WASHINGTON, Mo. — You don’t have to be around 73-year-old Dale Gildehaus for very long to see this is one passionate man.
“It’s just the amount of energy he has. I don’t really know where he gets it from," defensive coordinator Glenn Roehring said.
It takes even less time to see what he’s passionate about.
“This all I’ve done for 52 years. Football. And my granddaughter will say, ‘Papa, football, football, football... don’t you ever think of anything else?’ No," Gildehaus laughed.
For 38 years, Gildehaus has led the St. Francis Borgia Knights into battle. He’s won 300 games, a state championship in 1993, been inducted into multiple hall of fames (including the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame), and guided multiple generations of young men in Washington, Missouri.
“These kids who played for me back in ’87 when I started here… and now I’m coaching their sons," Gildehaus said.
“My dad was there for his first win, and I was there for his 300th so that was cool," junior linebacker Henry Zeitzmann said. “He treats every one of his players like his sons and you really get a personal relationship with him.”
But coach will be the first to tell you that his biggest impact has nothing to do with the wins.
“These boys here are my family," Gildehaus said. “Sometimes my wife, God love her… I’ll get a phone call at 10 o’clock at night (from a player or former player). Alright, I’m there.”
“One young man came back from Colorado. He was an admiral in the Navy. He came back and said, ‘Coach I want you to know what you’ve done (for me). Wow.”
“He emphasizes that over and over again. Once you play here you are part of the Borgia football family. And I think just his was to teach that to everyone is what keeps this tradition going," Roerhrig said.
“He’s got a way of pulling everyone together and making them feel like they’ve got a stake in the team," Borgia special teams coach Jared Mullen said.
Now, the Knights are off to a 7-0 start in what Gildehaus has announced will be his final year. But as he says all the time, the season isn't about him.
“Right before his 300th win game we said, ‘300 on three’, and immediately after that he was like, ‘It’s not about me, it’s about you guys’. But obviously we’ve been playing for him this whole season. His last season, 300 wins… he’s absolutely inspirational," senior receiver Braxtyn Frankenberg said.
“We tell him all the time, ‘It’s about you. It’s your last season.' We’re not just doing this for us, we’re doing it for him as well," Borgia senior linebacker Lucas Hardin said.
“We have some spaces to fill but these young man have stepped up and continued to improve. And if we can do that, by golly we have a chance to win our district or at least get a number one seed, because after that, it only gets tougher," Gildehaus said.
Whenever that final clock strikes zero this season, an era at Borgia will end. But a new one begins for their legendary coach..
“What am I going to do next year? I don’t know. But my wife wants to go somewhere, so we’re gonna go," Gildehaus laughed.
And the football family he created at Borgia carries on.
“When they come up to me and say, ‘coach thank you for taking care of my son through thick and thin and being there when they call…’ you betcha. That means more than anything in the world. I can smile and say, ‘The good Lord’s blessed me’, and we move on," Gildehaus said.
