Today I writing a letter to someone who's had a more direct influence in my life: Coach Dennis Roddenberry. He became my football coach in the spring of my freshman year in high school. He took a week off from his current job and came to Calvary to give us an intense Spring Practice that year. We went full pads and full contact the first day and the next day in class every single one of us had a sore neck :) He didn't know us and had to rely on names tapped to the back of our helmets, but he gave us a very good and inspiring week of practice. And he made me starting Left Offensive Guard, which made me very happy.

Calvary had only started their football program about five years before and we hadn't had a winning season yet (we went 2-8 my freshman year). Coach Roddenberry was determined to change that and he did. We won our first game and then went 7-3 and made it to the playoffs for the first time ever. We got beat in the first round, but it was an exciting year.

We had achieved alot my sophomore year, but we hadn't beat the Region powerhouse (and several time state champions), our hated crosstown rivals, Savannah Christian. Calvary had an incredible rivalry with them in basketball, but they destroyed us in football. But that year we played a great game versus Savannah Christian and beat them by a touchdown. I was proud to have thrown a crucial block on the screen-play touchdown that won the game for us. We won our region and then won our first ever playoff game. We lost in the second round, but it was still another exciting year, despite the fact that our best running back suffered a bad knee injury and had to switch to defensive back the next year.

/>My senior year started off a little rough when our starting quarterback got his leg broken the first day of full contact and we had to move our best receiver to replace him. It was a kind of disappointing year as Savannah Christian beat us and then we lost in the first round of the playoffs in overtime on the last play of the game when the other team ran a fake field goal attempt and just barely made it into the endzone to win by one point. We had the best Offensive Line in the state and I knew in my heart that if our best running back and quarterback hadn't gotten injured, we could have won State that year. It was an emotional ride for me and I cried in the locker room after the game. Not just because I was sad we lost, but because I was going to miss the players, coaches, fans, and opposing teams so much. Football practice was tough and I had to sacrifice some things (like being able to play for the school soccer team) in order to play, but man did I love it.

And Coach Roddenberry was the man most responsible for it. The coaches my freshman year had been bullshit artists on one level, but he never bullshitted us. He told us exactly what we needed to do and how to do it and when we weren't doing it right, we first did up/downs on the field and then did the thing again and if we still couldn't get it right that day we ran extra windsprints. We seldom had two problem days of practice in a row or even a week.

He and defensive coach Jimmie Jack Frost could be hard on us, but Coach Roddenberry could also be caring and sensitive. I remember one day near the beginning of practice a linebacker named Alfred Wasner, who I often blocked in practice and butted heads with because of his coarse sense of humor, noticed that I seemed kind of depressed. He told Coach Roddenberry and Coach came over and took a good look at me and said I needed a day off and told me to go home. I really did need a day off and was impressed that he could tell so easily.

I was also kind of impressed with Alfred since I often considered him an insensitive goon :) He often threw footballs at the back of my helmet and one day in practice he came up behind me and started peeling off the purple tape that formed the stripe on my gold helmet. I was normally pretty laidback, but got a burst of furious energy and charged Alfred and pretty much walked over him. We couldn't really hurt each other in our football pads and Coach Roddenberry and Frost were laughing their heads off at the scene.

Coach Roddenberry was an inspiring speaker. All the players, families, and fans would gather in one endzone after each game and he would give a great talk. After my senior football season ended, I went to talk to him about playing college ball at Georgia Southern (he had passed on recruiting information from several very good academic colleges to me including West Point, but I had my heart set on Georgia Southern). He gave me a good run-down of the pros and cons of doing it and counseled me that playing football at the college level was more business-like than in high school and playing for the love of the game was usually lower on everyone's list of priorities. I knew I would have a tough time a Georgia Southern because I was a little too short and not that quick. I thought about it for a couple of weeks and then decided that my life would be better if I could concentrate more on academics and normal college life and decided not to play college ball. Every once in awhile I kind of regret the decision because GSU won the national championship my college freshman year and I would have probably gotten a championship ring like my friend Alfred did, but in the end I know I made the best decision. And Coach Roddenberry helped a great deal with it.

In the last week of my senior year at Calvary we had an awards assembly. When it came time to announce the top male scholar-athlete of the year, I was flabbergasted when my name was called to come get the award. Coach Roddenberry gave it to me with a wink. I had been kind of average academically my first two years of high school, but in my last two years I had really excelled. I was moved that Coach Roddenberry had kept track of that.

I didn't see Coach Roddenberry that much after high school graduation. Around the time of my senior year in college I heard that he had taken a coaching job at a high school twenty miles down the road from Georgia Southern. After college graduation, I started taking education courses in preparation for being a high school teacher. I also wanted to coach.

During that time I ran into Coach Roddenberry as he was watching Georgia Southern in their spring practice drills. He invited me to come eat dinner with his family. I had gotten to know his wife and two kids pretty well at Calvary and we had a wonderful evening. He told me about his senior trip to New York in high school where he and the other students had tricked their chaperons into letting them see the nudie play "O Calcutta." That matched up very well with what I knew about his sometimes wicked sense of humor. After dinner I asked Coach if I could be a volunteer assistant football coach for his new team's upcoming spring practice. He said "of course."

For the next three or four weeks I attended practice with Coaches Roddenberry and Frost and their team. I was usually pretty just an observer, but they gave me some chances to step up and conduct some drills. I had surprised myself a little by not falling down from stage fright when I taught high school students in my first student teaching experiences, but I felt really tongue-tied and shy when conducting football drills. I realized that coaching was even more difficult than I thought. But still one of the players asked me if I could come back and help during the fall practices. I didn't end up doing that, but I attended all of the home games and cheered them on. That was alot of fun and made me feel a little more connected with my past.

My experiences at spring practice and my further talks with Coaches Roddenberry and Frost led me to realize I would never be a good head coach. I just wasn't cut out for it no matter how hard I tried. But I hoped that I could be a good assistant coach. The next year I did my semester-long student teaching and realized that I wasn't cut out to be a long-lasting high school teacher. I knew I would get burned out after a couple of years. That depressed me for awhile, but then I got a part-time at the local public library and loved it so much that I realized I had finally found my true calling.

/>I got caught up with work and living my life and Coach Roddenberry moved on to another school (the life of a coach is often nomadic). I lost contact with him and regret that. Thinking back to my football days gives me great pleasure and Coach Roddenberry's lessons make me want to be a better person. I feel confident he's out there coaching and helping kids. I know he really cares about his job and his players and does that absolute best he can for them and that's about the highest compliment you can pay anybody. I salute you Coach Roddenberry!