Q&A with Dedham coach Dave Flynn
One aspect of coaching football at the high school level that often gets overlooked is program-building. As we've seen across the state with the rash of forfeits and low numbers, simply getting players to come out for the team can be a problem.
But in an age where many are worried about the future of the sport here, there are success stories, so it is important to highlight them where they pop up.
That's one of the reasons we reached out to Dedham High coach Dave Flynn. A legendary player for the Marauders in the late 1980s, Flynn served as an assistant at Dedham and other stops before taking over the program in 2011.
Last season, Dedham went 6-5 in its first year in the Tri-Valley League Small after a long run in the Bay State Conference, where it was competing against much larger schools on a regular basis.
Right now, the Marauders are 5-1 and one of the realistic contenders for a Division 6 state title.
We spoke to Flynn Wednesday night and asked him how he was able to increase participation from a program that once struggled to get much more than 30 varsity players, to now one that has 30-plus seniors.
Here is an edited version of that conversation.
MassVarsity: When I covered you guys at the Daily News Transcript, I wasn't there when you took over, but obviously you're somebody that knows all the ups and downs with Dedham. When you played, you were in a Super Bowl, and there were so many years when it was tough to get kids to come out. I remember going to some practices where there were about 30 kids in August. You've really been able to turn that around where you've got 30 seniors. How were you able to do that? I think that's one of the toughest things to do at the high school level, to turn numbers around. Why do you think that's been able to happen?
DF: That was our number one goal when I came in. I think there were 39 kids when we met on the total football team. We sat down to work with guys that wanted to turn the program around. We just started to throw up things we wanted to do, goals we wanted to achieve, and wanted to prioritize them. Our number one goal was we need numbers. We need more kids playing the sport. One thing I did is I started doing a youth football camp, which is just a three-day clinic for the younger kids at the high school with high school players and young coaches. It was non-contact, but it was a very fun camp. We got them all involved. Get to know us a little bit. Got more involved in Pop Warner. Started attending the Pop Warner meetings, going down to the fields, helping out. I wrote a letter to the town to be put in the paper to kind of, kind of like a pay it forward letter, asking people that I knew growing up who played Dedham football to give back to the program. Come down and coach. We needed good, young coaches to get enthused and have fun. The number one thing people tend and really forget: these kids are playing a game, and you're supposed to have fun when you're playing a game. Now, we all know that it's not fun when coach Flynn's barking at you in practice, but I'm the first guy after I bark at a kid, I'm turning around, patting him on the butt and making him laugh. Let them understand, if I didn't let you know what you were doing wrong, I wouldn't be coaching you. We make it fun, very lighthearted. We have a good time with the kids. We were going through some hard times in practice, in football, going up against some bigger boys. We'd get beat down in the second half. Some of those weeks, in the middle of practice, Papa Gino's would pull up with 20 large pizzas, and we'd eat pizza. We did it like that. I did a lot of stuff like that. One thing I did, I really think that helped, in the summertime, I don't believe in this passing league stuff. At first I didn't a long time ago because I needed to run the football. You get in passing league and teams are doing all this wild stuff that you can't do on a Friday night because you've got linemen and linebackers and there's no play-action fakes and stuff. It's very frustrating. We started doing team-building skills. We met on Mondays. They didn't know where they were going to be. I would send them a destination, and it was non-football related. Like, one week we had them meet at the American Legion. They were divided up into teams and they played a horseshoe tournament, and the winning team won gift certificates to Blue Ribbon BBQ or something. Another week, we had them report to the high school pool, and we had a swim meet. Another week, we were at the gym and we had a dodgeball tournament. We played softball against the police department every single year in an annual game. We try to stress to these kids, the more you love each other off the field, it's amazing what you do for each other on the field. Well, kids started really enjoying hanging out and doing things with each other. and it was attractive. I got a kid who was a starter on the soccer team last year, he's my starting punter this year. We just kind of reached out to these kids. And we played sound football. I didn't try to run triple-reverses and stuff. I believe in the saying that you've got to walk before you can run, and I used to tell people, well, we've got to run isolation first, and toss sweep good first, and then we'll run that other stuff. Let's do this first. Developing relationships with families, we started Friends of Dedham Football. I started that up, and that's an organization that's raised thousands of dollars for our kids. So they get stuff and we give it back to them. We do pasta dinners every Thursday night with desserts before games. We have different dinners at different places for the kids we set aside during the year. We get sweatsuits and jackets we hook them up with. You just create a lot of pride. That snowballed over the years. This one senior class that we have now is a pretty special class, because they won a championship at the Pop Warner level at the Hockomock Super Bowl. They beat Foxboro. So they had won before. And the thing is, they stayed together. And that's a tribute to those kids. They enjoyed their time together. And the coaches throughout the years, they created an environment where it was fun for the kids to play the game of football.
MV: Now, tell me a little bit about the guys on your offense. I talked to Dedham Transcript editor Tom Fargo a little bit about some of your guys. It seems like you have more than one or two guys at certain positions. You've got versatility. You've got depth.
