On Thursday night in a special ceremony, Cedar Hill coach Joey McGuire received the award for Texas Coach of the Year, presented by Chevy Silverado.
Photo by Dan Wozniak
Forget the hard-boiled stereotype of a successful Texas high school football coach.
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Cedar Hill (Texas) Longhorn that makes a mistake is far more likely to get a sideline hug than a tongue-lashing from coach Joey McGuire.
Joey McGuire, Cedar Hill head coach
File photo by Robbie Rakestraw
It is a caring philosophy that has served the personable McGuire well in 11 seasons at the suburban school in southwest Dallas County.
For guiding Cedar Hill to its second state title — capped by a 34-24 victory over previously-unbeaten powerhouse and national No. 8 ranked Katy in the Class 5A Division II championship game in front of 30,285 at AT&T Stadium — McGuire was selected as the Texas Coach of the Year presented by Chevy Silverado.
The Cedar Hill administration made a bold decision to promote the young assistant to be its head coach before the 2003 season, at a time when the floundering program had gone eight years without a winning season. Under McGuire, the Longhorns' record is 107-35 with appearances in three state title games.
"Joey has a way of bringing out a passion in his players and his coaches like nobody I've ever seen,'' said TCU assistant coach Kenny Perry. "His energy is unbelievable and his players feed off it.''
The passion is evident in McGuire's voice-cracking pregame speeches as well as his drive to find college opportunities for players that can't make his starting lineup.
McGuire called the 2013 team special because it was the most unselfish he has coached, verifying one of his favorite quotes: "It is an amazing thing when a group of men care more about each other than themselves. When that happens nothing is impossible.''
Nowhere was the unselfishness more on display than at running back. Typically, Cedar Hill has gone with one main ball-carrier. This year, they alternated four. Known as "The Committee,'' the foursome was composed of juniors
Aca'Cedric Ware (1,270 yards, 11 touchdowns) and
Denvre Daniels (443 yards), and seniors
Larry Hill (1,078 yards, 20 touchdowns) and
Peter Lewis (892 yards, 10 touchdowns).
Katy, riding a 31-game winning streak, was seeking a state-record equaling eighth state football title. It was a rematch of the 2012 state final that saw Katy score 14 points in the final seven minutes for a 35-24 victory over the Longhorns.
Joey McGuire receives the Texas Coach of
the Year presented by Chevy Silverado.
Photo by Dan Wozniak
"Talent-wise, Katy is as good as anybody,'' said McGuire. "Very well-coached. They have great tradition. But we went into both games expecting to win. I knew how hungry our kids were.''
Cedar Hill (14-2) pounced on uncharacteristic mistakes by Katy (15-1) in the second half for the 34-24 victory. A key moment in the game was McGuire's decision to disdain a punt on fourth-and-2 from his own 39 in the final five minutes of the third quarter, trailing 24-10. Wide receiver
Damarkus Lodge took a direct snap, broke a tackle and sprinted 69 yards to begin the Longhorns' second-half comeback.
By the time McGuire completed postgame interviews and made his way back to the locker room, he had accumulated over 300 text messages offering congratulations.
The playoff run for Cedar Hill very nearly ended in the first round. The Longhorns trailed Temple 28-7 at halftime of a bi-district playoff, but scored two touchdowns in the five six minutes to eke out at 39-35 win.
In the state semifinal round, Cedar Hill came from behind again in the fourth quarter for a 19-10 win over Lake Travis (Austin).
Those two wins gave Cedar Hill an edge when staring at a 24-10 deficit against Katy, McGuire said. Katy's smallest winning margin in five playoff games leading to the final was 30 points.
Cedar Hill lost twice in the regular season, 39-20 at 5A-DI champion Allen and 47-20 in a District 7-5A game to 5A-DI semifinalist DeSoto.
"I never want to make it our goal to go undefeated,'' McGuire said. "Going undefeated just happens. When going undefeated is your goal and you do lose, that's when you have a chance to lose your team. I'm honest with the kids. When we lost to DeSoto, I told our guys that DeSoto was probably going to go undefeated in district and that we'd be DII and they'd be DI. Truthfully, getting to the playoffs is always a relief because we play in a very tough district.''
When TCU's Perry was the coach at Bowie (Arlington), he faced McGuire's Cedar Hill teams many times. Both schools share some of the same socio-economic challenges.
"People on the outside can say it is easy to win at a school like Cedar Hill, but I assure you it isn't. Joey knows he has to be available 24 hours a day for his guys. He gets it,'' Perry said.
McGuire's involvement in the community doesn't end with football. He started a group called Uncommon Men of Cedar Hill, open to all sons, dads, grandfathers, uncles and mentors in Cedar Hill.
"The purpose is to help all of us become better men, better husbands and better fathers,'' McGuire said. "We learn what it means to treat women with respect, to be trusted, to be a man of your word, and to be a man of honor.''
McGuire has two children, daughter Raegan and son Garret. Garret is a freshman member of the Cedar Hill football program.
Already, McGuire is thinking about the challenge that waits this fall.
His first priority?
"I want to pick the brain of a few college coaches that have won back-to-back titles,'' he said.
