The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Woods’ legacy marked by investment in youth
Lake Catholic baseball coach Dennis Woods retired on May 23, and his impact on the game had more to do with developing young players than more than 700 wins.
Dennis Woods turned 76 on May 22.
Scores of former players reached out to their old baseball coach. Men from Glenville, where Woods started the baseball program in 1966, Cuyahoga Community College, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Heights and Lake Catholic spanning six decades sent Woods birthday greetings.
Fifty years of coaching will cross one’s path with thousands of student-athletes. That Woods’ relationships with so many, from players he coached in 1967 or 2017, endure is his legacy to baseball in northeast Ohio.
Woods leaves Lake Catholic as Ohio’s seventh all-time winningest baseball coach. He announced his resignation on May 23.
He won his 700th game last season. Only six other coaches in Ohio history reached such a threshold.
Woods’ head coaching career ended at 730 wins. The remarkable achievement doesn’t indicate what 50 years of coaching represents to Woods.
Head to Lake Catholic on any spring afternoon the last 19 years, and players practicing are the usual sight. A few alumni of Woods’ teams, back home from college and visiting their former coach and teammates, are often in the mix.
Ask Woods about himself and he won’t have much to say.
Ask Woods about one of his wards and prepare to listen. Woods remembers details many may consider insignificant, from how one of his players fielded to how someone struggled hitting curveballs. Woods’ pride in his former charges is evident, especially in ways they improved or overcame weaknesses.
As athletic director Sam Colacarro remarked May 24, perhaps Woods’ most outstanding aspect as a coach was an ability to help student-athletes others may have allowed to be fall behind in an equivalent manner to the star players he had over the years.
To all those players, Woods’ dedication was unquestionable.
For the last 19 years, Woods could be found on the Cougars’ baseball field from 6 a.m. until after school when players went out to hit, pitch and catch. Long retired, Woods’ fulltime work on Lake Catholic’s field kept the Cougars playing on days when most teams in the region were washed out by showers synonymous with spring in Ohio.
Lake Catholic hardly had a true pitcher’s mound when Woods arrived in 2000. Nineteen years later, the Cougars’ field is immaculate.
For those who wonder why Woods put countless hours into cutting grass and raking dirt, it wasn’t just yardwork.
The time Woods put into the field more than proved his investment in his players, who trusted him to help them become better ballplayers and, ultimately, men. He wasn’t most proud of what those young men did on it, but what they went on to do in the years that followed.
Some may have thought Woods overly strict, with rules against cursing and spitting sunflower seed shells onto the ground. But Woods is the same coach who a player could look into the dugout and see licorice protruding from his nose.
Woods will send out almost 200 Christmas cards to his old players in November, many of whom respond with notes and photos of their families. He says he was surprised to hear from so many on his birthday, but it’s no shock considering what he did the last 50 years.
Woods’ 19 years on Reynolds Road made him Lake Catholic’s longesttenured coach. The status was bestowed on him when volleyball coach Rich Severino stepped down after the Cougars’ second straight state trip in his 27th season.
Colacarro’s task of replacing almost 50 combined years of experience at the school is unenviable.
Lake Catholic’s hire of former Brecksville coach Rob Cline to run the volleyball program looks like a home run. The Cougars’ latest opening will surely draw a deep pool of highly-qualified candidates.
Woods’ departure from the Cougars was abrupt and unforeseen, although Woods’ decision began to form weeks ago. Both he and Colacarro said Woods’ decision was his own, and reasons for his resignation are varied.
At times like this, when coaches like Severino and Woods appear to have had enough, I wonder how many who contributed to the departure of esteemed coaches are among the same sect that rails against participation trophies and the doughy constitution of younger generations.
Woods’ tenure at Lake Catholic ended May 23. Maybe he’ll take an assistant position somewhere else but, likely, his 50th year as a head coach was his last running a program. The next day, Woods was still at the school preparing the field for the Lake County Baseball Club’s All-Star Game May 25.
Contact Barnes at nbarnes@news-herald. com; On Twitter: @natebarnes_