DF: Yeah, we do. That's what I wanted to do. The other goal we had is, let's be two-deep at every position at the varsity level. So if a kid goes down, we have another kid ready to go. And having that versatility, I'm a true believer that, if I've got a couple kids that can play, I'm going to play them both. What I would do is, a lot of times I would play with three guards. I played with three d-tackles, three d-ends. We were rolling through, because at the time, when we had three d-tackles, we had fresher legs in the fourth quarter to play with Walpole and Natick and those big boys. So I used to believe in a lot of that. And that carried over into, let's roll everybody in there and give them different looks. Let's keep everybody fresh, because some kids do some things better than other kids. So I have a few tailbacks that play. We have a few fullbacks, a couple tight ends. There are several guards that come in, several d-tackles. We've got different guys in different defensive sets for us. We have guys that play corner in one set, and play safety in a nickel set. We've got another linebacker set roll in. That allows you to have versatility to do different things on offense and defense. But it also keeps kids on rosters. It keeps kids playing the game, because instead of having 11 on one side of the ball play, we're playing 15.
MV: That's great. Who are some of the biggest leaders on this team, guys you want to mention, and guys who have college potential?
DF: We have a lot of guys with that type of potential. Our four captains have been fantastic. Elijah Brown mans the offensive and defensive line. He is a true college prospect. Then you've got Jack Tannous. Jack is a two-way player, a wide receiver and free safety. He's been outstanding. PJ DeVirgilio has been a leader I think ever since he learned how to play football. He's been unbelievable with these guys. PJ plays corner, he plays linebacker, he plays H-back, tail. He does a lot for us. And linebacker/running back Billy Casey, Billy Casey's a multi-sport athlete that really took on a leadership role for us football-wise this year with this football program. But a lot of guys on this team, you don't need a "C" on your jersey to lead. Running back/linebacker Tyler Martel's out there leading. Quarterback Ryan Flaherty is the true leader of this offense. We're going to go as far as Flaherty will take us. Wide receiver/defensive back Michael Brennan's been an unbelievable leader of this program in the offseason working so hard, and then throughout the season keeping everybody enthused and having fun. Offensive and defensive lineman OJ Pekacar has been a great leader. Colin Curran, he's the left guard for me. He's about 5-foot-6, but let me tell you something. He's a dynamite wrestler, and he's probably one of my best offensive linemen. He's doing unbelievable. He's eating up big kids this year. It's great. And he's a leader. He's a wonderful young man. But they share the leadership roles. There's not one kid who's more vocal than anybody else. We're not a big, rah-rah-type of team. We're kind of a family oriented, tight-knit group of kids who watch out for one another, and we lead that way.
But in an age where many are worried about the future of the sport here, there are success stories, so it is important to highlight them where they pop up.
That's one of the reasons we reached out to Dedham High coach Dave Flynn. A legendary player for the Marauders in the late 1980s, Flynn served as an assistant at Dedham and other stops before taking over the program in 2011.
Last season, Dedham went 6-5 in its first year in the Tri-Valley League Small after a long run in the Bay State Conference, where it was competing against much larger schools on a regular basis.
Right now, the Marauders are 5-1 and one of the realistic contenders for a Division 6 state title.
We spoke to Flynn Wednesday night and asked him how he was able to increase participation from a program that once struggled to get much more than 30 varsity players, to now one that has 30-plus seniors.
Here is an edited version of that conversation.
MassVarsity: When I covered you guys at the Daily News Transcript, I wasn't there when you took over, but obviously you're somebody that knows all the ups and downs with Dedham. When you played, you were in a Super Bowl, and there were so many years when it was tough to get kids to come out. I remember going to some practices where there were about 30 kids in August. You've really been able to turn that around where you've got 30 seniors. How were you able to do that? I think that's one of the toughest things to do at the high school level, to turn numbers around. Why do you think that's been able to happen?
