Widolff Still Among Coaching Elite After Thirty Seasons

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Author: Mirin Fader

“I always said if I was here five years, that would be kind of cool,” said football coach Dale Widolff, now in his thirty-first year as head coach of Occidental’s football team.

Since arriving at Occidental as a defensive coordinator in 1980 and becoming head coach in 1982, Widolff’s teams have won 11 SCIAC championships. In his 30 years of coaching, Widolff has led the team to a record of 178-96-2, making him the the all-time wins leader in Occidental history and one of the top five winningest active coaches among all Division III institutions.

Widolff attributes his lengthy career to the quality of students that Occidental produces. “I just think they are fantastic,” he said.

Coach Widolff  admires football’s team-oriented emphasis on all players instead of just the most talented individuals. Football requires working together as a single unit regardless of individuals’ playing time or role on the field.

“I think it’s the ultimate team game,” he said. “You’ve got guys who don’t ever touch the ball. You’ve got guys who don’t ever get their names in the paper, but they still care passionately about the team. You’ve got all these guys that have all these different roles, and that’s the thing I really love about it.”

Widolff especially admires the efforts of those who do not get to play in games.

“To see the kind of joy in players’ eyes when the team does well, even if they didn’t play, is very rewarding,” he said.

As a graduate of University of Indianapolis in 1975, with a degree in social studies and secondary education, Widolff played center and outside linebacker for the University’s football team.

“I loved playing football, and I knew I wasn’t going to continue to play, so the next best thing was coaching,” he said.

Coming from a family of older brothers who were coaches, he took his first job as a United States history teacher at a high school while coaching the school’s football and basketball teams. Though Widolff enjoyed coaching, he did not want to be a teacher, ultimately realizing he needed to coach at a higher level.

Widolff then served as an assistant coach at several NCAA Division I schools Kansas State, University of Pennsylvania and Indiana State University, where he earned a master’s degree in physical education in 1984, prior to coaching at Division III Occidental. Unlike most coaches who begin coaching at the Division III level and work their way up to coaching at the Division I level, Coach Widolff began his career differently.

“I was fortunate to get a taste of Division I before I got here,” he said.

Widolff learned many lessons from his Division I experience, including how to maximize a player’s abilities and offensive and defensive strategy. However, Widolff has still learned a great deal about the value of Division III, where athletes are primarily playing for the love of the game.

“I realized that Division I is not all it’s made out to be,” he said. “It’s cool playing in front of 50,000 people, but the game is no different. What I’ve learned is that the players at Occidental are different.”

Widolff admires the dedication of Occidental athletes, who sacrifice a great deal of time to play the sport they love.

“Their priorities are different. They are really a lot more fun to work with. Division I guys, a lot of them are playing because they think they can play in the NFL, because they’ve got a scholarship and their egos are so much bigger. They are just not that interesting or that much fun,” he said.

Though Widolff and his teams throughout his career have and continue to exude the highest levels of sportsmanship, ethical character and hard work on and off the field, Widolff found himself facing controversy for the first time in 2010 for violations of NCAA rules regarding monetary player benefit. Though the NCAA did not impose sanctions, Widolff was temporarily suspended for six weeks and took full responsibility for his actions.

“Certainly I made a couple of mistakes I regret. I take full responsibility for it and don’t deny how the college handled it. It was the right way to handle it,” he said.

Despite this adversity, Widolff and the Tigers have continued to build an elite Division III program, where players can still aspire to play professional after they graduate, as Vance Mueller ‘86 did by earning a spot a running back for the Los Angeles Raiders.

Widolff credits his players, rather than his own coaching success, as the primary reason Occidental graduates are able to play at the next level.

“It goes more to the players’ abilities. It’s a reflection of the kind of students who come to Occidental. Oxy students are highly motivated and to even consider playing at that level you have to have a lot of self-motivation,” he said.

His perspective on coaching has evolved over the course of his time at Occidental. At the beginning of his career, he viewed himself solely as a coach, rather than a teacher of the game. Thirty years later, Widolff feels a sense of pride giving back to a collegiate athletic community.

“When I first started, I coached because it gave me happiness and pleasure. But as I’ve gotten older, I definitely value that I can have an impact on young people,” he said.

Even in his 31st year of coaching, Widolff continues to learn something new on the field every day.

“Even as a coach, you are always constantly learning. I’ve learned more from my assistant coaches than they’ve learned from me,” he said.

His current players also appreciate his long-time commitment to the Occidental football program.

Linebacker Greg Holsworth (senior) respects Widolff’s concern for ethical behavior.

“A big part of Coach Widolff’s success has to do with his emphasis on character,” he said. “He emphasizes doing the right thing all the time and his message really holds meaning because he holds himself to the same standard. It is impossible to come in contact with him and not respect him.”

Kicker Joshua Mun (senior) believes Widolff’s coaching style has the perfect balance: he can relate to players, yet simultaneously push them to succeed.

“As a coach, Widolff has always been a player’s coach. He’s calm and collected and will always try to put his players into the best position to succeed. He pushes us to strive to get better every practice,” he said.

Coach Widolff continues to improve the Occidental football program he continues his 31-year coaching career and draws even closer to the illustrious 200-win milestone.

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