By ROBIN FAMBROUGH
Written for the LSWA
Years melted away in an instant as Dale Weiner told the story that shaped his life.
“I watched Jimmy Taylor score a winning touchdown,” Weiner recalled, motioning with his hands. “It was just the way he angled his body to get between two defenders. I had never seen anything like that.
“He scored and Baton Rouge High won. I was so excited. That was it – I knew football was something I had be part of.”
Weiner was a 5-year-old standing in the back of the BRHS end zone that night when Taylor, who went on to stardom at LSU and all the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, scored that fateful touchdown.
Not every boy who grows up loving football becomes a 300 wins high school football coach. Weiner did and it not only shaped his life, it changed the trajectory of the athletic program at Baton Rouge’s Catholic High School.
Weiner, who amassed a record of 317-109 as a high school head football coach, is part of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Enshrinement occurs culminating the Induction Celebration in Natchitoches June 26-28. Event information can be found at LaSportsHall.com.
“Dale Weiner is the most the most consequential coaching hire in the history of Catholic High,” said Pete Boudreaux, the school’s former athletic director, and a 2014 LSHOF inductee for his track and cross country coaching career. “Some people might question that, but I don’t.
“When you look at a high school in Louisiana, one of the first things people ask about is the football team. Before Dale came, we might have a good season here or there. Once Dale got here, the program took off. He was the right man for the job. It changed not just football, but the entire school.”
Hyperbole or truth? The fact that Boudreaux, who collected 52 state titles in track/cross country, could make such a statement points to the latter. Others, including former Baton Rouge High classmate/teammate and longtime Catholic assistant Don Hood, shoot down that notion.
“We were bad … everybody wanted to schedule us for their homecoming game,” Hood said. “We were called a lot of things that weren’t very nice that I won’t repeat. When Dale
got there, I knew things would change because I knew Dale. He was always that guy … bright, could motivate people and knew football.”
Long before Catholic, there was Baton Rouge High. Weiner grew up within walking distance of the school, so watching games like the one he saw as a 5-year-old were common. His dream was to play for the Bulldogs and he did that as a lineman. When he met the late Murrell “Boots” Garland, Weiner saw a career path.
“Coach Garland had a way of drawing people to him,” Weiner said. “He had a sense of humor and a way of getting a point across. He could be tough when he needed to be. I loved playing for him. I knew I wanted to be a coach after watching him.”
Others saw Weiner’s desire. Gerry Garidel, another BRHS classmate and Weiner’s defensive coordinator at Catholic for many years, explains it this way.
“Unlike myself, Dale always knew he wanted to be a coach,” Garidel said. “I had a class with him and Lindy (Weiner’s wife) at Baton Rouge High. You could see it. Knowing him and watching him back then there was no doubt. Dale Weiner was meant to be a coach.”
More than anything else, Weiner wanted to be the head football coach at Baton Rouge High. The school’s conversion into a full magnet school that no longer offered football happened a few years after Weiner’s graduation.
His career move to Catholic High, just a couple of miles away – across Government Street – was more than a decade away after he graduated from LSU.
But his first job as an assistant coach, at Catholic High of Pointe Coupee in New Roads in 1975, was both eye-opening and helped earn the “cradle of coaches” moniker for the school.
Jim Hightower, the Hornets’ first-year head coach, was previously a baseball graduate assistant coach at LSU. It was the first head coaching job for Hightower, now the legendary coach at St. Thomas More, second on Louisiana’s all-time wins list with 482 wins and a 2016 LSHOF inductee. Over the years, CHSPC has been the proving ground for many coaches, including Weiner’s son, Neil, head coach at The Dunham School in Baton Rouge.
“Dale was and has always been such a positive person,” Hightower said. “He was a hard worker and eager to learn. He was that guy who was always in the lab, trying to figure out which plays and systems would work in which situation. He was always working on something.”
There was one notable misstep in the Hornets’ 1975 debut. Catholic-PC won its jamboree game on the final play. Weiner was in the press box.
“Our player was running down the field to score the winning touchdown and I started jumping up and down in the press box,” Weiner said. “I was so excited.”
Everyone wanted to relive and review that play once the film was developed in Baton Rouge. It was not meant to be. Weiner was next to the camera when he started jumping up and down. It distorted the images.
“We laugh about it now,” Lindy Weiner said. “In that moment, Jim was so mad at Dale.”
Soon enough, Weiner got his first head coaching job. He was a head coach St. John-Plaquemine, Catholic-PC and Trafton Academy, now known as The Dunham School. The first time he applied at Catholic, Weiner was turned down.
“I was meant to be at Catholic High … I believed that from the time I first applied,” Weiner said. “I did want to be the head coach at Baton Rouge High. But why not Catholic High? I knew about the school and what the school had to offer.”
Garidel told Boudreaux and others in the school’s administration they were making a mistake. A couple of years later, the job was open again and Weiner was hired. During the second interview process, Weiner pointed out that he grew up in the neighborhood and boldly stated that was why he wanted to coach.
It’s fair to say the rest is history. In 30 seasons at Catholic, Weiner was 282-81, including a runner-up finish in Class 4A in 1990 and a Division I select title in 2015, along with 18 district titles with just one losing season.
More than 140 of his former players have competed on the college level and 16 have earned spots on NFL rosters. Weiner’s attention to detail in all things, including strength and conditioning, also contributed to 17 Olympic weightlifting team titles.
Trick plays were a thing Weiner’s offenses and special teams had a penchant for. It is one area of Weiner’s career that is still discussed to this day. Was he high school football’s version of a river boat gambler, as some fans thought? Or was it a unique way to motivate his team? Weiner says it was the latter.
“The trick plays? I wanted to make it fun for the players,” Weiner said. “It kept them interested. That was something to look forward to.”
Off the field there were life lessons. Sid Edwards, now mayor-president of Baton Rouge, and Zachary High head coach David Brewerton, a former Catholic player, attest to that.
“Coach Weiner is one of those men who parents want their children to play for,” Brewerton said. “It didn’t matter whether you were a starter or somebody further down on the depth chart, he had that infectious personality and could make anybody feel like the top dog.
“We were successful. And we learned so much off the field. We got to watch him handle stressful situations and how to be a husband and father to his son and daughters. Those are life lessons.”
Edwards added, “I don’t just think he transformed football at Catholic High, I think he transformed high school football in Baton Rouge. Before Dale, Baton Rouge football was pretty much three yards and a cloud of dust with people running the option. He opened things up with more passing and trick plays.”
There is a touch of irony in Edwards’ statement. Weiner, a former lineman, was first a wishbone disciple before his coaching philosophy evolved.
“To this day, I am thankful to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, the administration, Pete Boudreaux and all the coaches and faculty members I worked with at Catholic High,” Weiner said. “I ended up where I was supposed to be. I am blessed.”
In four-plus decades as a sports journalist – most of them at the Baton Rouge Advocate – Robin Fambrough has produced voluminous content and coordinated high school coverage while also serving the LSWA in various leadership capacities. Most significantly, the 2020 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee was the first female president of the organization from 1999-2001 after serving as secretary and vice president.
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