DF: That was our number one goal when I came in. I think there were 39 kids when we met on the total football team. We sat down to work with guys that wanted to turn the program around. We just started to throw up things we wanted to do, goals we wanted to achieve, and wanted to prioritize them. Our number one goal was we need numbers. We need more kids playing the sport. One thing I did is I started doing a youth football camp, which is just a three-day clinic for the younger kids at the high school with high school players and young coaches. It was non-contact, but it was a very fun camp. We got them all involved. Get to know us a little bit. Got more involved in Pop Warner. Started attending the Pop Warner meetings, going down to the fields, helping out. I wrote a letter to the town to be put in the paper to kind of, kind of like a pay it forward letter, asking people that I knew growing up who played Dedham football to give back to the program. Come down and coach. We needed good, young coaches to get enthused and have fun. The number one thing people tend and really forget: these kids are playing a game, and you're supposed to have fun when you're playing a game. Now, we all know that it's not fun when coach Flynn's barking at you in practice, but I'm the first guy after I bark at a kid, I'm turning around, patting him on the butt and making him laugh. Let them understand, if I didn't let you know what you were doing wrong, I wouldn't be coaching you. We make it fun, very lighthearted. We have a good time with the kids. We were going through some hard times in practice, in football, going up against some bigger boys. We'd get beat down in the second half. Some of those weeks, in the middle of practice, Papa Gino's would pull up with 20 large pizzas, and we'd eat pizza. We did it like that. I did a lot of stuff like that. One thing I did, I really think that helped, in the summertime, I don't believe in this passing league stuff. At first I didn't a long time ago because I needed to run the football. You get in passing league and teams are doing all this wild stuff that you can't do on a Friday night because you've got linemen and linebackers and there's no play-action fakes and stuff. It's very frustrating. We started doing team-building skills. We met on Mondays. They didn't know where they were going to be. I would send them a destination, and it was non-football related. Like, one week we had them meet at the American Legion. They were divided up into teams and they played a horseshoe tournament, and the winning team won gift certificates to Blue Ribbon BBQ or something. Another week, we had them report to the high school pool, and we had a swim meet. Another week, we were at the gym and we had a dodgeball tournament. We played softball against the police department every single year in an annual game. We try to stress to these kids, the more you love each other off the field, it's amazing what you do for each other on the field. Well, kids started really enjoying hanging out and doing things with each other. and it was attractive. I got a kid who was a starter on the soccer team last year, he's my starting punter this year. We just kind of reached out to these kids. And we played sound football. I didn't try to run triple-reverses and stuff. I believe in the saying that you've got to walk before you can run, and I used to tell people, well, we've got to run isolation first, and toss sweep good first, and then we'll run that other stuff. Let's do this first. Developing relationships with families, we started Friends of Dedham Football. I started that up, and that's an organization that's raised thousands of dollars for our kids. So they get stuff and we give it back to them. We do pasta dinners every Thursday night with desserts before games. We have different dinners at different places for the kids we set aside during the year. We get sweatsuits and jackets we hook them up with. You just create a lot of pride. That snowballed over the years. This one senior class that we have now is a pretty special class, because they won a championship at the Pop Warner level at the Hockomock Super Bowl. They beat Foxboro. So they had won before. And the thing is, they stayed together. And that's a tribute to those kids. They enjoyed their time together. And the coaches throughout the years, they created an environment where it was fun for the kids to play the game of football.
MV: Now, tell me a little bit about the guys on your offense. I talked to Dedham Transcript editor Tom Fargo a little bit about some of your guys. It seems like you have more than one or two guys at certain positions. You've got versatility. You've got depth.
DF: Yeah, we do. That's what I wanted to do. The other goal we had is, let's be two-deep at every position at the varsity level. So if a kid goes down, we have another kid ready to go. And having that versatility, I'm a true believer that, if I've got a couple kids that can play, I'm going to play them both. What I would do is, a lot of times I would play with three guards. I played with three d-tackles, three d-ends. We were rolling through, because at the time, when we had three d-tackles, we had fresher legs in the fourth quarter to play with Walpole and Natick and those big boys. So I used to believe in a lot of that. And that carried over into, let's roll everybody in there and give them different looks. Let's keep everybody fresh, because some kids do some things better than other kids. So I have a few tailbacks that play. We have a few fullbacks, a couple tight ends. There are several guards that come in, several d-tackles. We've got different guys in different defensive sets for us. We have guys that play corner in one set, and play safety in a nickel set. We've got another linebacker set roll in. That allows you to have versatility to do different things on offense and defense. But it also keeps kids on rosters. It keeps kids playing the game, because instead of having 11 on one side of the ball play, we're playing 15.
MV: That's great. Who are some of the biggest leaders on this team, guys you want to mention, and guys who have college potential?
DF: We have a lot of guys with that type of potential. Our four captains have been fantastic. Elijah Brown mans the offensive and defensive line. He is a true college prospect. Then you've got Jack Tannous. Jack is a two-way player, a wide receiver and free safety. He's been outstanding. PJ DeVirgilio has been a leader I think ever since he learned how to play football. He's been unbelievable with these guys. PJ plays corner, he plays linebacker, he plays H-back, tail. He does a lot for us. And linebacker/running back Billy Casey, Billy Casey's a multi-sport athlete that really took on a leadership role for us football-wise this year with this football program. But a lot of guys on this team, you don't need a "C" on your jersey to lead. Running back/linebacker Tyler Martel's out there leading. Quarterback Ryan Flaherty is the true leader of this offense. We're going to go as far as Flaherty will take us. Wide receiver/defensive back Michael Brennan's been an unbelievable leader of this program in the offseason working so hard, and then throughout the season keeping everybody enthused and having fun. Offensive and defensive lineman OJ Pekacar has been a great leader. Colin Curran, he's the left guard for me. He's about 5-foot-6, but let me tell you something. He's a dynamite wrestler, and he's probably one of my best offensive linemen. He's doing unbelievable. He's eating up big kids this year. It's great. And he's a leader. He's a wonderful young man. But they share the leadership roles. There's not one kid who's more vocal than anybody else. We're not a big, rah-rah-type of team. We're kind of a family oriented, tight-knit group of kids who watch out for one another, and we lead that way.
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