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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Making a Point

Palm Bay High School\'s Dan Burke guides his Pirates to the top
by: Everett Starling
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Over midway through the 2003 season in which he has a team potentially bound for Florida state championship hardware again, there probably aren’t many prep coaches who wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of Palm Bay’s Dan Burke, who considers himself one of the luckiest in the business.

Burke, with his team on the radar of the USA Today top 10 all season long and a nationally televised game on The Football Network, has built a new tradition at the Brevard County school on Florida’s Space Coast.

While Cape Canaveral is just a few miles away, the Pirates of Palm Bay have sent plenty of opponents into orbit, winning state championships in two of the past four seasons and semifinal appearances in each of the last four.

The program has come a long way in the seven seasons since Burke was easily lured from a feeder program (junior high school) in the area. Burke’s record and accomplishments as a young coach weren’t much to bark about. He and his staffs had taken their lumps.

He’d first become a head coach at 26 at a private Christian prep school in Orlando that was not athletically inclined, where he had been a lineman at the University of Central Florida. The prep school left Burke and a couple assistants on their own, with little in terms of resources. Burke found himself totally immersed in every worry of being a coach.

“It was a great experience. I only had two assistants and we explored every facet of the game. We struggled to about .500 and the last couple of years we had a couple of 1-9 (seasons). So I’ve seen the bad side of things, without talent, without resources, without support from the administration and I actually think that helped me become a better coach,” Burke said.

A little burned and with little in terms of future at the prep school, a now married Burke wanted to get back to Brevard County, where’d he grown up. He took a junior high school job in the Palm Bay system. It turned out to be the best move he has made professionally thus far.

“All coaches are pretty hard on themselves, but I got to feeling better and got the fever back,” Burke said of his five seasons coaching junior high ball.

And just in time. The Palm Bay high school job came open, and Burke threw his hat in the ring, not expecting to get a real chance at the job.

But it’s as true – if not more so – in coaching than it is in the rest of the real world that knowing the right person doesn’t hurt. Turns out Burke did. While more seasoned veterans of coaching came calling, somehow he got the call. The principal had also been at that Palm Bay feeder school, and he gave Burke the benefit of the doubt, for which Burke is eternally grateful.

“Truthfully, when I got the job here, there were probably many more qualified coaches out there ... The biggest thing is coming in knowing you have the support of the administration. There’s no way around it, you have to have the administration supportive of you or you’re going to struggle,” Burke said.

Burke and what would become his staff had their share the first year. While the team had been competitive since the school was started in the late-70s, their record had been 3-7 the season before. The new regime knew a lot of the kids on the roster from the days at the feeder school, but that didn’t mean everyone accepted the new sheriff and his posse with open arms.

“Once you set the precedent for winning, the other classes kind of understand what’s expected, and it makes it a lot easier on you,” Burke said, noting that numbers on the varsity squad reached as low as the high 20s in that first year at what was then a 6A school. The team began 4-0 before losing steam against difficult competition.

“The first year’s always tough, and the first year we got here we did have to ... set the tone, what we expected, and we had to get rid of a few cancers. That first year we were 6-5, but we did make the playoffs and we did have a winning record. Like a lot of schools, that first year, we knew were going to have to get rid of a few good ones just to save the other ones,” Burke said.

And so that’s how it began. Burke and his staff continued to preach the basics with their philosophy, stressing details. With the speed and line prospects existing in the pipeline, Burke knew they could win and win a lot if everybody would get on the same page, which they have.

“The main thing we concentrated on then - and do now - is not beating ourselves. When you’ve been in the situation where you have to win with smoke and mirrors ... you realize what you have. We just concentrated on getting them lined up right, understanding what their assignment was, and not beating ourselves with turnovers and penalties. That seemed to be a pretty successful formula. An old coach told me one time that more games are lost than are won and I think he’s right. We tried to take care of our end of the bargain,” Burke said.

While big name colleges and universities come to recruit blue-chippers every year, they don’t see tons of intricate schemes. The Pirates keep it simple. Offensively and defensively, it’s all predicated on the running game.

“We’re going to be able to run the football, and we’re going to be able to stop the run. We work real hard on that; we’ve always been pretty physical in practice. That’s another thing, we’ve not been afraid to hit all the way through the season, including the playoffs, and I know some guys try to stay away from that. We try to be physical, but we’ve always had a good quarterback that’s been able to throw the three-step game and play-action,” Burke said.

Palm Bay has vied for titles on three different levels since 2000. The Pirates went 12-2 after losing their first two games en route to the 6A title. Another school opened in Brevard and shortly after the team was a 4A competitor when it won the title again in 2002 after a 13-2 mark, again after dropping the first two games on the schedule.

“That is the thing that’s kind of strange but redeeming. Each time we ended up rededicating ourselves and crawling out of it. This year’s team has kind of taken the goal they want to one-up everybody and try to run the table,” Burke said.

After the initial early-season meltdown in 2000, you might think 2002’s repeat of starting 0-2 could be avoided.

“I think as much as we try to prepare, they read their own press clippings. Much as we try to warn ‘em ... I’m not saying we didn’t read them ourselves,” Burke chuckled. “After having it happen to us in 2000, I think we were still trying to guard against that in 2002, but it kind of over-bent us. But it was two good football teams that beat us, Carroll City and Edgewater. Orlando Edgewater was a 6A runner-up, Carroll City is ranked No. 1 in the state Class 6A. Walt Frazier, their coach, has won a couple of titles, and he’s favored to win this year.”

“Playing people good, you always learn from that. It gives you something to work on, and that’s what happened those two years, really. We could always look back and say, what hurt us? Where do we have to get better,” Burke said.

As they march towards the playoffs in 2003, Burke harps on those lessons constantly as he tries to improve a line that he feels is under performing and a defense that isn’t stopping the run as well as he and defensive coordinator Derek Smith want.

“That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to watch and learn. Last week we beat a team 35-6 and you watch the film and there’s so much that we can do better,” Burke said.

Is that scary?

“No,” Burke almost deadpans. “We let a guy rush for 120 yards. That’s what’s scary.”

“These guys right here look at us kind of strange because we’re riding their butts and they’re undefeated and giving up an average of eight points a game (through seven games), but we’re not doing a great job of stopping the run. So we’re focusing on that. All the kids that come up through know that expectations are high here, and that helps. They keep each other in line a lot of times,” Burke said.

If they don’t, that’s where Burke and the staff come in. After that troublesome first year, the Pirates’ varsity now numbers around 50. The JV team is about 30 strong, and the freshman group was an abnormally large lot between 50-60.

While he’ll continue to harp about the smallest detail in an effort to get more out of his team, Burke counts his blessings. That first win as the head coach at Palm Bay seven seasons ago looms larger in Burke’s mind than either one of the state title clinchers, given that in his mind he was a long shot who lucked into the job.

“Just surround yourself with good people. Without the support of the administration and good players, it’s going to be tough to win anywhere. When I started my career (at the prep school), it didn’t look like I’d made such a good career choice,” Burke said. “But things can fall your way ... remember to take care of yourself. A lot of people worry too much about their opponent, but just take care of the little things.”

Whether you’re winning or losing by five or 25.






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