I surmised that his being an orphan was the motivation for being a coach and he was a darn good one at that. That and , yes, he loved sports and winning. He was a coach in a different era. His coaching style would probably be totally un acceptable today. Not that there was a thing wrong with it, it was the style of the times. He was a Vince Lombardi style coach, hard nosed and demanding. He got the best out of all of us, he made us better men because of the way he coached. No water during practice, other than salt water, so we wouldn't drink it.

He always knew how to motivate us. We got new helmets my senior year but rather than hand them out to everyone all at once you had to earn yours by excelling in practice. By the second day of two a days, with no new helmet, I was a mad man. I wanted that helmet. He knew how to flip your switch. 

Those grueling two a days. The morning practice 9:00  until around noon and then the dreaded afternoon practice, the one that began at 2:00 and would run usually until 5:00, right in the heat of the day. He would never have allowed us to practice at night because it was to hot in the middle of the day. It was a different era.

I'll never forget the WL game, the first game of the year. We had only ever beaten them one time and this was going to be the second . He had the freshman team and the JV team warm up with us in full pads, on their field, before the game. Our team took up half of the playing field. He had us wear white jerseys for that game because he told us we would look bigger. Anything to intimidate the other team. I don't know whether this made any difference at all but he had us convinced it would. We finally beat them and that was just the beginning of 6 straight wins. Only one time during those wins were we scored on from scrimmage. We had an awesome defense. 

I remember the silver stars on our helmets for when you did something special in a game. He always knew how to motivate us to excel.  Then he would  made a big deal out of it at practice the next week. 

I remember before the Falls Church game it rained all week long, every day we practiced in the pouring down rain. I can still hear him telling us that Falls Church  was practicing in the gymn but we were going to practice all week in the rain because the weather report said it was going to rain on game day. He had us prepared to play in the rain and we did and we won. The water on their field was deep and it was cold but we were prepared to play because we had practiced all week long in the rain. The practice footballs were so waterlogged they looked like beachballs. He always had us prepared for the game. 

We missed being undefeated by 10 points that year. We were only scored on from scrimmage 3 times all year. We lost one game to Marshall 3-0. Back than kicking an extra point was considered a miracle , to lose because our opponent kicked a 30 yard field goal was un heard of. What a disappointing loss that was ! 

I still remember the first practice of the week, in pads before the Annandale game, the last game of the year. He always rode the 7 man blocking sled while the line teed off on it. He would  give us a pep talk when we took a break from that. All week long he reminded the seniors that you would always remember your last game of your high school career, and how much better it was to remember it as a win. Win we did. One of the first, after many years losing to Annandale High School. I'll never forget The Coach, what a year it was. I would love to go back and do it all over again.

Rest in peace coach. You made a difference while you were here, I'll forever be grateful, you gave me a chance