Mount St. Mary football players surprise ailing coach
High School Football: St. Mary’s Nichols receives surprise visit from team

BY ROBERT PRZYBYLO, Staff Writer, bprzybylo@opubco.com Comments 0
Published: November 3, 2009

St. Mary football coach Dal Nichols was wondering what in the world his dogs were barking about.

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Heritage Hall (5-4, 5-1) vs. St. Mary (3-6, 2-4)

→When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

→Where: 25th and Shartel, MSMHS

→Scouting report: The Chargers are coming off a disappointing loss on senior night to John Marshall and have a second chance to clinch the district championship. St. Mary has turned things around and is playing its best football this season in the last couple of weeks.

After feeling down-and-out the last couple of days, Nichols was just trying to spend some time in his backyard and get some sun on a nice Saturday morning.

But then he heard some music. At first he thought it was the radio, but then he realized that it didn’t sound like a radio.

Then it hit him. It was a song his players have been singing to get themselves fired up throughout this season.

And as he took a closer look and opened the front door, there was the St. Mary’s team lined up in the street, singing to their coach.

"It’s something that will be etched in my memory forever,” Nichols said. "Those are a special bunch of kids.”

Nichols had been suffering from the H1N1 flu last week and was still contagious, so he was unable to make the trip when the Rockets traveled to Newkirk. All the assistants played a bigger role, especially Landon Cordray.

Following an upset win where St. Mary gave Newkirk only its second district loss, the seniors decided they were going to present the game ball to Nichols.

"We huddled up and said ‘why don’t we go over Saturday morning,’ ” wide receiver Aaron Smith said. "He’s been there for us so many times. We wanted to be there for him.”

It’s been that type of character and leadership that has epitomized this Rockets team. St. Mary was hit hard with injuries early in the season, eliminating any possible playoff berth.

But the players never stopped fighting. After starting 0-4 in district play, St. Mary has won its last two games.

In the process, the Rockets, spurred by Dalton Newsome on offense and Mikey Mollman on defense, have scored 63 points after only scoring 77 points in the first seven games.

Nichols said the team has been getting healthy and executing better, but it’s obvious the character the staff has displayed has also rubbed off.

"It was so touching to know that they care enough about you to do something like that,” Nichols said. "People sometimes just look at wins and losses. They don’t realize how many special little moments you share together. That’s what you remember.”

Nichols was starting to feel better Friday afternoon and definitely felt better after hearing about the win. He tracked the game all night through phone calls and text messages.

Nichols returned to practice Monday and will be back on the sidelines for senior night against Heritage Hall.

"It’s back to work, and we have a tough one to close it out,” Nichols said. "But what those kids did is something I’ll never forget.”