After five seasons as head coach of the Eagles, Dave Dallas has resigned. The former college coach, who also had a successful stint coaching at North County in Bonne Terre, took over a Grandview program that was on life support in 2017. After a junior varsity-only season that fall, the Eagles returned to varsity play in 2018. Dallas shepherded the Eagles to a 5-4 record in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and upped that to 7-4 in 2021, including the Eagles’ first district win since 2010.
Dallas, 61, who lives in Park Hills, said he isn’t retiring but is not likely to coach again.
“This isn’t about Dave Dallas,” he said. “The turnaround is because of the effort the kids put into getting better and the support we got from their parents and our administration.
“The bottom line is, the program is in a good state and we have coaches in place who can manage it and take it another step that maybe I can’t.”
Part of the reason for the move is to free up more time for Dallas to visit his two sons and five grandchildren, who all live in Kansas. Drew Dallas is the head football coach at Hutchinson Community College, several hundred miles west of here. When Drew’s team played home games on Saturdays, Dallas and his wife, Kelly, would drive through the night to be there after Grandview played on Friday nights.
Dave was the head football coach and activities director at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina before coming to North County and then Grandview. At Kansas Wesleyan, he taught, coached and raised money to build Gene Bissell Field, which opened in 2015.
“We raised $7.8 million to build the stadium,” said Dave, who added that he’s interested in serving at a college in an administrative role, or in sales and fundraising.
“I enjoy people and building relationships, developing people into leaders,” he said. “I think I have a lot to offer from that standpoint. The pandemic helped me realize that I can do it. My grandkids are starting to play sports. (Also), our parents live close by (and) we want to take care of them.”
I asked Dallas if he might latch on as an assistant at a local high school, whether that’s in Jefferson County or St. Francois County.
“I don’t see myself back in football unless it’s in an administrative role,” he said. “A year from now, I might have a whole different mindset. Coaches are competitive that way. Part of the reason I’m getting out is so I can follow my son’s team. I don’t want to be tied up on Friday nights. I don’t want to leave the area, though.”
Winning at Grandview didn’t happen overnight. Although the JV-only squad posted a plus record in 2017, the varsity struggled after returning to the field in 2018, going 0-10 and losing 83-0 to powerhouse Lutheran North in the district playoffs.
In 2019, the losing streak reached 15 games after a blowout loss to Valle Catholic, which at the time was in the I-55 Conference along with Grandview. But the Eagles beat I-55 rivals Herculaneum and Crystal City (also gone from the conference now), setting the stage for a turnaround in 2020.
Not letting a global pandemic get in the way of progress, Grandview won four of its first five games behind the leadership of Chase Wilson, Jakob Brand, David Creath, Eric O’Brien and Clayton Riddle. A victory over Chaffee secured the team’s first winning season in as long as anybody could remember.
With Wilson and Co. seniors in 2021, the Eagles took flight, finishing 7-4. A 28-27 loss in Columbia to Father Tolton Regional Catholic High School was proof to Dallas that even in defeat, his team had made enormous progress. Seven different backs rushed for 370 yards that night.
“They believed in what we were doing, the process and each other,” Dallas said about the gridiron Class of 2022. “They saw results on Friday nights. This year, I felt like we played to the best of our ability in every game but one.
“When I got here, I didn’t have a fear. I wouldn’t have taken the job if I felt like I couldn’t do it. I knew we had to change the mindset and culture. Send out a continuous message day in and day out. You can’t back off of that and you have to keep selling that to them.
“I’m a firm believer that if you ask and expect kids to do things a certain way, they will. They’ll raise the bar to the best of their ability.”
Dallas has always struck me as the consummate professional and I like his old-school ways of discipline and reward. I wish him all the best and good luck in his future endeavors.
St. Pius hires alumnus to be boys soccer coach
On the heels of its most successful season ever, the St. Pius X boys soccer team has named a new head coach.
And they are keeping it in the family. Scott Rudolph (St. Pius Class of 1989) has been the assistant varsity and JV head coach for the Lancer boys soccer teams for the last five years. He succeeds Aaron Portell, who took on the head coaching duties three years ago and led the Lancers to second place in Class 1 in November. Portell also coaches the girls soccer and girls basketball teams at St. Pius.
The Lancers’ incredible journey to the state final, a 3-0 loss to Lutheran-St. Charles, marked the first time any team from Jefferson County had made it that far in boys soccer. Activities director Tilden Watson said in a press release that Portell will continue to serve as head coach for the other two teams, and wanted time next fall to watch his stepson, St. Pius senior Logan Jacobson, play football for Northern Illinois University.
Rudolph, 51, lives with his family in Festus and has a long history in the game. Rudolph played for hall of fame coach Dan Bokern on the Lancer teams of the late 1980s and coached against him when he was at Festus. Rudolph was the JV head coach and varsity assistant for Lancer girls soccer from 2012-2017 and has coached CYC and indoor club teams that draw players from the county and St. Louis area.
“St. Pius is excited about the future of the boys soccer program and is looking forward to seeing where Coach Rudolph will take the team,” Watson said.
Rudolph said he’s excited, too.
“I got the chance to know (Portell) wasn’t coming back at the beginning of the year, so I watched the boys and coaches and have faith we’re going to work hard this (coming) year,” he said. “All the boys have contacted me and said they’re ready to start tomorrow.
“Taking over a program, I’m not nervous about that. I look at it as taking over another team.
“I’ve had good success at St. Pius with the JV; we haven’t had a losing record in my five years.
“I tell the kids, ‘This is your team.’ I give them the tools at practice and it’s up to them to put that into action in the games.”