OK, so here’s what keeps bumping around in B.J. Depew’s brain these days.
He was 3 years old when his parents moved to Wheeling, and his father became the head coach football coach and the assistant baseball coach for the Cadets in 1980. That immediately made B.J. the ball boy, the bat boy, and the water boy before he was #61 on the field and a coach on the sidelines during dear-ole-dad’s 26-year career.
But wait, there’s more.
So, his father enjoyed a 26-game and a 19-game winning streaks during his coaching career, and those victories included decisions over local rivals and long-distance opponents alike. But, while Depew 2.0 has added several chapters to the program’s success story, it’s the Cadets’ past three seasons that have told a telling tale about the character of the head coach, his past and present players, and about the school itself.
In 2022, Linsly registered improbable wins over Cardinal Mooney, Fort Frye, St. Clairsville, Dover, and Steubenville on the way to an improbable 9-1 finish and a Class AAA OVAC title. The lone loss was a three-point defeat to Fairmont Senior (27-24) in the second game of the season, and the Cadets outscored the opposition by more than 150 points.
But then the Cadets traveled back to reality in 2023 to put up 5-5 mark, and then last season – the “UGH” season – the team put up a big-fat goose egg in the win column and there’s no nice way to explain it.
0-10 is 0-10.
But now the 52-0 “Have Mercy!” loss to Westinghouse in Week One means just as much as the 31-28 “Shoulda Won That One” defeat to Kiski in Week Nine, and that’s because of there are lessons to be learned from losing, too.
They’re just the most difficult to digest.
Why don’t you hate math like most people hate math?
There isn’t really any grey area with math. There are rules. It either is or it isn’t.
I was raised that way, I think. Any kind of a decision ultimately comes down to using logic and critical thinking and you have to take the emotional part out of it sometimes. You can lean pretty heavy on the truth.
Math made sense to me, and I had some really good teachers. Mr. (Denny) Hon was the greatest classroom teacher I have ever had and he made learning fun. I think people who hate math just weren’t lucky enough to have the right teacher yet.
Do like how college football has changed thanks to the transfer portal and NIL monies?
Not at all.
Loyalty, Integrity and Toughness are the core values of our program. What are we teaching these young people when we offer them options to seek the easier path and incentivize it?
Rather than having to work your way into the spot you want, you can shop around for it. How do they learn Loyalty or Toughness in that scenario? I miss the days when you could get excited to hear about a big time high school prospect coming to your program, enjoy multiple years of watching him play and then watch him finish his career in the bowl game.
Teams had an identity then.
How was success still a part of the 2024 season?
All of the returning players from 2024 have learned to deal with disappointment and adversity. They know we can and will bounce back from a loss and we won’t back down from anyone, no matter what. It will strengthen our resolve heading into the 2025 season.
They also got a lot of varsity experience against high-quality opponents. Many freshmen and sophomores, who would normally gain experience playing a JV schedule, played the toughest varsity schedule around. High school football can teach you a lot and the lessons are generally realized somewhere down the road in life. A success can be counted for every member of the 2024 team who ends up being a better person for having played.
What lessons did you learn as a head coach last season?
I learned that kids are still resilient and tough.
As we all get older, it is commonplace to think that each new generation of kids gets softer and more self-absorbed. With the losses we experienced and the adversity we faced; it would have been easy for them to throw in the towel before the end of the fourth quarter of our final game.
But, they never did. Many of them have interests outside of football that are more important to them and they could have selfishly shifted focus at any time, but I never saw that. They understood we were in it together and kept working, which inspired me to do the same.
It taught me the importance of the word Finish.
What makes you a different football coach than your father was at Linsly for 26 seasons?
First of all, he was the original. In 1980, he took over a program that had won 8 games in the previous three seasons combined. In 2006, I took over for the winningest coach in the 129-year history of Linsly Football. It’s fair to say he didn’t have a blueprint to follow like I did. I have always seen this position as an honor, but also a great responsibility.
The job is different now, because you have to be a coach year-round. Offseason training is a must, or you get behind with the schedule we play. Summers are much busier, and scheduling is much tougher. Kids are influenced to specialize in a single sport at younger ages now and it is not as easy to get players to come out for football.
You have to work at it constantly. My Dad always commented about how much he enjoyed baseball season because he was the assistant coach and Coach (Gary) Sprague was the head coach. It was easier for him to be himself and enjoy the game and the players.
Perhaps what makes me different is my strong interest and respect for the history of our program.
It stems from the years I spent as a young kid looking up to the players and coaches during the early part of my Dad’s career, but it has inspired me to take on different initiatives to connect the past and the present. It is so important for our players to know we are each a part of something much bigger than ourselves.
