Coach Caryl serves as honorary captain for the Lenox Tigers

LENOX — A key figure in some of the most memorable athletic teams in Lenox High School history was welcomed back Friday night during the Tigers’ homecoming game against longtime rival East Union.

Dennis Caryl, now residing in Topeka, Kansas, with wife Betty (Brand), a Sharpsburg native, was named honorary captain for the game by first-year head coach Matt Malausky. Caryl taught history, government and physical education and coached the school’s football and girls basketball teams from 1967 to 1972.

This year, Malausky succeeded 21-year coach Allen Dukes, who was a senior on Caryl’s final team in Lenox. Tom Christensen, longtime assistant for both Dukes and now Malausky, was a senior pulling guard on the 8-1 football team coached by Caryl in 1971.

The only other time Caryl had been back in Lenox was for the funeral visitation of Christensen’s mother, Rose, in early 2015.

“My old high school coach at West Delaware does this, and after I saw that, I thought if I’m ever a head coach again, I’m going to do this,” Malausky said.

Caryl appeared at midfield with Lenox co-captains Colby Lange, Dawson Tullberg, Jared Hensley, David Cortez and Noah Standley for the pregame coin toss. He then watched an exciting game with 10 lead changes in a 44-34 loss to the undefeated Eagles. Caryl said it was an enjoyable homecoming.

“The big thing I remember about Lenox is the people,” Caryl said, while surrounded by old acquaintances at halftime of Friday’s game. “Just look at the crowd here tonight. They’ve always turned out and supported their teams here.”

Dukes coached the Tigers to 13 playoff appearances and four championship games, including a state title in 2008. As a coach, Dukes said he often harked back to those days as a player under coach Caryl.

"He was a tough coach, but fair," Dukes said. "We would run a mile out to the airport and the biggest thing I remember is that you could not get beat by him. When I started coaching, I kind of molded myself after what he did. Especially in the conditioning and discipline. He is a football genius and the person I looked up to as a coach."

Christensen has similar memories of the famed airport runs and other conditioning techniques Caryl had picked up as a player at Northwestern College in Orange City, near his hometown of Sioux Rapids. Lenox was Caryl’s second job after graduating from Northwestern College in 1964.

“We were 8-1 my senior year and ranked second in the state,” Christensen said. “This was before the playoffs started. We lost to Corning 20-12. He turned things around here. I think we went 5-4, 6-3, 7-2 and 8-1 in my four years.”

Christensen said constant attention to detail was a trademark of Caryl’s leadership.

“He was a great leader and teacher,” Christensen said. “He taught you everything you needed to know about the game of football. He had you ready for every game. If you did something wrong, he would be on you all the time until you got it right.”

Bill Henderson played on some of Caryl’s early teams in Lenox and recalls it as a perfect fusion of rising talent in the community and a coach who could mold it.

“We had a pretty good run of talent,” Henderson said. “When I was playing at Tarkio College, we must have had 12 to 15 guys from Lenox playing college football at various places. It was because of him. He developed it. He was ahead of his time as far as understanding the game.”

Girls basketball

Caryl also enjoyed success as a girls basketball coach. In fact, since he was an assistant for legendary West Central coach Gene Kling, Caryl was considered a prime candidate for the opening as girls basketball coach to succeed Gary Bussard, who had taken Lenox to the district finals in 1966.

With little experience back from that squad, Caryl also guided the Lenox team to within one game of state, in another close loss at Farragut.

“We practically started all over, but the fire had been lit,” said team member Cathy (Schweers) Riley. “One thing he continued having us do was we’d all wear black blazers and black shirts with white blouses. When we walked in we looked like a team. He was real strong on coaching teams, not individuals.”

“He was a great coach,” said Deb (Hoffman) Bender, a member of the district final basketball team. “He made us do our best. He’d pull out of us what we didn’t think we could do. We played (halfcourt) 3-on-3 then, but he’d have us practice with the guys and run up and down the court. He had us in shape!”

Bender was part of what was known as the “Fearsome Foursome” then, along with Linda Bradley, Kathie Dukes and Joyce Kopp.

Caryl married one of his former players in Betty Brand of Sharpsburg.

“The day after she graduated I asked her out,” Caryl recalled.

It was a culture change in Lenox those early years. In fact, for a time Caryl had the Tigers wearing Green Bay Packers green and gold uniforms instead of the Tigers’ traditional black and yellow, a move that took some persuasion to get past the school board.

“In our first year Don Bradley (1968 graduate) had four touchdowns at Orient one night and the next day I saw his dad standing out in the parking lot,” Caryl said. “His dad said, ‘He can’t get up and do his chores. If that doesn’t stop, he’s not going to play football anymore!’ I thought, well, OK. We’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Next to a kid I had at a 6A school in Georgia, Don was the fastest back I ever had in high school.”

Pat Bradley and Dennis Hayworth were each 1,000-yard rushers for Lenox on that 8-1 team four years later. Dukes was a junior, waiting his turn, and his senior year in 1972 the Tigers were not as successful.

Coaching qualities

But, Caryl saw qualities in Dukes that made him become a winning coach.

“In coaching you get to see people under pressure,” Caryl said. “Dukes did not give up. It was a tough year. But he would always fire them up and say, ‘We got a new game next week. We gotta get after them!’ He always had that in him. He was always positive and hung in there and did everything he could.”

After leaving Lenox, Caryl made several high school and college coaching stops, including a private session in a Chicago restaurant with famed Chicago Bears assistant Buddy Ryan while attending a coaching clinic there. That’s where he learned the “46 defense” that helped make the Bears Super Bowl champions.

Caryl, now 74, used that defense at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and eventually finished his coaching career in Topeka as defensive coordinator for the Arena Football League team there.

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Football coaching positions held by Dennis Caryl during his career working in high schools, colleges and a professional indoor football league:

• Graduate of Northwestern College, Orange City (1964).

• Football coach and assistant girls basketball coach, West Central High School, Maynard.

• Head football and girls basketball coach at Lenox High School (1967-72).

• Football coach, Spencer High School.

• Assistant football coach, Northwestern College, Orange City.

• Head football coach, Upper Iowa University, Fayette (1977-79).

• Assistant football coach, Oklahoma Panhandle State University, Goodwell, Oklahoma.

• Offensive line coach, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tennessee.

• Head football coach, McEachern High School, Powder Springs, Georgia.

• Assistant football coach, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri.

• Defensive coordinator, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas (1985-89).

• Head football coach, Washburn University (1990-93).

• Defensive coordinator, Western New Mexico University, Silver City, New Mexico.

• Defensive coordinator, Somona State University, Rohnert Park, California.

• Defensive coordinator, Arizona Western College, Yuma, Arizona.

• Defensive coordinator, Kansas Koyotes, American Professional (indoor) Football League, Topeka, Kansas