihel returns after being the only 10th-grader ever to start at quarterback for the program, and Dustin Picciotti (6-4, 245), a fullback/defensive end, is one of the top recruits in the nation. Picciotti scored five touchdowns in a 56-7 defeat of New Castle in the 1998 state title game.

Central Bucks West wasn't tested much last season, but it did have its hands full in a 13-12 defeat of North Penn, which happens to be coach by Pettine's son Michael. Dad also got the best of his son and former player 29-13 in the state playoffs.

"I'm proud of what he's done, but I'd like to see him in another league," the senior Pettine says.


WEST

Bob Ladouceur, De La Salle HS, Concord, CA
1998: 12-0 N. Coast Sec. Champs
Record at school: 224-14-1, 20 seasons

Bob Ladouceur's Spartans may be young this fall, but that's not to say they won't keep on keeping on.

Expect his football team to once again do what it does best - win and work hard. De La Salle expects a lot from its players, but the efforts have paid off to the tune of a national record 88 consecutive wins heading into 1999 and an unbelievable 122-1 mark in the 1990s. After breaking the previous record mark of 73 straight wins in 1997 the team has just kept on winning.

While no team wants to be known at the school for allowing the streak to end, Ladouceur says former Spartans are most concerned with assuring that each new crop of players carries on the team's year-round commitment to excellence.

"It's a lot of hard work," Ladouceur says. "We take care of all the little things; not concentrating on wins all the time."

It helps that former Spartans - who include NFL players like Amani Toomer of the Giants, Aaron Taylor of the Chargers and Doug Brien of the Saints - always return to the high school to lend support to the program.

"There's a little pressure on the players I'm sure," said Ladouceur, who has won 14 section crowns in 20 years since taking over the De La Salle program at the tender age of 25. "Most of the pressure comes from our graduates. It's not so much to keep the winning but to keep up the hard work and to do all the things you have to do. Every group comes and likes to complain that I'm going soft."

There may have been a lot of seniors on last year's USA Today mythical national championship Spartans squad, but don't count out this year's team.

After 14 perfect regular seasons, another 12-0 mark this fall would allow De La Salle to close out the century with a winning streak of an even 100.

| Current Issue | Back Issues | September 1999






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