MORGANTOWN — This is about a coach and his school.

No, make that schools.

No, make that a coach and his schools and his players, sort of a love triangle that even has another side, that being a man and his schools and his players and his wife.

This is about Damon Cogdell, whose life changed spectacularly the day he walked out of junior college, out of Miami, Fla., and onto the West Virginia University campus and now is in a position to help others benefit just the way he did.

Damon Cogdell, a Mountaineer linebacker in 1997 and 1998, his college career ended by a serious hip injury when this 6-foot, 2-inch terror was just getting cranked up. Against Virginia Tech, for example, in 1997 he had 13 of his 105 career tackles and in that inaugural game against Marshall that year, facing Chad Pennington and Randy Moss, each headed for the NFL, he had an interception.

That’s a lot of contributions to your school, but Cogdell now is the gift that keeps on giving, for he is the head football coach at Miramar High in Miami, also his school, has won 33 and lost 4, took the team to its first 6A Florida state championship and now has set up a railroad from Miramar to Morgantown.

The starting quarterback on this year’s team, Geno Smith, is a former player for Cogdell, as are two of the most promising wide receivers ever to walk on the campus, redshirt freshman Stedman Bailey and true freshman Ivan “The Terrible” McCartney, who was anything but terrible last year as he caught three touchdowns in that first state championship game.

There is also defensive lineman Josh Taylor, who got his feet wet last season but now is limping around gingerly on an injured ankle that has slowed his progress this summer.



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There is something honorable in the profession of high school football coach, if it is approached in the proper direction, and Cogdell certainly has high ideals and standards for his players.

During spring practice this year he summed it best for The Miami Herald, which wrote:

“This is what it’s all about,” Cogdell says while making sure that the players who didn’t play by the team rules he has long lived by, runs extra laps. “What we have built here is a family, a true team concept that unless you’ve bought into what we are doing, can fully understand.”

And then:

“This is what you envision for your alma mater,” Cogdell says with a boyish grin. “The chance to come back and build a program your way, with your rules and loaded with discipline.”

You listen to the players whose lives he has touched and you understand exactly what he created.

Start with Smith, who inherits the quarterback job this year, a strong personality as a leader, serious in his approach, dedicated to being not only the best quarterback he can be but the best person.

Standing in a hallway at the Puskar Center after the day’s second practice, Smith talked about Cogdell the other day.

“Coach Cogdell? I’d say he’s the best high school coach in the nation. You can see what he’s done. He’s so young. He really relates to the players in high school and he really cares about him,” Smith said.

You push on, asking what he had done to show him that he cared.

“He’s been tremendous in my life. He’s been a role model. He’s taught me about life,” he answered.

You ask for a specific example.

“I never had many problems but one time I had a slip up in a class. I had a bad grade and he sat me out for two quarters, just to let me know how important it was to do well in class,” Smith said.

That led to a phone call to Cogdell.

“Funny you say that. I remember that game like it was yesterday,” Cogdell said. “We were winning 7-to-zip at the half to a team we should have been beating 35-to-zip. Geno sat the first and second quarter. The fans were shouting his name, trying to get me to put him in, which I was tempted to do because we needed some points.

“I put him in for the second half and the first play of the third quarter he threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Stedman. After that, I forget the score, but it was probably 30-something-to-zip.”

Two lessons learned, one by Smith, the other by the opponent, who found out just how good Smith can be.

“It’s not just the standards that the school sets, but the standards that he sets for the team,” Smith said.

“He was really a big part of my life,” the bespectacled Taylor said, looking almost professorial. “He was one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. He was a great coach on the high school level and he’d be a great coach on the college level. He’s a great mentor. He was like my uncle.”

This does not happen by accident.

“I try to treat those kids like they were my own,” Cogdell said.



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Cogdell loved almost every moment he spent at WVU, from the time he stepped out of the Miami ghetto and discovered Morgantown.

When it came time to send his players off toward college, he decided that he’d like them to at least experience the area, so he arranged to bring them to team camp both at West Virginia and Pitt, bringing about 50 players up.

“I let them see Pitt and I let them see West Virginia,” he said. “Pitt is only an hour away, but it was like a totally different area. I’m not biased about it, but I tell you with Morgantown, you can’t go wrong. Everything is there — great facilities, great coaches, great people, great fans.”

He claimed he didn’t push his players toward WVU but it was obvious that he wanted them to experience what he had experienced under Don Nehlen.

Take McCartney’s recruitment. Florida, Miami and Florida State were pushing hard.

“I told him why not play with the quarterback who was All-American when you were here,” Cogdell recalled, referring to Smith. “You know him like a puppy. You won championships. You know what Stedman can do and he’s there, too.

“You’ve seen West Virginia and you know they have great people. I know, people think, ‘Oh, what is there to do in West Virginia?’ Believe it or not, West Virginia is a great state.”

And McCartney now is readying himself to write his own chapter in its state university’s athletic history.

Smith recalled his trip to WVU’s camp as a sophomore in high school when Rich Rodriguez was still here and he won MVP honors.

“It was a different environment for us. We bonded here. (Cogdell) took us downtown, showed us the places where he used to hang out. He kind of showed us a lot of the things he did in college,” Smith recalled.

“He showed us a documentary they did on him here in high school, he’d done so many great things, and then he injured his hip and boom, things just went up in the air. He showed us you have to get that degree. You have to have a backup plan because football isn’t everything.”

When Cogdell left WVU, like so many other football players, he was hoping for the NFL.

“I tried out with the Dolphins and they were skeptical about my hip. So, that first year I went to a team called the Miami Tropics in a spring league we had in Miami,” Cogdell recalled.

That league eventually folded and Cogdell went to Canada to play, being a member of a Grey Cup championship team his first season. The next year, however, his hip was hurting badly.

“I had a meeting with the trainer, then the coach. I asked them to go home. I thought about my future. I had a daughter at home. I had something to fall back on. My hip was getting worse and worse and I had to take care of my daughter,” he said.

He moved to Atlanta, stayed a couple of years, was an assistant coach, returned to Florida, met his wife and a year ago had his first son, Damon Jr.

“My wife was very understanding. People around the school say, ‘I don’t know how your wife deals with you.’ The kids are always over at my place, always calling me. Those kids up at West Virginia are still calling me,” Cogdell said.

It’s been a good life, a rewarding life to date, but Cogdell knows there’s more out there. He’s beginning to think about becoming a college coach.

“I’m very ready right now. I’m going to put some feelers out. I’d love to coach college football. My wife and I have talked about it. Being a teacher, I’m teaching six or seven classes. I’m athletic director and I run all the athletics. My dream is to be a college coach some day and I’m very ready.”

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.