High School Coach of the Year
THE MAKING OF A TEXAS LEGEND
FORMER UT QUARTERBACK LED HIS DRAGONS TO A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP AND #1 NATIONAL RANKING
by: David Purdum©
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For Southlake Carroll head coach Todd Dodge, the 2004 season brought intense pressure and the highest of expectations. With 11 returning starters from last year’s state runner-up team, including All-State quarterback Chase Daniel, the Dragons were not only the favorites in Texas but also in the nation. Yet, while a strong nucleus of players returned, six of Dodge’s eight coaches did not, including defensive coordinator Charlie Stalcup. He succumbed to a five-year battle with melanoma in late July, just five weeks before the Dragons were to open their season against Midland Lee in the sixth-annual Texas Football Classic at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Entering the season with practically a brand new coaching staff and without his right-hand man of the last eight years, Dodge and the Dragons began a magical season with a dominating 45-14 win overMidland. Just five months after Stalcup’s death, at Texas Stadium, the Dragons exceeded those lofty expectations, capping off an undefeated season with their fifth state championship and first national title. They celebrated by joining fans in a chant of “Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!”
A former Texas Longhorn quarterback, Dodge was named the 2004 Schutt Sports High School Coach of the Year presented by American Football Monthly. “I’ve never been around a group that’s been under as much pressure as these guys,” Dodge told reporters shortly after his 5-foot-6, 150-pound junior kicker Kevin Ortega calmly made a 41-yard field goal as time expired to give Carroll a 27-24 win over Smithson Valley and its second state championship in three seasons.
“I’m so proud of how this staff has jelled in such a short time,” Dodge said. “He has created a family atmosphere around here,” added Carroll defensive line and special teams coach Robert Drake, who just finished his 14th season at the school. The Dragons were tabbed as the nation’s top high school team by all six major polls and became only the fourth Texas team to win the mythical national championship. Since moving up to Class 5A in 2002, Carroll is 47-1 and has reached the title game the last three seasons. Dodge is 67-10 in his five seasons at Carroll.
“Dodge Ball”
In 2003, the Dragon offense put up numbers rarely seen on Playstation. In his first year at the controls of Dodge’s spread attack, Daniel picked up approximately 5,300 total yards and accounted for an amazing 60 touchdowns. Carroll averaged 458 yards and 41 points per game. Top that, Coach Dodge. The Dragons averaged 505 yards and 44 points per game this season.
Before arriving at Carroll prior to the 2000 season, Dodge spent two years each at Newman Smith High School (1996-97) and Fossil Ridge (1998-99). He had a losing record at both schools, but a winning one against the Dragons. “To have an opportunity to come to a school with such tremendous tradition, I was very blessed that they called me while I was at Fossil Ridge,” said Dodge. Carroll athletic director at the time, Bob Ledbetter, a former Dragon head coach that won three Class 3A titles running the wishbone, was probably tired of losing to Dodge. So he hired him instead. “My teams beat them four out of five times,” Dodge said.
In his first season at Carroll, Dodge quickly transformed the Dragon offense from a grind it out, power running game to a wide-open spread attack, that is now known to some as “Dodge Ball.” He wasted little time and installed the offense during his first spring practice.
“There were some kids there that I thought could run the offense. They were a little raw, but they were able to run it through spring practice,” he said. The next season the Dragons went from a 5-5 wishbone team to a 10-4 state quarterfinalist.
“They make you defend every inch of that field,” said Fred Akers, Dodge’s former coach at Texas. “It’s a fun offense. He showed me what they were doing, and I was really impressed. They mix in two or three concepts, which makes it hard for defenses to pick up and react to it. If we would have known how to run it, we would have,”Akers joked.
But “Dodge Ball” is not overly complicated. “We have about four (running) plays,” Dodge said, “inside zone, quarterback power, counter, quarterback zone option.” The key, he says, is to make the opponent defend ever position on the field. “From an offensive standpoint, we have to make sure everybody gets involved.”
Thirteen different Dragons scored this season. Six receivers caught more than 30 passes. Two – junior wide out Clint Renfro, who is the son of former Dallas receiver Mike Renfro, and senior speedster Kenton Gedwed – had more than 1,100 yards receiving. Renfro finished with 1,454 yards and 23 touchdowns. He is one of three Carroll players whose fathers played for the Cowboys. Sophomore linebacker Bryce Saldi is the son of former Dallas tight end Jay Saldi, and freshman running back Trey Newton is the slender son of former Cowboy offensive lineman Nate Newton and touted as the next Carroll star.
