AFM’s National and Regional High School Coaches of the Year

Gary Joseph
Katy High School

Joseph led the Tigers to one of the most dominating seasons in Texas football history.

A last-minute playoff loss ended the Katy Tigers’ 2011 season. It marked the second straight season the Tigers had been close, but were unable to finish.

Head coach Gary Joseph was determined not to let that happen in 2012. “We had been competitive, but hadn’t finished. This year, we were going to become a more physical football team that was able to finish,” said Joseph, American Football Monthly’s National High School Coach of the Year. “This year was about growing up more than anything else.”

The Tigers’ maturity produced possibly the most dominant season of Joseph’s illustrious career.

Katy finished 16-0 and won the 5A Division II Texas state championship. Thirteen of the Tigers’ games were over by halftime. They won by an average margin of 39 points, with an I-formation-based ground game that shredded defenses to the tune of 341 yards per game. “Offensively, we want to run the ball and control the tempo. Those are our priorities,” Joseph said.

The Tigers’ 3-4 defense surrendered just 216 total yards per game. “Defensively, we have to be able to stop the run,” Joseph said. “We’re 3-4, predominantly zone coverage team. We’ll play quarters and halves. We don’t want to be real predictable, but we want to be good at what we do.

“But defensively, it’s not based on scheme or concepts, it’s based on kids on defense being unselfish and understanding what their jobs are,” he added. “If our kids are selfish, we’re not going to be successful. And we know that.”

The 2012 campaign was sheer dominance by the Tigers and an example of a coach maximizing his team’s ability. But a story from 2008 might be a better example of Joseph’s coaching prowess.

After being promoted from assistant to head coach in 2004, Joseph led the Tigers to an undefeated season and a state championship in 2007.

Significant turnover left him with an inexperienced team that, because of the program’s tradition, began the season highly ranked. The 2008 Tigers lost their first two games, including a humbling 47-0 defeat in Week 2. It was the first time Katy High School had lost its first two games since 1984, according to HoustonPress.com.

“You get beat 47-0, that’s a humbling experience. The way we got beat, you lose your confidence. It was bad,” Joseph said. “I talked about humility. There is no right of entitlement. The only thing you’re guaranteed is opportunity and no matter how good you were the year before or how much tradition your school has, it still comes down to your performance on the field.”

Joseph had an off week to get his team to regroup before their next game. Instead of trying to correct everything that had gone wrong in the 0-2 start, he was determined to just get better at one play.

The intensity at practice was raised, as were the expectations. A message was being delivered very clearly to the Tigers.

“On Monday, all we worked on was one running play,” he said. “We ran it to the right and ran it to the left, all day long for a full practice. It was to show them that we were going to get good at running this play. We worked extremely hard on it, and defensively we worked hard on being able to stop it.

“The whole thing that we were trying to get through to our kids,” Joseph continued, “was that it didn’t make any difference what we ran. We have to still be able to execute. I think it sent a message and set a tone for the rest of the year.” The next day at practice, Joseph had the team run three plays over and over again.

“Those three plays were what we based our offense on the rest of the year,” he said. The Tigers rebounded, won 13 of their next 14 team games and went on to win the state championship.

Joseph says he still includes periods during practice where all they do is work on one play over and over, but there was no need to go such drastic measures this season. There was no need for a rebound at this year. Katy ran over everyone in its path. That was by design.

Joseph entered the season with an inexperienced quarterback. Katy product Andy Dalton was not walking back through the door. Joseph knew he had to feature the running game. “Our strength was in the backfield,” said Joseph. “We felt like we had to establish the run in order for us to be successful. We wanted to let the kids grow up and manage the game.”

Tailback Adam Taylor rushed for 277 yards and five touchdowns in the Tigers’ 35-24 win over Cedar Hill in the state championship game at Cowboys Stadium.

It was Katy’s seventh state title and third under Joseph, who is now 123-11 in nine seasons.

East

Art Walker
North Allegheny High School (PA)

The Tigers went 15-0 and won the AAAA state championship.

Q: What is something you learned or approached differently this season that made you a better football coach?

As a staff, we learned that if our players were properly prepared and focused on what the game plan was, than we were ready. I also learned not to over-do things with extra reps or extra contact just for the sake of doing it. Week after week our players maintained focus for 16 weeks. We  wanted them rested for Friday, because they were properly prepared starting the Saturday after every game.

Q: What was the defining in-game moment of the season and what did you do as a coach to make that moment successful?

When we played Gateway High School on the road in a tough non-conference game, it was a physical battle, a struggle on both sides of the ball. Our defense had been playing well all year, but that week they emerged as a force to be taken seriously across the state of Pennsylvania. I give our defensive coaches a ton of credit for their development as a unit.

Q: In what area did this season’s team improve the most from last season? And what did you do to foster that improvement?

I think we improved as a team and believe we had great team chemistry. When you have that mixed with the willingness to prepare and sacrifice for each other, a great deal can be accomplished. I believe in loyalty. If there is not loyalty among the players, staff and the athletic department, somewhere there will be a breakdown. If one player or one coach thinks that they are above or more important than the team or overall program, it will eventually be detrimental to the future of that program. I am thankful that we do not have that problem.


 Southeast

Brian Hales
Butler High School (NC)

The Bulldogs went 15-0 and won the 4A championship.

Q: What is something you learned or approached differently this season that made you a better football coach?

