Jerry Woods has been a man of service to his country, family, school and faith.
A 12-year U.S. Army veteran, Woods piloted Blackhawk helicopters and served in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.
Woods has coached and taught at St. Pius X for the last 18 years. He is the longest-tenured head football coach in the I-55 Conference. Last fall the Lancers were 8-3 and reached the Class 2 District 1 semifinals, their best finish in four seasons.
Two days after the football season ended, Jerry’s father, Jerry William Woods, died. Woods’ father and mother, Carolyn, lived in Jackson. Carolyn still lives there.
After his father died, Woods made up his mind he would step down as football coach, and school officials announced his retirement on March 25.
St. Pius athletic director Tilden Watson said in a press release that a search for a replacement would begin immediately.
Woods was an assistant to Rick Overberg for the Lancers for five years before ascending to the top job.
“I coached at St. Pius for 18 years and I enjoyed it. There was a lot of sacrifice,” Woods said. “Any time you sacrifice, you give up something for something else. I definitely will miss it.”
Recently Woods had to leave his post as head coach of the St. Pius baseball team to care for his mother after she had a heart attack. Eric Lawrence ran the Lancers, who were 11-0 after beating St. Vincent 10-0 on April 11. Lawrence is an assistant football coach and is the boys basketball head coach.
For Woods, serving overseas with the military and then spending almost the entire year planning, preparing and coaching football has meant a lot of time away from his family.
Woods will remain on the St. Pius faculty and as its baseball coach.
“I don’t know if there’s ever a good time to step away,” he said. “Even if we were 0-10, it still would be the same decision. As you know, anything about football is time consuming. There’s just no way I could continue giving it the attention it needs.”
Given what Woods has been through for several months, I couldn’t be happier to see him back guiding the baseball team, which is six games from capping off a perfect regular season.
After the win over the Indians, St. Pius improved to 3-0 in the JCAA small-schools play. St. Pius last lost a conference game in May 2015 and has won 18 straight league games. The Lancers have the best pitching staff in the conference, speed on the bases, they can hit for power and eight of nine starters returned from 2018.
“I attribute (11-0) to being blessed with some talented players who are very coachable,” Woods said. “Any point in our lineup can produce. If somebody’s having an off day, someone else picks the team up. Our experience is tremendous.”
It helps to have the league’s returning small-schools player of the year back for his senior year. Elijah Dale is perhaps the best shortstop in the county and is third in the St. Louis area with a batting average of .611. Incredibly, Dale’s slugging percentage is 1.194 and he leads the Lancers with 20 RBIs and four triples.
Dale is a quality arm on the mound, but is mainly used in late relief.
“It’s hard to take your best shortstop and put him on the mound,” Woods said. “It leaves a hole on the defense. He’s spent more time in the weight room and he’s growing and getting stronger. He’s a great base runner, which you don’t realize until you play against him.”
The Lancers have won their share of blowouts this spring, but their two one-run victories against Herculaneum and Ste. Genevieve were the result of pitching masterpieces by senior Jeremy Isenman.
Against the Blackcats on March 27, Isenman faced off against Herky starter Jordan Duncan in what could have been the county’s best pitching matchup. Duncan and Isenman were scoreless into the sixth when Dale scored the game’s only run after a hit by Austin Meyer. Duncan and Isenman could face off again, as both of their teams are in Class 3 District 3.
“That was a pitchers’ duel against Duncan,” Woods said. “(Duncan) had his curveball working and was hitting the outside corner with his fastball and kept us tied up for awhile. If you like pitching and defense, that was the game to come to see. Jeremy did a great job as well. He was dealing and in the zone.”
Playing at Yanks Field in Ste. Genevieve on April 5, the Lancers scratched out seven hits and beat the Dragons 3-2. Senior Tyler Hedtkamp, who plays outfield, shortstop and pitches, hit a two-run home run to provide the winning runs. Hedtkamp leads St. Pius with five round-trippers this season.
The Lancers have stolen 34 bases and have 25 doubles in 11 games. Seniors Dustin Burch (.387, 10 RBIs, 5 stolen bases), Kaleb Schweigert (.394, 2 triples, 8 RBIs), Adam Edwards (.296, 6 stolen bases) and junior catcher Noah Lampros (.424, 8 RBIs) are the other returning starters.
“We’re not 11-0 because of three kids, it’s a group effort,” Woods said.