Daniel, who is headed to Missouri, and running back Aaron Luna, who has committed to Rice to play baseball, each ran for more than 1,400 yards. Daniel completed 65 percent of his passes (298-457) for 4,582 yards and 48 touchdowns. He also ran for 21 scores, giving the senior 129 touchdowns in his last 32 games, an average of more than four a game.
TV Time
On Oct. 14, the Dragons hosted Denton Ryan, winner of two of the last four state 4A titles and the state’s No. 2 ranked team. When Denton grabbed a 13-10 lead in the first quarter, it was the first time Carroll had trailed all season. But, behind three Renfro touchdown
receptions, the Dragons rallied for an impressive 52-27 victory in front of 10,000 fans and a national TV audience on ESPN2. Tickets for the showdown were said to be going for $120 on eBay. Dallas Cowboy tailback Eddie George and safety Roy Williams joined former players Larry Brown and George Teague on the sidelines. The two Texas powerhouses would meet again in the playoffs, with the Dragons again coming out on top, this time 28-7.
The Week Before
On Dec. 16, 2004, two days before Southlake Carroll was to play Smithson Valley for the Texas state championship, Dodge said he was excited over the phone. But you couldn’t tell his team was one win away from claiming the mythical national championship. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him flustered,” said Drake.
“He’s doing everything exactly the same,” added Carroll athletic director Ronnie Tipps. “He works just as hard in week 1 as he is this week, before the state championship game.”
That’s precisely the idea, says Dodge. “The one thing I’ve always vowed not to do is to send the wrong message to the team by changing our personality in the face of a big ball game,” he said.
“When you get this far in the season, it’s foolish to do a lot of changing. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In these huge games, I think sometimes coaches make a mistake, worrying about trying to out-coach the other team instead of letting your kids just go out and play. I trust these kids.”
A native of Port Arthur, Texas, – also the hometown of Jimmy Johnson – Dodge quarterbacked Jefferson High School to the 1980 state championship game. Jefferson lost to Odessa Permian 28-19 in one of most storied games in state history.
“When I look back at last year’s loss and the one in last year’s championship game, I feel like the whole team was uptight. That’s not the reason we lost those games, but it didn’t help.” I get more butterflies now as a coach than as a player,” Dodge said. “I’ve always felt you have more control when you’re a player. Our team motto is to be wired, but loose. In football, that’s how you have to play, with great intensity, so intense that you have to choke it off, collar it a little bit.”
After high school, Dodge went on to play quarterback at Texas. Akers said Dodge was always cool under pressure. “He’s always very well prepared. He’s confident in his preparation, so there is no reason to be uptight. He’s really done an outstanding job at Carroll. I’m so proud of him,” said Akers.
Dodge said even though the Dragons had their 31-game win streak snapped by Katy in last year’s state final, the team’s preparation had nothing to do with the loss. “I don’t think we lost that game because of anything to do with our preparation. We got beat because the other team beat us. They snapped the ball 72 times to our 47.”
The Night Before
For some coaches, sleeping is not an option the night before a big game. A restless night can be spent tossing and turning. To make things a little more difficult for Dodge, his wife Elizabeth was recovering from back surgery the week before the championship game. “I try to be real still,” he said. But usually, sleeping is not an issue for him.
“I have no problem sleeping. I know when I lay my head on my pillow at night, that those kids are going to turn it loose and play exceptionally hard the next day.” Wonder if the same can be said down the hall from Dodge’s bedroom, where Riley, a highly touted freshman quarterback for the Dragons, sleeps or not?
Remembering Coach Stalcup
Coach Stalcup had been Dodge’s defensive coordinator for eight seasons, before passing away in July. Stalcup battled melanoma for five years and rarely missed a practice, some days even arriving after
chemotherapy treatments.
“It brought us closer together, seeing a guy coming to practice when he was battling cancer,” said Drake. “When he was starting to get a little weaker, Charlie would ride around in a golf cart at practice. He’d get excited and want to jump out of the cart to try and teach the kids something. We used to joke with him and say we were going to tie him down to the cart. He loved coaching ball.”
Stalcup, who was 50 when he died, coached and taught for more than 25 years. The team dedicated the season to Stalcup, and the school named its Dragon mascot Charlie at this season’s homecoming festivities.
It was, in many ways, a storybook season.
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