My biggest adjustment was understanding that there are things that are out of my control. I think all coaches, to a degree, feel like we have to be all things to all people. Last season I stressed so much over things that I could do nothing about and became frustrated easily. It took away from the actual coaching. This year I focused so much more on things in which I could help to determine an outcome.

Q: What was the defining in-game moment of the season and what did you do as a coach to make that moment successful?

The one moment that really sticks out was a fake punt we converted in the state semifinals. The thing about it was that it was something seen by our defensive coordinator, Steve Shaughnessy, that someone else had run. We looked at it and thought it would be something great to use. We started working on it early in October but didn’t run it until late November. It really exemplified the camaraderie of our staff and willingness to work together. Then for our kids to take something unorthodox and take ownership of it and then be able to execute it, really said a lot about their willingness to take coaching.

Q: In what area did this season’s team improve the most from last season? And what did you do to foster that improvement?

The biggest improvement the team made was in terms of leadership. They had set very high goals (state championship, undefeated season, etc.) and then held each other accountable throughout the year. There weren’t any games that anyone looked at as less important than others. What we did from a staff perspective was continue to challenge them to be the best version of Butler football that anyone had ever seen each Friday night.
 

Midwest

Jayson West
Lawrence Central High School (IN)

The Bears went 15-0 and won the 5A state championship.

Q: What is something you learned or approached differently this season that made you a better football coach?

We knew as a staff that the young men returning to our program were special. It allowed us to be very versatile in our approach to our daily operation, routines, workouts and even our schemes. The kids were great, and they loved each new challenge that we presented to them. For example, it was a lot of fun to take a routine like lifting and make it a highly competitive environment each day by throwing out a new challenge that the players really looked forward to.

Q: What was the defining in-game moment of the season and what did you do as a coach to make that moment successful? 

It may have been when we were playing at our rival Pike high school the first time at their place. We weren’t playing well in the first half. The game got called that night because of storms and was rescheduled for the next day. The staff stayed up late that night to make sure we were on the same page. The kids came in a couple of hours earlier than needed to get up and get used to an unknown routine. It also allowed us to talk about our team and how we needed to play harder together and with more confidence. The kids came out the next day and played great in an adverse situation. I couldn’t be more proud of our staff or our players with how well they responded to a routine change, going to a rival’s home field twice, and responding so well after not playing our best the previous night.

Q: In what area did this season’s team improve the most from last season? And what did you do to foster that improvement?

Our team was much more mature mentally and physically. We put more time in the weight room than we ever had. It was six straight months of lifting after school. It was extremely intense. What made it great was that the players were the ones who led the whole process, and they were fantastic to work with every day.


Southwest

Josh Niblett
Hoover High School (AL)

The Buccaneers went 15-0 and won the 6A state championship.

Q: What is something you learned or approached differently this season that made you a better football coach?

I think the biggest thing this past year was that within our program all we talked about was greatness, which means doing things better than they have ever been done before. This group of seniors, since they were sophomores, have done everything you can do as a high school football player: spend the night on the road, play on TV, play big- time programs from out of state, play in the state championship game, win a region crown, and be the north champions. But they hadn’t won a state championship. They wanted to go out leaving a legacy of greatness and they did.

Q: What was the defining in-game moment of the season and what did you do as a coach to make that moment successful?

One defining moment this year was probably the semifinals. We were playing a team that we did not match up well with. They were extremely fast and physical, but after watching film all week, we felt like we could use that to our advantage. So we isolated our receivers, who are great route runners, on their linebackers, and we frustrated them all night. We were 9-11 on 3rd down conversions and didn’t punt until there were six minutes left in the game, which in turn opened up the run game. We ended up with a 44-20 victory and 512 yards offense. It’s all about preparation for defining moments.

Q: In what area did this season’s team improve the most from last season? And what did you do to foster that improvement?

We finished. Our motto was “One-Plus - Finish the Climb.” We had drills in the off-season called the One-Plus Drill. One-Plus became part of our daily language. It was universal to all in the program. That is all we preached in the off-season, in the classroom, in the community, at home, when fundraising, at practice, meetings, games and the season. It became a way of life for us and our program. We have a pyramid for greatness that we work to instill in the players through a process called “Our Standard of Greatness.” The keyword is OUR. We want to brush our teeth better, take the trash out better, do everything we can to achieve greatness. We don’t care what other programs are doing because we cannot control them, but we do control the Bucs.

West

Butch Goncharoff
Bellevue High School (WA)

The Wolverines went 14-0 and won the 3A State Championship.

Q: What is something you learned or approached differently this season that made you a better football coach?

    We turned the ball over in the playoffs a year ago. But this season we only turned the ball over a total of only six times, one pick and five fumbles in a 14-game season. And we had only two negative plays all season. We’re a Wing-T team, in the spread 40 percent of the time, so that was pretty impressive for us do that.

Q: In what area did this season’s team improve the most from last season? And what did you do to foster that improvement?

We honestly got a lot better in our two-minute offense. We spent a lot of time on it in the spring, including attending a clinic at Oregon. We played faster and quicker. We improved at the entire process of getting points before half in situations when we needed to score.

Q: What was the defining in-game moment of the season and what did you do as a coach to make that moment successful?

In our first game against Trinity, they surprised us a little bit by mixing up their fronts and showing us some things that we hadn’t seen. At halftime, we came out and made some adjustments of running a counter play and a trap. We actually pulled the tackle instead of the guard. We ended up scoring on the first two drives of the half. I think that was our best half-time adjustment. p