Dick Bagnall turned a belief in a different style of football into a career that not only increased the success of high school football in Susquehanna, but has now landed him in the Pennsylvania High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Bagnall learned about his selection April 7 and will formally be inducted during ceremonies in conjunction with the Big 33 Football Classic June 16.
The 68-year-old Susquehanna resident, who is retired from coaching, teaching science and serving as athletic director at the school, first came to Susquehanna in 1972 after spending the first year of his teaching career in Lynchburg, Va. He immediately became an assistant coach on Mike Hemak's staff as the Sabers were quickly becoming a viable football program using a style that was the tradition in northeastern Pennsylvania, power football out of I-formation and/or wing-T concepts.
By the time Bagnall took over in 1976, the Sabers no longer had the schedule sprinkled with tiny New York state schools that they dominated in their formative years. Often playing a schedule entirely against larger schools, Bagnall did not believe overpowering opponents was the viable long-term option.
A fascination with option football that he had already begun exploring at football clinics the Susquehanna coaching staff attended also got a boost when the late Steve Koscelnak, a youth and high school coach at Blue Ridge, gave Bagnall a book by Lou Holtz about North Carolina State's twin veer option attack.
"I read that and I really got into it," Bagnall said. "I got as much information as I could about it. When I took over in '76, I didn't put that in, but I said that this program can't survive on playing smash-mouth football. We just don't have the kids to do it.
"Of course, back in the '70s, most people ran I-formation and that's what it was, the fullback trap, the blast off tackle and the sweep."
By his second season as head coach, Bagnall had a few option plays in the playbook. By his third, the offense was built around the option game in which he modified wishbone-T concepts and ran those plays out of a power-I formation. In his fourth year, the split back, veer option style that he favored for most of his career appeared as the base of the Sabers offense.
"I just got to the point where we were looking at the option and seeing that you don't have to block certain people," Bagnall said. "If you don't have to block the big kid, then why block him."
Instead, the offense would force that defender to choose between stopping one of two players and would try to execute the quick decisions that would leave the ball in the hands of the other. Athletic, intelligent quarterbacks had more control on the field, making instant decisions on whether to hand off or keep the ball or whether to pitch, including many plays where all three were a possibility in a triple option.
Bagnall served as head coach for 28 seasons, building the Sabers into one of the old Suburban Conference's most successful programs from 1976 to 1995, then reviving a faltering program from 2004 to 2011. He finished with a 169-129-3 record in a career that had many highlights.
Along the way, Bagnall tinkered with the offense. He kept a large option component to his approach, going almost exclusively with the veer some years, but moving away from it in others as he continued to study variations of the option game at clinics at Syracuse and Navy. Syracuse's freeze-I option approach under Dick MacPherson became part of the attack and the "Navy" option remains in the playbook under current coach Kyle Cook.
If he still coached today, Bagnall said he would stick with option football but might run one set of option plays out of a variety of formations.
Under his leadership, the Sabers won back-to-back Suburban Conference titles in 1981 and 1982.
The 1994 team upset Lakeland in the District 2-12 Class A championship game, then Schuylkill Haven in the state quarterfinals to reach the state semifinals where it battled Southern Columbia. The Tigers held off a threat by the Sabers to take the lead at the end of the half, then pulled away in the second half for a 40-20 victory.
A week later, Southern Columbia crushed Western Beaver, 49-6, for the title and Susquehanna wound up ranked second among state Class A teams in multiple polls.
The Sabers won another Suburban Conference title and returned to the state quarterfinals in 1995, but the season also served as a source of frustration for Bagnall, leading to his first "retirement" from the game.
"One of the reasons I gave it up to begin with was the numbers we were playing with," Bagnall said. "In '94, we had 26 players. We did well and I figured with all the notoriety we had gotten, with TV coverage and other media coverage, we're going to have a whole bunch of kids in '95.
"Well, we had 23 in '95 and won the Suburban championship. I said, 'it's just too hard. I'm beating myself up'.
"With injuries and maybe grade issues, you have 18 or 19 kids at practice, so you have to go half line. You can't go compete and it's hard to coach."
Bagnall did not anticipate a second stint in coaching.
"I had no intention of coming back," he said. "I thought I was done.
"But, once I got back into it, I enjoyed it. I guess it's been in my blood all my life. My dad was a football coach and I've been around it all these years."
