HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

On Herman Johnson’s graduation day from Skyline, the last place he envisioned his life taking him was right back to his alma mater.

That day in 1987, which also happened to be the same day he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves, Johnson’s sights were set on a career in professional baseball and all the places it could take him.

Fast-forward three decades, and Johnson is back strolling through the same hallways that he did as a student at Skyline. But this time, it’s as Skyline’s athletic coordinator and head football coach.

“For me to come back here, it’s special,”

Johnson said. “It really is.”

Johnson, who was hired by Skyline in spring 2018, is one of six Dallas Independent School District coaches who have returned to lead the football programs at their alma maters. Another six coaches in 

the district went to one of the 22 football-playing DISD schools, but aren't coaching for their former teams.

It's not unheard of for coaches to return to where they got their starts. Similarly to DISD, six of Houston ISD's 23 varsity football coaches are currently coaching their alma maters. In Fort Worth ISD, only one head football coach is coaching at his alma mater, and no others graduated from FWISD. Riley Dodge made statewide headlines when he returned to South lake Carroll this spring to lead the program he once led to a state championship.

But for DISD coaches, coming home is about more than returning to their roots.

It's about revitalizing them.

DISD football programs often have lower participation numbers compared with their suburban rivals. And for DISD alumni, the district's winning ways of the'80s and '90s have in many cases been replaced by losing seasons, lengthy play off droughts or shorter postseason runs.

But more importantly, in a district where the majority of students are economically disadvantaged or at-risk, DISD alums come back because they realize that they can be beacons of stability who propel kids to futures they never realized they could have, just as their coaches did for them.

Tough competition

Playing for Skyline in the mid-' 80s, Johns on remembers every game being a battle against fierce district competitors.

"Everyone talked about East Tex as football, but back in the '80s, Dallas Independent School District was really loaded with talent," Johns on said.

Carter, whose 1988 team won a now vacated state title and is considered one of the best teams in Tex as history, may be the most legendary DISD program, and is the only one that could have been once classified as a state power. But back in the '80s and'90s, many other Dallas schools were making statements on the field too.

Roosevelt, currently coached by 1985 alum Aaron Wall ace, frequently made the postseason and advanced to the third round of the play offs three times in the '90s. Wall ace estimates that more than half of the players he played with earned college scholarships.

Marc us Gates, head coach and a 1991 alum of Madison, remembers winning district three times. Johnson said Skyline went 7-3 during his senior year and still missed the play offs when it lost to Bryan Adams at the end of the season.

By the time Wall ace, Gates and Johns on returned to Dallas following their careers in pro football or baseball, the landscape had changed dramatically.

Urban flight and the rise of suburban football programs led families, and many of Dallas ' top athletes, to move away from the DISD, affecting not only school enrollment but also football participation and quality of play.

Gone were the days of Carter's dominance-the Cowboys have advanced past the second round of the play offs only three times since 1991.

From 1997-98, DISD schools had an 18-game losing streak in the play offs.

Play off appearances for Spruce and Roosevelt became more sporadic in the early 2000s. Madison went 13 seasons (1991-2003) without a play off berth.

Lincoln made it to the 2004 state finals, and more recently Skyline and South Oak Cliff have had some lengthy play off runs. But since 2010, no other DISD school has made it past the second round of the play offs since Madison in 2010.

Getting better

In returning to their alma maters, DISD coaches are looking to revamp their programs into winning teams that can once more make a name for Dallas football.

"Anytime you get a chance to coach at your alma mater and put your alma mater back on top, you get to stick your chest out a little bit and feel good that you came back here and put your school on the map," Johns on said.

DISD athletic director Troy Mathieu, whose first stint as the district's AD lasted from 1997-2006, couldn't recall how many DISD alum were coaching in the district back then. Gates' high school coach, Cur tis Cobb, attended Madison, while the current coaches at Kim ball and Spruce said their high school coaches weren't alumni.

Wall ace, who said he applied for the head coaching job at Roosevelt four or five times before eventually getting it this spring, finds it imperative to educate his team about the program's tradition of excellence.

There's a picture outside of the Roosevelt locker room with Wall ace, who had a nine year stint in the NFL, and other classmates of his who had professional athletics careers, including fellow Pro Bowler Richmond Webb and Olympic sprinter Roy Martin.

"Every opportunity I get, I talk about these guys," Wall ace said. "I want these kids to know the history of the school and let them know that they're not out here alone."

But different coaches handle the past in different ways.

Head coach and 1992 alum Henry Cofer loved his time at Kim ball and still looks back fondly on the times he and his teammates would hop the fence at different schools to play pickup 7-on-7 games.

