But occasionally, while stretching before practice or riding the bus to an away game, the Mancos football team gets to take in tales shared by its co-head coaches, Josh Gardner and Bill Parsons.
Gardner might tell of the times he faced Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in college, or Parsons may describe how he ran over former Oakland Raiders linebacker Gus Otto in a play at practice while at the University of Missouri.
Right now, the young players may not comprehend the significance of their situation.
But sometime, perhaps many years from now, they will understand just how unique the coaching staff at Mancos High School really is.
It’s not unusual for a high school coaching staff to have collegiate experience.
But for Mancos High School, with a total enrollment hovering just over 100 and an 8-man football program – to have two coaches that played division one football – it’s downright special.
Especially when you peel back the layers.
A big-league legacy
Gardner graduated from Moeller High School in Cincinnati – one of the most storied powerhouses in the nation – and played offensive tackle for the University of Cincinnati from 1999-2002.
Years before Gardner took the field in Cincinnati, Bill Parsons left the small town of Oregon, Mo. in 1962 to enroll at the University of Missouri. He played basketball and football for the Tigers as a freshman, but dropped basketball for his remaining three years, graduating in 1965.
Both coaches are humble to a fault, and as such, they may neglect sharing rich, incredible facets of their past that their players would love to learn.
If caught at the right time, Gardner may tell the Mancos players how his Cincinnati Bearcats upset the ninth-ranked team in the nation during his freshman season.
“We beat Wisconsin my freshman year,” Gardner said. “We only won three games my freshman year, but one of those was against Wisconsin when they were ranked.”
“We ripped down the goal post and walked it around campus,” he recalled, smiling. “And they cut up the goal post and gave a piece to each player. It was pretty special.”
Gardner started every game for four years at Cincinnati and broke the NCAA Division 1-A record for most consecutive starts by an offense lineman with 49. He also played in three bowl games, was named to Athlon magazine’s preseason All-America third team and was listed on the Outland Trophy preseason watch-list, the award given to the country’s top interior lineman.
The stuff of Hollywood
Then there’s Parsons, who was recruited as a quarterback, but moved to end at Missouri. He may have explained to his players that at the time, “end” meant both tight end and defensive end.
“Back in the old days, it was both,” Parsons said. “You had to go both ways. There was a rule while I was in college that you could only make so many substitutions from defense to offense, so some guys played both ways depending on who they substituted.”
Parsons didn’t have a consecutive-starts streak like his counterpart, but enjoyed his time as a Tiger nonetheless, and occasionally, he shares pieces of his experience with the Blue Jays.
“Just running on the field with 50,000 people yelling,” he said. “That’s pretty exciting to know that there’s that many people there yelling and screaming.”
“The thrill was more just being part of it,” he said. “It was pretty big time back then, I mean, Mizzou was pretty big- time. Because they’d just won the Orange Bowl in ’60, and Devine went on from there and won a National Championship at Notre Dame with Joe Montana.”
If Parsons has shared the list of coaches he played and learned under, most of the names would go unnoticed by his young team.
But they’re worth mentioning.
At Missouri, Parsons end coach was Charles Mackey, and his freshman and line coach was Harry Smith.
The names may mean little to a generation of players far removed from the legends, but they tie Parsons to football history.
Mackey was a four-year letterman at Arizona State University and was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1957. After coaching at Missouri, he joined Tom Landry as a Dallas Cowboys assistant, where he spent 22 years and won three Super Bowls.
Smith was an All-America offensive guard and won two Rose Bowls with the University of Southern California from 1936-1940, before being drafted by the Detroit Lions. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955, and in 1984 the Sporting News named him as one of the top 11 offensive players in the first 100 years of football.
Then there was Dan Devine.
The best way to explain Devine’s significance to a group of teenagers may be to ask if they’ve seen the movie “Rudy,” then note that Chelcie Ross portrayed Dan Devine in the film depicting Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger’s playing career at Notre Dame.
But before that, Devine was Parsons’ head coach at Missouri, and he remains the third-winningest coach in school history. He left Missouri for the Green Bay Packers in 1971, but shortly after, he returned to the college ranks as the head coach at Notre Dame.
There, with quarterback Joe Montana, he won the 1977 national title, and in 1985 he was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Coming full circle
Gardner and Parsons have played for more successful coaches than most players could ever dream.
But when asked which coaches influenced them the most, they both return to their high school roots.
“I think of all the people that influenced me in coaching, that Harry (Smith) was probably number one,” Parsons said, pausing before finishing his thought. “Besides my high school coaches.”
Gardner singles out his high school coach Jim Higgins, rather than noting Larry Zierlein or Rick Minter, two of his college coaches who are now assistants in the NFL.
Years after their playing days, Gardner and Parsons don’t point to one of their Hall of Fame coaches as being as most influential.
They look back to their high school coaches.
And now, Parsons and Gardner have come full circle, and are influencing a new generation as high school coaches.
It hasn’t been easy for them. Coming from programs with NFL-size playbooks and staffs, 8-man football in Mancos is a different world.
But both coaches enjoy the intimacy of the smaller program, where they can get to know their players personally.
They still use drills, plays and concepts they learned as college players under Hall of Famers, but they’re giving the Blue Jays more than knowledge.
They’re sharing their life story, and giving the players a story of their own.
Years from now, when the Mancos students reflect on their playing days, they can point to their high school coaches, Josh Gardner and Bill Parsons, as key sources of inspiration.
Then, they can share their story.
Athletic director Heath Showalter says it’s an incredible thing.
“It’s a blessing to have them being part of our school, especially in 8-man football,” Showalter said. “You go to some larger schools, whether it be south in Farmington or Albuquerque – or anywhere – finding staff or co-head coaches that both have that experience?”
“Yeah, I don’t think that happens every day.”
