Waukegan coach a winner on and off field

School, community can feel good about head of Bulldogs' football program

Turn the page of this newspaper and you can read about the wonderful thing Derek Dewitt did as a high-school football coach in Ohio that gained him national recognition, including a back-page article in the nation's top weekly sports magazine.

Then, when you're done reading, sign on to your computer, connect to the internet, and hook onto the YouTube Web site. Once there, search for "Derek Dewitt football," and you can actually see the play that Dewitt was involved in that nationally-known sports columnist Rick Reilly was writing about in a November, 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.

Of course, what we are all hoping for here is that the next time Dewitt makes it into Sports Illustrated, it's for coaching a Waukegan High football team that snapped Maine South's winning streak in Central Suburban League South Division games -- a streak that currently is 10 years old and 50 games long.

Dewitt was named Waukegan High's new football coach Tuesday night, replacing Pat Jennings, who departed after a four-year run with teams that ranged from awful to bad to pretty decent and then back to bad.

U-turns like that no longer cut it at Waukegan High, which is why Dewitt was brought in to get the arrow pointed in the right direction once again.

He believes he's the right man at the right time to get the job done.

"I want to get the entire community excited about Waukegan football. I want every kid in middle school to want to play football at Waukegan High," he said.

Currently based out of Abbott Middle School in Waukegan and working in that school's special-education program, Dewitt believes he knows what it will take to turn Waukegan into a football school.

He spent last year as an assistant coach at Waukegan High, and was head coach at Trinity International University in nearby Bannockburn for the four years before that. While at TIU, he actively recruited Waukegan High players for his program.

So, he knows the kind of kids he will be coaching here.

"We have to change the culture," he noted of a mind-set that suggests "Waukegan" and "winning football" are mutually exclusive terms.

As with all successful programs, he plans to make the Bulldogs players champions in the weight room first.

Bigger, stronger, and faster aren't just words. They are the key to gridiron success.

"My whole deal," he said, referring to his years as a high-school coach in Ohio, "was lifting weights and conditioning. We want the kids to be excited about the weight room.

"In Ohio, the kids loved it. They would beat me into the weight room. You know, you just don't win because you're a nice guy. You win with character, you win with preparation."

As for what we'll see with the bigger, stronger, and faster kids, Dewitt said his offense will be patterned after what coach Urban Meyer runs at national-champion University of Florida.

Which means, the Bulldogs will be entertaining.

Hopefully, they'll win like the Gators do, as well.