Friday, July 14, 2006
As a scout and sophomore coach, I was very excited when I learned that I would be able to attend the big non-conference game in Snohomish early in the 1972 season.
Freshman coach and scouting cohort, Mike McKnight and I were to be in the press box (on top of the stands at the old Snohomish stadium). We knew by that time that Chuck would probably want no conversation with us during the game. He would want us to leave right before the half and put Snohomish's defensive set/s on the chalk board in our locker-room.
Little did we know that the game started badly for the blue and gold, and its wily mentor. As we lined-up to receive, Chuck looked out on the field, and saw we were missing our deep man. Our kickoff return "specialist" (which he dubbed himself) had decided to not suit that evening and ride the rooter bus to the game with his girlfriend.
The opening half proceeded and the Wildcats had fallen behind a very good Panther eleven who skillfully employed a devastating wishbone offense. We got a call from the field. It was a very distraught Chuck. Wonders never cease.
He boomed into my ear, "What the hell is going on out there?" The first words out of my mouth had to have been amongst the most ill-timed I have ever uttered. "They are running off tackle...." That's as far as I got. In my defense the words never heard would have been "....because ( junior LB not to be named) was not playing his off tackle gap." Expletives deleted. We knew we would hear about this at the half.
To make things worse as the intermission approached, McKnight and I were locked out of the locker-room which we had to walk through a swamp into the next county to reach. This obviously didn't make Chuck happy. Well, when we finally got into the dressing area, guess who got the lion's share of Chuck's halftime vent?
Perhaps, Chuck's ardor to verbally whip his two assistants for our "they're running off tackle..." comment caused another assistant, John Stoecker, to not tell Chuck when it was time to go back out for the second half. Yup, we got a penalty, and as I recall when that was protested another. Geez, why not just give Snohomish another touchdown.
We got shutout that evening. In the post-game locker-room, McKnight and I huddled together in a remote comer. Chuck opened up again and gave us both barrels as he proceeded to take his ritualistic post game shower. As often occurs when a team travels, we were in the girl's locker-room. There were four shower heads connected to one large feeder pole and each was divided from the other with a gray, metal partition. As Chuck washed he interrupted his red-faced rant and turned to West High Athletic Trainer Al Smith who was smart enough to remain uncharacteristically quiet and said rather calmly, "Hey, Smitty, how in the hell does a gal with big boobs shower in one of these things."
Definitely, an evening I will always remember.
Lane C. Dowell...Wildcat assistant football coach
