It's not so rosy at Bethpage's practices right now
He was out of sight, but not out of mind. He was missing but somehow still there. He was absent, yet very much present.
For the first time in 56 years, Howie Vogts did not preside over the opening week of football practice at Bethpage High School. The coach died Aug. 7 at the age of 80, and those in the program missed much more than his state-record 364 victories.
"It's different without him around," said acting coach and longtime assistant Erwin Dill, who is expected to be officially named as Vogts' replacement at this week's Bethpage school board meeting. "We'll catch each other saying the things he always said. He supervised us every day, and now we don't have our supervisor there."
For the past decade or so, Vogts' failing health forced him to motor around the practice field in a golf cart.
"He never missed a day. Hot, cold, rainy, snowy. Practice or games, even when he wasn't feeling well," Bethpage athletic director John Franchi said. "Lots of times, that golf cart wound up in the huddle."
Vogts was a powerful, if invisible, force when the team huddled Monday for the first time in 2010.
"I always say something to the kids and the coaches on the first day before we even start calisthenics. This time I spoke about Coach,'' Dill said. "A lot of the players knew him, but there were some young guys who didn't. I didn't dedicate the season to him - the kids might decide to do that on their own later - but I had a lot to say."
Dill didn't reveal specifics of his season-opening speech, but his voice cracked once or twice. "It's certainly different without him. Coach was always there," Dill said. "It was his idea to practice in the evenings , and we still do it that way. The last few years, he'd go to the doctors in the morning and he'd be there for practice. There's definitely a void."
One of Vogts' former players from the 1960s, Bill LaSalla, who was unable to attend the funeral, visited the team Tuesday from Florida.
"Bill stayed in the community for years before he retired. He was my first midget football coach," Dill said. "He came up here and wanted to talk to the team. He told them about Coach."
One thing that infuriated "Coach" was when a Golden Eagles player fumbled. Because Vogts, and by proxy Dill, favor the wishbone or other run-heavy offenses, there's low tolerance for turnovers.
"On Thursday, we were running a play and there was a fumble," Dill said with a chuckle. "One of his sayings was, 'If you fumble the ball, you go get the ball!' He emphasized the 'you.' One of our coaches yelled the same thing and we all thought of coach Vogts."
Dill said there was an empty feeling at the end of practices last week. "He'd ride over in the golf cart and he would critique things that he observed," Dill said. "He was always very good at that."
Football just isn't the same at Bethpage.
