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Thursday, November 1, 2007
Committed to the Chaps
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By: Mark Wright
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Photo(s) By: Shawn Smajstrla
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Willie Criss and one of his sons established a family legacy at O.D. Wyatt High School, and now a second son looks to add his own chapter.
Willie Criss never meant for this to happen.
The longtime football coach at Fort Worth O.D. Wyatt, who retired from his second stint at the school after the 2006 season, wanted sons Anthony and Zachary to make something of themselves. That meant becoming engineers or bankers or accountants – anything but football coaches.
“In the beginning, he didn’t want us to go into coaching,” Anthony Criss said. “He wanted us to do something we could make money in, and when he was coaching, you didn’t have the monumental salaries you have now…but we just gravitated to it.”
Instead of working on Wall Street or designing buildings, the brothers helped build the Criss family legacy at Wyatt. Anthony Criss, now an assistant athletic director in the Arlington school district, was the Chaparrals’ head coach from 1997 to 2000. Now, younger brother Zachary Criss, who served as offensive coordinator for his brother and dad, is in his first season as Wyatt’s head coach.
“To understand why I’m a coach, I guess you’d have to understand my father,” Zachary Criss said. “I watched my father help other families and care for kids who were not his own.”
The eldest Criss, referred to as “Daddy Criss” by Wyatt players, turned the Chaparrals into one of Fort Worth’s premier teams during a 13-year coaching tenure that began in 1984. Along the way, he became the first coach in school history to win a playoff game.
Anthony, who began at Wyatt in the late 1980s as a volunteer assistant, maintained his father’s success. He became the first coach in school history to win 10 games in a season.
It’s Zachary’s turn to make his mark.
“I’m very proud of my brother,” said Anthony, who spends weekends watching game film with Zachary. “On Friday nights, I’m calling frantically for a score. After the game, he usually calls me and I’m up till 1 a.m. finding out what happened.”
Zachary is carrying on his dad’s challenge of trying to re-energize a program on the decline. After Anthony left to become head coach at Arlington Bowie, Wyatt suffered one losing season after another, at one point losing 17 consecutive games. In 2004, Fort Worth athletics officials begged Willie Criss to come out of retirement. He agreed on one condition: that Zachary would be his successor.
“He didn’t want to see what happened before happen again,” Zachary said.
With a Criss at the helm, good things are ahead for Wyatt. Only a few dozen players were in the program in 2004. It has since grown to 50 varsity players and 115 total in the program.
Two of those players are Zachary’s sons: Zachary II, a senior quarterback/receiver, and Meyer, a junior defensive end/linebacker. Perhaps most impressively, though, is that each is currently ranked No. 1 in his class academically.
“Football is a short-term thing,” Zachary said. “Education is a lifelong thing.”
Anthony, who coached his sons Julian, Dominique and Quinnin while at Bowie, thinks the Criss legacy will probably spread to the next generation. That’s why he encouraged his sons - and daughter Linier - to minor in education in college.
“I’ve told them that the family business is coaching,” Anthony said. “I tried to steer them in a different direction, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they get into coaching.”
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