Published: August 28, 2008 12:02 am            

No Excuses

Henigan’s fifth season could be a defining one

It doesn’t do a coach any good to talk about last season, particularly when your team misses the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

And Tigers coach Dave Henigan doesn’t want to, because when he does, it doesn’t sound good.

Take last Saturday. When asked about 2007 and the Tigers’ 5-5 record, Henigan’s first response was, “We’re not making any excuses.” Then he started talking about injuries to Wylum Bivins, who he called his second best player, and C.J. Fowler, who runs a 10.4 100 meters, and Gary Gibson.

Suddenly, it sounded like was making excuses.

Then there’s Henigan’s job status.

Some coaches won’t even acknowledge the pressure mounting. In a recent article in The New York Times, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis wouldn’t talk about last season’s 2-9 record. Or whether or not he’s under fire.

Henigan is not one of those people. He realizes that he’s on the hot seat, at least with some fans in Corsicana, and that he needs a winning year as the Tigers get ready to open the season tonight against West Mesquite at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.

“I don’t necessarily care,” Henigan said during a 45-minute interview in his office last Saturday. “I’ve felt like I was on the hot seat since the first day on the job in Corsicana. You have to win in Corsicana.

“We didn’t make the playoffs. We expect to win every game we play.”

So is Henigan’s job on the line with the people who matter most — CISD’s superintendent and athletic director?

The superintendent, Don Denbow, declined to comment when asked whether or not Henigan is on the hot seat.

Athletic director Joe Young acknowledged that expectations are high in Corsicana. Young, who was hired this summer, said Henigan wouldn’t still be the coach if he wasn’t meeting or exceeding expectations coaching his football team and also teaching his players life lessons.

“The administration, Mr. Denbow and myself, we have total confidence in Coach Henigan, or he wouldn’t be our head coach,” Young said.



What’s the limit?

So should a high school football coach be held to high enough standard that he can be fired?

“Whether you agree or not, it’s a reality,” Young said. “As coaches we all want to do well. You teach more when you’re winning that when you’re losing.

“Is winning the highest priority of this program? Absolutely not. It’s important that kids are growing as individuals, doing well academically and maturing socially.”

Former Tigers coach Tom Wilson, who was fired from Texas A&M, said it’s “the nature of the beast.”

When asked if a high school football coach should be fired if he doesn’t win, Wilson’s answer was surprising coming from a former coach.

“Yes,” Wilson said. “It happens all the time. It’s an expected part of the game. Now if coaches treated players well and they like you, you might last a little longer.”

Henigan said he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about his job status. His and his staff’s priority is “to do best for the kids.” The Tigers are busy getting ready for a 2008 season that finds them in one of the toughest Class 4A districts in the state.

He said he chose to go after high school coaching jobs like the one in Corsicana where the expectation is to win and win a lot. Henigan learned in winning programs from Highland Park to Denton Ryan.

“That’s our expectation,” Henigan said. “We expect to win.”



Pressure to win

All coaches feel an innate pressure to win.

The Tigers went 4-6 and 2-7-1 in Denbow’s first two years as head coach. Denbow went 6-5 in his fifth season and the Tigers’ had lost all three playoff games before he led Corsicana to the state finals in his sixth season in 1982.

“I always put pressure on myself,” said now CISD superintendent Don Denbow, the Tigers’ all-time winningest coach at 124-51-10.

The Tigers went 6-5 in Tom Wilson’s first season in 1993. Wilson said he never felt pressure to win from the community, but he had also been in a situation already at A&M where outside forces collaborated to put him out of a job.

“I got out of the hot seat a long time before I came back to Corsicana,” Wilson said. “I never felt pressure to win. I knew people expected us to win and we had players to win with. Now as a coaching staff and players, we felt pressure to win for ourselves.”

Young, who could ultimately call Henigan into his office, knows what Henigan is going through. The new athletic director, who coached at Grapeland, said high expectations, especially at a school with football tradition, comes with the territory.

“I felt a lot of pressure,” Young said. “When I was a Grapeland we went 1-9, but I probably put more pressure on myself than the administration or community did.”



Giving Henigan a chance

The Tigers run the risk of losing a good coach if Henigan goes 5-5 again and the administration decides to make a coaching change.

Todd Dodge had a career losing record before he arrived at Southlake Carroll and led the Dragons to four Class 5A state titles in five years, earning him a college coaching job at North Texas.

Denbow was 23-17-2 in his first four years at Corsicana, which isn’t as good as Henigan’s 30-16 record in his first four years. Denbow went on to be Corsicana’s all-time winningest coach.

And Young for one believes Henigan will turn the program around.

“Coach Henigan has every intent to make the most of his talent and win,” Young said. “And I think he’s going to win.”

And if he doesn’t? Henigan said it’s a reality that a Texas high school football coach has the chance to lose his job in Corsicana or 150 other schools.

Henigan said he won the first two years, and believes the Tigers have just had a run of bad luck.

“Hopefully the bad luck will turn,” Henigan said. “We’ve done right by the kids.”

Henigan said he feels a higher calling to be a father figure to his players. He said high school athletes need good coaches. That’s how he and his staff operate — being there for their players.

“A lot of coaches give that lip service,” Henigan said.

Henigan has heard the whispers around town that he has been too nice, a player’s coach.

“The kids do what we ask them to do,” Henigan said. “Too nice? They should come watch us practice and after it in the off season.”

None of that will matter tonight.

If the Tigers don’t win this season, and miss the playoffs, Henigan is resigned to the fact that this could be his last season in Corsicana.

“If it isn’t enough, we’ll move on,” Henigan said.

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Todd Wills can be reached by e-mail at twills@corsicanadailysun.com

        

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