43, 44, counter.
Bluffton High School football players recognize that call. It’s one of Dennis Lee’s favorite football plays.
“Block down and kick out. That’s been a stable, even in the shotgun,” said Lee, as he talked about his favorite plays and lots of other football recollections with The Icon shortly after Christmas.
Lee, whose title as Bluffton High School head football coach, is listed in 27 consecutive season programs at Bluffton High School, handed in his uniform for the last time when the Pirates ended the season in 2013.
During his career as head Pirate, Lee’s team amassed an envious record of 178 wins and only 103 losses. His career included seven Northwest Conference titles, a first or second place finish in the NWC during the 1996 to 2005 seasons, and lest we forget, a trip to Massillon with the 1991 “Dream Team.”
All this from a kid who graduated from Vanlue High School, where, as Lee recalls those squads usually has about 17 players.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said the coach, as he recalled football campaigns going back more than one-quarter of a century in Bluffton. “The bottom line is that we’ve had good kids.”
Talking about some of his standout players, Lee said, “Each kid had his own, unique style. He could either see the hole in the line if he carried the ball or if he was a lineman, he could make it happen.”
“They had a knack for football and that’s something you really can’t coach,” he said.
The football schedule that Lee steps away from, in his words looked something like this:
“After the game on Friday I watch the tape…more than one time. I have to see what I’m thinking I saw in the game. The tape never lies.
“Then at 8 a.m. on Saturday we bring in the kids and go over the films. Then the players lift and work out. At 10 a.m. there’s a JV game. After that we start breaking down the tape of next week’s opponent.
“There’s usually some downtown Saturday night.
“On Sunday all the coaches spend two to three hours getting ready for next week, going over the films.”
If you think that sounds like fun, in the last five years, Lee added weather watching to his coaching skills.
“Two years ago we had five nights of downpours. That can be a good thing or a bad thing,” he said. “One slip up or one missed snap can be the different in a game in rainy weather.”
Eventually the name “Spike” entered this conversation, and here’s Lee’s’ comments about Jim Berry, who, after his own retirement turned in his green and gold for red and white: “What a fantastic guy. Can you imagine when I started coaching, a young guy like me taking on the most impressive high school coach in the State of Ohio!”
Berry was one of several assistant coaches who worked on Lee’s staff. “All my assistant coaches have been fantastic. And you can’t forget John Hicks, our trainer for over 14 seasons.”
What’s Lee’s schedule next summer and fall?
“I don’t know. My whole life something has gone on Friday night. I’m now three years out of coaching girls’ basketball and I found out that was okay – I don’t know what direction I’m headed.”
Which sport does Lee prefer to coach - girls’ basketball or football?
Answer: “That’s an interesting question. I loved coaching them both. Girls are more perfectionists than boys. Both are very competitive. Both were always receptive to my coaching.”
Ponder this stat: If the next Bluffton football coach stays on for 27 seasons, we'll be sitting the stands at Harmon Field in 2041.
