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Thursday, November 1, 2007
Stepping Into A Good Situation
Fort Worth, TX
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Photo(s) By: Fred Schulze
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Tony Baccarini inherited a winner when he took over at Keller Fossil Ridge
When Todd Dodge left Southlake Carroll for the University of North Texas last December, perhaps the most coveted high school coaching job in the state of Texas opened up. The Dragons ended up hiring Hal Wasson away from Keller Fossil Ridge. As a result, Panthers offensive coordinator Tony Baccarini was asked to move into the head coach’s office, taking over a team that was dominating in its district the previous year and returning loads of talent, including one of the top recruits in the country in defensive end R.J. Washington. All signs pointed to a successful first year for Baccarini at the helm of Fossil Ridge.
I’ve been a head coach before, out in East Texas, and I’ve been here with Coach Wasson. This will be my fifth year [at Fossil Ridge], so it’s been a fairly easy transition. We think our system works and we’ve been sticking with it for the most part. We’ve had to hire only two coaches through the whole system, from middle school up, so it’s been a good transition.
Our kids like routine. Our practice routine doesn’t change week-to-week. It hasn’t in five years. We keep our routine the same and the kids know where they’re going. We may not be out on the practice field as long as some people, but we want high-intensity, high-energy reps while we’re out there. I think that benefits us most.
Actually, I’m a secondary coach by trade, but I’ve been on offense for quite a while now. Having R.J. Washington on defense, plus the other guys we have, makes a big difference. I pretty much stay out of the defense. Coach Kevin Golden is our defensive coordinator and they run it. They do their show and they’re doing a great job.
R.J. is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime type of guy. Rush ends are the hardest thing to find at any level, high school, college and pro, so to have a guy who can come off the edge that hard, it makes our job much easier.
There’s a whole lot more administrative stuff as a head coach. I have to watch film by myself more, on my own time now, because I’m handling all those other things at other times. I just trust my coordinators and position coaches to watch film and study with the kids and spend a lot of time with them and teach them things we go over on the weekend.
I was the quarterbacks coach also [as offensive coordinator] and our quarterback, John Killion, he’s been standing beside me since he was a freshman at varsity practice. Giving him up to Coach [Paul] Weaver was a tough thing because I don’t get to spend as much time with him as I used to. But Coach Weaver, who has been our receivers coach, took over the quarterbacks when he became offensive coordinator, and he does a great job with John. I just miss spending all that time that I used to spend with him.
I learned a great deal from Coach Wasson. He has a lot of energy, like most of our staff. He’s high-intensity and gets after it. One of the main things I learned is that, in this area, our kids have to train 365 days a year. If they don’t, they’re going to be behind. So, pushing our kids in the offseason, pushing them to summer programs, making sure they’re all here and accountable and in great condition when fall ball starts, is one of the biggest things I learned. If you’re going to be able to compete with the people in this area, in Northeast Tarrant County, you’d better train like they train.
We want our kids to graduate from high school; the academic end is a big issue for us. We’ve done some little things academically this year to help push our kids. We’re doing helmet awards weekly for their grades and academic classes, which we haven’t done in the past. The kids responded very well to it. It’s a big deal to them to get an academic star on their helmet. We also want them to be able to succeed in life. If they want to go to college, we want them to have that opportunity. There’s a lot more than Xs and Os.
I’d like to stay here a very long time. My father is a hall of fame junior college coach and I was raised as a coach’s kid in the same small town until I left for college. To me, to be successful in a program, longevity means success. You have to be doing things right, making good decisions, and winning ball games to stay somewhere a long time, and that’s what I’d like to do.
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