While Cofer sometimes speaks to his team about those glory days, he recognizes that it's not his moment anymore.

It's his team's.

Though last year was an off year for Madison and recent powerhouse Skyline, whose respective streaks of 13-and 23-straight play off appearances were snapped, six DISD teams advanced past the first round after only two advanced in 2015 and four did so in 2016.

The progress at the team level is even more promising.

Madison has had two eight win seasons in the last three years. Spruce won at least eight games in two of the last four seasons. Kimball upset Woodrow Wilson in the first round of the play offs in 2017, beat area-ranked Carter two weeks ago and is 4-0 after beating Tho mas Jeffers on on Thursday night.

"We want to leave a really different imprint but never forget about the past," Cofer said. "It's time to move on and time to deal with the new age young men and young women that we have right now. But DISD is not dead. I think it's only going to get better."

Relating to players

Carl Richards on Jr. has loved Spruce High for as long as he can remember.

Growing up in Pleasant Grove, Richards on would go with his father to Spruce football games every week, and once they were old enough, it was where he and his four brothers went to school. And it was at Spruce where Richards on laid the foundation of a playing career that took him to the University of Mia mi and the NFL.

Richardson returned to Spruce as an assistant in 2001.

Driven by his love for the school and the Pleasant Grove community, he wanted to give the younger generation an opportunity to succeed on and off the football field, just as his coaches did for him. And he knew that such an investment could go a long way in a place like Pleasant Grove.

According to a 2016-17 academic performance report from the Tex as Education Agency, 87.8 percent of DISD students are economically disadvantaged compared with 59 percent statewide. In addition, 63.4 percent of students are at-risk, 13 percentage points higher than the state average.

Being from the same neighborhoods and schools as their players can make coaches particularly well equipped to relate to their players and positively shape a kid's trajectory.

"Every day I have a chance to affect a kid's life that's from the same place I'm from, that's having hardship, that looks like me and was brought up like me in a tough neighborhood,

Richardson said. "A lot of these kids don't have both parents. And I have a chance to touch their lives."

Seeing potential

Duncanville head coach Reginald Samples, the former Lincoln and Skyline coach who last year became the winning-est black head football coach in state UIL history, graduated from South Oak Cliff in 1973. He found that being from Dallas helped him motivate kids during the three decades he coached at three DISD schools.

"After being raised in Dallas, it really helped," Samples said. "I understood the challenges that they face because they're the same ones I faced."

Sometimes, that can entail helping a youth reach his athletic potential and get a scholarship to college. But in its most consequential moments, it's about something far more lasting.

"I push that you can be from the inner city and not have a lot but you can still get an education and be a successful individual," Gates said.

That sort of push was what A.J. Billings, Spruce class of 2006, needed in high school and received from Richardson, his position coach at the time.

Billings said he used to hang with the wrong crowd and was prone to acting out.

But instead of writing him off like most others did, Richards on took Billings under his wing. The coach invited Billings over to his house for dinner, let him sleep over the night before games, and would make sure he kept his grades up.

Richardson was able to get through to Billings in a way that no other coach, or person, had before. 

"He gets the kids," Billings said. "He understands how they walk and how they dress and why they talk a certain way and he's able to get to the kids in a way that nobody can do because he actually lived it."

In high school, Billings never thought about the world beyond his surroundings in Pleasant Grove, but Richards on showed him what else was out there.

The coach used to pull out maps, pictures and videos so Billings could see how there was so much beyond Pleasant Grove and Spruce and south east Dallas.

"A lot of kids in that area, they just need someone to see that they have the potential and not just throw them to the side," Billings said.

Community spirit

Der ick Roberson spent 20 years in Dallas ISD as a coach and administrator before moving to Frisco Memorial this year. While he didn't grow up in Dallas, he said that the difficulties he faced growing up in a single-parent household in Houston were similar to what he saw kids dealing with in Dallas.

"I relied on my coaches to guide me and make good decisions,

Roberson said. "[As coaches, we] need to be that sounding board, the positive thing that they're going to see in their life to help them become successful."

Being able to do that for youths is what keeps many of these coaches-like Gates, who has been at Madison since 1998, and Richards on-coming back.

It's not as if they haven't had the chance to coach elsewhere.

Billings said he knows Richards on has had opportunities to coach other places, including at the collegiate level.

"He loves it," Billings said.

"He loves DISD, he loves the community, the community loves him. He just loves that area."

And his work isn't done yet.

"I think DISD will make a turnaround with guys like him leading the way," Billings said.

"After awhile, it'll turn around."

Twitter: @alexaphilippou