I heard from Coach Gruneisen today. He brought up one of the times he almost fired me! 🙂
We were at Bath County playing in the freezing cold for the region championship in November of 1989. Bath had beaten us in the regular season. I am on the scaffolding we use to take as a makeshift press box. We get the opening kickoff and drive to near midfield. After the third down play, Roger asks me what the distance is. I say 4th and 1. Roger gets us in an unbalanced set and calls a base dive play.
AFTER I say 4th and 1, the referee spots the ball. It is 4th and 4, NOT 4th and 1! I am looking at it thinking, “I am dead.” William Gillespie gets the ball and rips through the line for a good play. Roger says, “Ok, what do you like next?” I say, “We better make sure we got it. It was 4th and 4.” Roger goes off…..”4th and 4?!!” And continues to rip me with some very colorful language as he looks at me from the sideline up on the scaffolding…..and I deserved it.
Gillespie saved me. We got that first down. Roger told me later, I was almost the first coach he fired during a game! But, he also said, that set the tone for the game. The Bath County coaches must have thought he was crazy/confident to run a dive play, 4th and 4, from our side of the 50. We won the game, 15-0 and were region champions.
The moral to the story – make sure that the referee spots the ball before you say the down/distance. And, good players make a coach right!
To be clear, Roger is a great friend, was in my wedding, and continues to be a mentor for me. But, that night, I might have got a punch in the mouth if I had been on the sideline! 🙂