Friday, October 02, 2009
Coach Dave Crist: Face of Blacksburg's football program
Longtime Blacksburg High coach Dave Crist counts his success in people, not wins.
Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times
Above: Coach Dave Crist during practice with his Blacksburg High School football team. Top: The field where the Bruins play is being named in his honor on Saturday. The team practices at the high school, the field is at Blacksburg Middle School.
ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times
"Dave's always done the right thing here. It's always been the kids first and that's what carried us all these years," assistant coach Jim Shockley said of Blacksburg coach David Crist.
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BLACKSBURG -- The hire that led to Timesland's longest currently running high school football coaching tenure came mere weeks before practice was to start that year.
David Crist was working the summer at Graves Mountain Lodge up in Syria (the one in Madison County not the Middle East) when he got word Blacksburg High needed a coach. Approaching his fifth season as an assistant coach under the hugely successful Eddie Dean at Madison County High, Crist didn't think he'd get the Blacksburg job based on his age and experience level.
Nevertheless, Crist, Virginia Tech Class of 1968, and his wife Faye had always talked about moving back to Blacksburg should they ever have the chance. The old college town was a sentimental place to them on a number of levels, one of which being they were newlyweds when he was a senior at Tech.
Anyway, David Crist said all the right things in his interview apparently, his references and credentials were in order, and he got the job. He was 27 years old.
"When we came here, we moved in at 10:30 one night and at 6 a.m. the next morning, he was leaving to go start football," Faye Crist recalled this week. "I was left with a 2 12-year-old and a 9-month-old and thinking, OK, what are we going to do now?"
The answer was for the next 35 years, the Crists would be the first family of Blacksburg football.
Three-hundred eighty-two football games later, the 63-year-old Crist is still at his post. The Bruins (when Crist started, they were the Indians) will play this week's game with Lord Botetourt, kickoff at the unusual hour of 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Along with the football game, the occasion will mark the dedication of the field at Bill Brown Stadium in Crist's honor.
Crist, a humble man not inclined to grand displays and pomp, thanked everybody for the honor and presented the powers that be with only one request: Please schedule the dedication and game for a Saturday so sons Steven, 35, and Michael, 30, could attend. Both of them are assistant high school football coaches, Steven at Warren County and Michael at Amherst County.
The eldest son, Brian, 37, is a college assistant coach at Massachusetts. The assumption was he'd never be able to make it because he'd be working Saturdays. But then the UMass schedule broke favorably and the team had an off week this week so Brian can make it back home.
David Crist has had the same wife for 42 years (after dating her for five years previous) and the same job for 35. His teams have won 221 games, two state championships (1977 and 1989) and a pair of state runner-ups. He still teaches five math classes a day.
Some would say he's a lucky guy.
One of them would be son Brian, who doubts many if any will follow his father's path and serve for approaching four decades as a coach at the same high school.
"First of all, you have to be young when you get the job like he was and for that, you have to be lucky," said Brian, the quarterback of the 1989 Group AA Division 4 state champs. "I kid him all the time. His first year, they went 8-2, the second year, they were in the state semifinals, the third they won the state championship. I said, you thought this stuff was easy."
It may not be easy, but the utterly unflappable David Crist makes it look that way sometimes. Over the years, Blacksburg has adjusted its offense to the personnel on hand, at various time running the I, a split-back pro set, the veer, the spread, assorted hybrids. Despite that, Crist knows how to keep it simple.
Shoot, the guy doesn't even know what his career record (221-157-40) is.
"I never really cared," he said. "Oh, I want to win. But I always thought that if we can teach these players how to be successful as football players and as young men, that the wins would take care of themselves."
With around 11 former players in coaching and players and former students having success in just about any of the trades you can think of and many of the professions, you have to figure he's onto something.
A number of his former players are still coaching and playing in the Blacksburg system including varsity assistants Eddie Sloss and James Shealor and JV coach Kevin Miller.
"I can't think of anybody I would have rather played for or coached under," said Sloss, also a member of the '89 team.
That squad is staging reunion with festivities tonight and at the game Saturday. That team started 2-4, sneaked into the playoffs at 6-4, then ran the table, beating Christiansburg, Lee County, Salem and Courtland, all on the road. Courtland was a year removed from winning the AAA Division 5 title and had won three times in four years from 1982 to 1985 in AA when there were still just three classifications for football. Courtland beat Blacksburg 13-10 in the 1985 championship, the second time in as many years it was state runner-up.
"We felt like we owed them for that one," Brian said.
That championship season was not without its share of crises for Blacksburg. One of them came the week of the playoff game with Christiansburg. Peeved at the way things were going in practice, Brian did something very un-Crist like and lost his temper. Things did not go well for a spell after that and the coach ordered his quarterback from the field.
Brian went off somewhere for a while and stewed. Eventually, that's where the coach found him.
"You ready to play football yet?"
The quarterback returned to work, offering his regrets to those concerned upon arrival.
"Dave's always done the right thing here," said Bruins assistant Jim Shockley, who has been at Blacksburg one season longer than Crist. "It's always been the kids first and that's what carried us all these years. I'm glad my son had a chance to play here."
This year's team has had something of a slow start at 1-3, but the Bruins are five points away from being undefeated.
"Coach keeps us motivated," defensive end Adam Brauns said. "We've got three losses but we could easily be right there at 4-0. He knows that and makes sure we know that." Added middle linebacker Tony Delpercio: "When he tells us something, it's important to listen to him."
Crist doesn't need to blow a whistle to command attention and respect. It's instructive to note, as Faye Crist pointed out, that a number of those returning to honor him tonight and Saturday never played football but were rather in one of his math classes.
Influential he certainly has been.
"All three of us have been around it from a young age," Steven Crist said of himself and his brothers, all of whom were also players at Blacksburg.
"Seeing that he still enjoys it as much as he does sort of led us in that direction. It's not surprising that we all three of us went into it."
Added Michael, the youngest: "I can remember not being more than 7 or 8 and leaving with him at 6 in the morning for two-a-days, grab a biscuit, and stay at practice all day. I couldn't wait to get into it when I got the chance."
David Crist stands ninth on the list of state coaching victories among those who are still active. Understand this, though: Blacksburg has always been in one of the state's toughest districts, first the New River then the River Ridge. Too, Blacksburg's has always played a stout out of the district slate.
Among those who he's matched coaching wits with are the best of the best: Norman Lineburg (315 victories), Joel Hicks (301), Phil Robbins (297), Ken Brown (260), Steve Ragsdale (255), Willis White (246), Glynn Carlock (244), Jim Hickam (229), and Taylor Edwards (203) among them.
The thing about Crist, you never have to wonder how he won as many as he has playing that level of competition. His players are more than happy to explain it to you.