The late Bev Bagnall won a state high school championship in Mississippi and also coached in North Carolina where Dick grew up before moving to Windsor, N.Y. for his last two years of high school. Dick Bagnall played center and nose tackle at Windsor and was a linebacker on the football team during part of his time in college at Western Carolina.
Bagnall, who also had family in Brushville in Susquehanna County, moved back to the area a year after college and has remained ever since.
The second run as head coach included a Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 title in 2010.
Prior to his induction in Hershey, Bagnall will be honored during a dinner June 2 at the Moose Club at 7 p.m.
Several speakers have been lined up and an open mic period will be included in the program for others who wish to make a comment. Attendees are requested to call the Moose at 570-853-3929 to reserve spots for the $10 barbecue chicken dinner and indicate at that time if they would like to be able to speak.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Susquehanna finished seventh and Montrose was eighth in the girls' standings out of 31 teams Saturday in the NY-PA Invitational at Windsor, N.Y.
Skyla Wilson led the way for the Lady Sabers by finishing first in the 200-meter dash, second in the 400 hurdles and third in the 100.
Montrose's Chalice Guyette was second to Wilson in the 200. She also was fifth in the 100 and as part of the 1600 relay.
Radville Vaiculyte was third in the high jump.
Montrose also finished eighth in the boys' team standings.
Colin Chidester won both the 110 high hurdles and 400 hurdles.
Brennan Gilhool was fifth in both the 100 and 200 and ran on the seventh-place 1600 relay.
Liam Mead was sixth in the 1500.
Susquehanna was 19th with Jakub Tomczyk finishing third and C.J. Stone eighth in the high jump.
Lydia Ofalt and Cody Oswalt each won the 400-meter dash for Elk Lake Friday night in the Molly Dry Invitational at Mansfield University.
Elk Lake was eighth out of 18 teams in the girls' standings and 11th out of 16 in the boys' standings.
Ofalt was also second in the 200.
Shyanne Bennett was fifth in the 3200 and sixth in the 1600, one spot in front of teammate Sadie Bosscher.
Gracyn Bushnell was fifth in the long jump.
Oswald led the boys by winning the 400 in 53.38.
Peyton Jones placed second in the 3200 and third in the 1600.
In baseball, Forest City took over the Lackawanna League Division 5 lead by defeating host Montrose, 4-3, Saturday.
The Foresters improved to 2-0 and dropped the Meteors to 2-1.
In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins finished their season with a 45-22-6-3 record to place second in the Atlantic Division and fourth overall out of 30 teams in the American Hockey League.
The Binghamton Devils finished 25-38-9-4 to place fifth in the North Division. The Devils missed the Calder Cup Playoffs.
LOOKING BACK
The Korty family from Forest City did well April 8 at the fifth annual Scranton Half Marathon.
Matthew Korty won the male 18-and-under division in 1:34:58.20.
Rachel Korty was second in the female 18-and-under division.
Joshua Korty was the first finisher from Susquehanna County, placing 101st and one spot in front of Matthew Korty.
Anne Cicco, also from Forest City, was third among women in the 60-64 age group.
Suleman Shifa from Alexandria, Va. was first overall while Heidi Peoples from South Abington Twp. was the first woman, repeating the winning combination from 2016. The women's title was the fourth for Peoples, who finished second a year ago.
A total of 2,044 runners completed the race.
COLLEGE CORNER
Mikaela Meaders is the second-leading hitter on the Clarks Summit University softball team.
The sophomore outfielder from Elk Lake went 2-for-3 with a stolen base Saturday in the second game of a doubleheader when the Defenders lost to Cairn University, 10-1, to slip to 2-18 on the season.
After starting the season with hits in six of the first seven games, Meaders has had three multiple-hit games in her most recent seven.
Meaders is batting .296 with 16 hits, 11 runs, two doubles, two triples, three walks, six stolen bases and three RBI in 18 games.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Blue Ridge entered this week in second place in Lackawanna League Division 4 softball and has games ahead with the teams immediately ahead of and behind the Lady Raiders in the standings.
After playing Thursday at home against Lackawanna Trail (3-1 through Sunday), Blue Ridge (1-0) is at Montrose (2-0) Monday, April 23.
In track and field, Susquehanna has two home meets in three days. After sweeping boys' and girls' meets from Mountain View to open the Lackawanna Track Conference Division 4 schedule last week, Susquehanna faces Blue Ridge Wednesday and Lackawanna Trail Friday.
In boys' volleyball, Forest City (4-1) is at Mountain View (3-2) Thursday.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
