On Saturday, December 1st, while Whitmer was preparing for their state championship game, Greg Dempsey, the Central Catholic High School coach, was celebrating his team’s victory. The modest English teacher and self-described football “nut,” has now led two teams to Division II state championship trophy wins – in 2005 and 2012. Dempsey, a soft-spoken, easy-going guy off the field, sat down with us to reveal some of his winner wisdom.
A football obsession
Before high school I loved studying the games of baseball and football. I was a baseball nut, football nut, in junior high. I loved the numbers part of both games — I was watching them a little differently than most kids did, I guess. Some of us aren’t good enough [to play much], so you have to understand strategy, because you aren’t that talented. But it was nothing that was in our family, or deep-rooted.
On college recruiters
The recruiting has gotten a lot more intense in general, year round. It’s crazy, because you have tons of coaches coming through all wanting to see the same kid or kids depending on what you have. And then you have some kids they don’t wanna see, and you have to deal with these kids hopes and dreams. As a high school coach you’re fairly helpless when it comes to recruiting — you can push your guy, you can send out film, but if they don’t think he’s tall enough, fast enough, or fits the mold, or just can’t play at the next level, they decide that. That’s not easy to deal with, because usually the head coach is the one that’s telling the kid if it doesn’t work out. That’s the tough part of the job.
Football’s lessons for life
I think football provides a lot of things. No matter what you do in your life you’re going to work on some kind of team. Football, I think, is the ultimate team sport, because there’s so many people on [a team]. I tell people all the time, if our anointed star player shows up by himself on Friday night, you aren’t winning. If everyone else shows up but he doesn’t, you have a chance. There’s a lot of life lessons that get taught through football.
On a winning formula
I tell the kids a lot of times, it’s like a recipe. If you’re short on one thing and use too much of another, it’s not gonna taste very good. You get the balance right, it tastes delicious. You have to have talented players, and a lot of ‘em. We have kids on this team that are back-ups that would start many other places, and they decided to sacrifice to be a part of something that’s bigger than themselves, I guess you would say. You need those guys who are willing to sacrifice to build depth because football’s an injury sport and it’s gonna happen. You need a great coaching staff, because if I was here by myself we would not win half our games, much less win a state title. You need a school that supports it and keeps everything in proper perspective, but backs your sport up. You need luck. The recipe just was right for us this year.
The ride home after the game
It was a quiet bus ride home. They were exhausted after the title game. It was a long day. But the atmosphere from when they clocked at zero to the time we pulled out, it was phenomenal. Unbelievable. Everybody was very happy — lots of hugs, lots of tears. My wife even said she doesn’t think she’s ever seen me as happy as I was after that game.
On Insecurity
I never feel secure. Our staff will make fun of me about that often; I’m never secure in anything. When they measured the fourth down play for Trotwood and they didn’t get the first down, that’s the first time I knew we won. Until then I was on edge.
Watching Whitmer
I sat there and we watched that Whitmer game with my brother on Saturday night. I was rooting for them. And you see, 24 hours ago I got to live the ultimate dream for a second time and you’re watching these kids who are great football players, great team, come up just short and you’re watching their pain. And they handled it with such class, and that’s tough to do. That’s what tells you what everybody’s doing is good — how do they act when things go down? ‘Cause those kids really handled themselves well. No way can [that game] take away from 14 weeks of greatness and effort they had.
On losing and winning
My wife was always scared. Both times we played the state championships she worried about us losing, because she didn’t know how I was going to respond. I’ll admit, I’m glad we won. Because I don’t handle losing well.
