Texas Heritage for Living (Fall 2019): X’s, O’s, and Dashes

A Game Plan for Success from Texas’ Winningest High School Football Coach

BY DAVID HOPKINS

The football players of Calallen High School’s Wildcats quietly enter the film room in the training center. They’ve been asked to sit and wait for what the coach has prepared. The room is filled with trophies, too many to fit in a display case in one of the school hallways. Several decades of success crammed into a single room. These gilded accolades remind each player of the legacy that has been built by this football program and Coach Danaher, a legend in Texas football.

“The only thing we will let in here are champions,” Coach has often said. “You have to earn your golden football.”

The players sit, patient and curious.

Raising the Stakes

Phil Danaher is the winningest high school football coach in Texas. His journey began in 1974, when he got his first head coaching job in Dilley, a small southern town more famous for its watermelons than its football, and then to the slightly larger Hamshire-Fannett High School a few years later and 300 miles away. Finally, in 1984, he arrived at Calallen High School near Corpus Christi where he coaches to this day. His record is an astounding 458-110-4.

When asked about his success, Danaher often attributes it to the blessings of hard-working players and amazing assistant coaches. His approach to the game is a simple one. He believes in motivating the kids — training them to be focused, determined, and driven to win. All the right sentiments. In many ways, Danaher is a template of the ideal high school coach. He is kind but driven. He is compassionate but immune to empty excuses. He speaks with the soft twang that is so emblematic of Texas football coaches. Maybe they all picked it up from Danaher? Everything he says is infused with value-laden aphorisms, inspirational quotes, and folk wisdom, but it is the approachable sort of wisdom that sticks with a player for life.

Today, in the film room, one thing is on Coach Danaher’s mind. It’s one thing to win the trophy; it’s another to fear never achieving true greatness.

“When there’s nothing on the line, we lose. I have to raise the stakes.”

Coach plays the song “Don’t Blink” by Kenny Chesney for the players. It’s an overly earnest country song about how fast life can speed by. A gentle and innocent tune, it’s not the sort of aggressive, high-energy song you would hear in the weight room or from the school marching band.

As the song ends, Coach draws a tombstone on the chalkboard — complete with an R.I.P., the year of birth, a dash, and then the year of death. He points at the tombstone and asks, “What’s the most important part of this tombstone? Is it the ‘rest in peace?’ Is it the year you were born? The year you die?”

Coach allows the players to think for a moment, and then he points to the dash in between the two years. The lesson is taking shape. It’s the dash; it’s how you live your years.

Like Family

Coach Danaher often stresses the importance of preparation to achieve success.

“You make your football team better in the spring and summer, not the fall. We do the same thing every year to get better.”

His ongoing presence at Calallen High School has created valuable continuity to the Calallen athletics program. The assistant coaches have stayed with Danaher for a long time. His defensive coordinator has been with him for 34 years. This means Danaher hasn’t had to worry about reteaching coaches from season to season. Everyone knows their role and what’s expected of them. The job isn’t a typical 9 to 5, five days a week.

“On Sunday, we watch game film, but after church. We make time for family.”

Danaher stresses the importance of a family-first model.

“I tell my coaches, ‘You treat these players like you want to treat your own kids.’” Danaher explains. “Sometimes those kids need athletics more than we need them. ‘Why are you keeping this kid that drives us crazy?’ ‘He needs us.’ You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. What’s happening in their family. Let ‘em know someone cares. In some cases, you’re the only family they have.”

Danaher speaks from experience. When he was only two years old, his father died in a car wreck. His mother had four boys, which was a lot to handle. Football became an important part of his early life with the team as a surrogate family.

“My coaches were my dads. That’s why I got into coaching. I was blessed.”

Lessons in Life

In the film room, Coach holds up a wooden folding rule. He has the players’ complete attention. Each inch represents a year of life. He marked in colored tape the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school. It’s a striking image of how small these moments are in the course of an entire life, how precious and fleeting. Coach’s voice breaks through the stillness.

“Well, gentlemen, don’t blink.”

His overall approach is a master course in pedagogy. To make a single point, he has used a song, a visual representation on the board, and a second visual representation, which reinforces the previous image, all tying back into the song. Don’t blink. He sets the expectations, and he sets the tone without being didactic. Life is a dash. It’s brief. We have to make the most of this time. The stakes have never been higher.

Danaher knows how to motivate his players. Even with his sober, relaxed demeanor, he doesn’t shy away from the brutal reality of competition.

“It’s attitude. You have to work harder than your opponents. The fear of getting beat motivates us.”

After the speech, the Wildcats go on to the 2016 state finals. An impressive feat, since the school is small for 5A. Calallen just doesn’t have a large pool of kids to pull from.

It was only the second time he reached the state finals in his career as a coach, but they weren’t able to win the big game.

“I’d love to win one [state championship], but what I most want from my players, No. 1, is for them to be a good example. For me, it’s not about winning games; it’s about making a difference in a kid’s life. People ask when I’m going to retire, but as long as I can keep making a difference, I’m going to coach.”

Forty-five years and still going, the successes he sees are not the trophies, but the players sitting in front of him.