“Did you feel the earth start shaking under your feet?” Coach Larry French asked me.
“No, sir,” I responded.
Coach French continued, “Then, I don’t want you to run the ball.”
My high school football coach was Larry French. He is a great person and tremendous football coach. From the time I was 9 years old to the present, he has been a mentor and wonderful person in my life.
And he could never let me forget how slow I was. He still tells people I was the slowest quarterback he ever had.
The quote above was from one day in practice on a called pass play after I took off running and thought I had done the right thing.
Coach French was always after me. In the fall of 2007, I called him before a game because I had heard he wasn’t feeling well. He was talking about me being a good player over the phone; I knew he was sick because he never said anything good about me!
My dad went to Mercer County in 1974 and hired Coach French to be his assistant. I can still remember him driving up to our house in Danville in his white Corvette when he took the job.
When my dad got out of coaching and teaching, Coach French became our head coach at Mercer County where I played for him all four years in high school.
He later became the head coach at Meade County and Lincoln County, and is currently coaching Boyle County, where he has led two teams to state titles.
After 38 years, I have learned enough from Coach French to fill a book, much less a column.
Toward the end of my senior season, on a night that we finally got a win in Berea, I took a sack that was so bad they said the down was “fourth-and-Richmond.”
After the game, Coach French told me that I had played very well except for taking that sack. That night when I got home and talked to my dad, his game analysis was that I had played well and that the best play of the night was when I took a sack instead of throwing the ball and taking a chance on an interception.
Two guys that thought alike and coached together gave me the exact opposite feedback. But they were two guys who would do anything in the world to help me.
My best lesson from Coach French was the way he handled my senior season. Nine games into the season, we were 1-8, and we were not playing well at all.
A lot of coaches in that situation begin to prepare for the following season. The seniors get phased out.
But, not Coach French. He didn’t give up on us. He stayed positive. He continued to coach us. He continued to play the seniors.
We won those last two games, and those last two wins were great. It really helped the seniors feel better about our last season. It built momentum going into the next season which was much more successful and was the start of a six-year run that would see the most success enjoyed in the history of Mercer County football before the Scotties merged with Harrodsburg in 2006 and won that year’s state title as the Mercer County Titans.
After 20 years of being a head coach myself, I have been in several situations where we were struggling at the end of the season. I always remain loyal to my seniors just as Coach French did for us.
I know how bad it hurts when things are not turning out like you hoped they would. Having your head coach bail on you when things are the toughest would be hard to take.
To be clear, I am not saying play a senior if an underclassman is better. But if the senior is a better player, and is giving a good effort, he should still play.
Some coaches say it is time to play the younger kids, regardless if they are better or not. Not Coach French, and not me.
My senior year was a tough one. But, because of Coach French, it was a great experience when it was all said and done. As a head coach today, no matter how tough things can get during a season, it helps me to know that my kids can some day look back on that last season and find positives and things that make their high school football experience one of the best times of their life.
After high school I was fortunate to be an assistant for Coach French. The other assistants on our staff were Chuck Smith, who later led Boyle County to five state titles, and Jack Robertson, a great player from Harrodsburg who would later become the head coach at Mercer County. In 1986, Mercer County won its first district and region championship in school history when we were there together on that staff.
Coach French was a groomsman when Stephanie and I got married. He is one of John Combs’ biggest fans and someone that is always checking on me, my dad and our family. We talk on the phone frequently.
He still says I am slow, but that is OK with me. If I could have the opportunity to put on that red helmet one more time and step on the field for my old coach, I would take it.
This column was printed previously in the Maysville (KY) Ledger Independent and was edited by Zack Klemme, the Sports Editor at the Ledger.