Oscar Smith Hires Bill Dee
When Rich Morgan left as the Head Football Coach at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, VA after 14 seasons at the helm, the Tigers knew they had huge shoes to fill.
Enter a highly successful veteran with over 40 years of coaching experience and a Championship winning pedigree.
The Tigers have hired Bill Dee, who coached the last seven years on the collegiate level and before that led Peninsula District powerhouse Phoebus High School to four State Championships.
“Obviously they’ve got a culture of winning, which Coach Morgan established over there. When we were at Phoebus, we were the same way. I think the type of kid that I’ll be coaching at Oscar Smith, much like the type of kids I coached at Phoebus makes it a good fit also,” Dee told VirginiaPreps.com.
“I’ve been to a lot of Oscar Smith games over the years and know a lot of the kids that have played there from scrimmaging them, getting to know the kids over the years and being over there recruiting. I feel comfortable over there.”
Most recently, Dee spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Old Dominion University. He was the Monarchs’ offensive line coach during four of those seasons, a time in which the school moved from the CAA and FCS to the FBS level and Conference USA, plus served as the program’s defensive coordinator in 2012.
Before that, Dee embarked on college coaching when going to Christopher Newport University in 2009, working with inside linebackers and defensive linemen for two seasons. During the 2010 campaign, the Captains won the USA South Conference title and made the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Dee, who turned 63 back on April 6th, now returns to a High School Football coaching scene that has changed quite a bit since he left eight years ago, though is very familiar with on many fronts.
“When you consider that I coached High School for 34 years, it’s not really hard to go do,” the Pennsylvania native believes. “I don’t like to look at it like I’m going backwards. To me, coaching football is coaching football, and High School is the purest form of the sport. I’ve always loved coaching High School Football, coaching kids, the challenge of winning against great competition in the ‘757’ and all over the state.”
A 1975 graduate of Mansfield State who played offensive guard, Dee began coaching in New York as the defensive coordinator at Greene High School for four seasons. From there, he moved to Virginia and was the defensive coordinator at Denbigh in Newport News from 1979-80 before becoming the Head Coach at Southampton, a position he held from 1981-84 until landing at Phoebus.
While at Phoebus, Dee led the Phantoms to a 215-64 record, a lofty .771 winning percentage, during his 24-year tenure. That featured winning four State Championships as well as seven Eastern Region crowns and nine district titles. It was a remarkable turnaround for a program that at one point had lost 18 straight games during the 1980’s to going 9-3 in just his second year at the helm.
Morgan departed in February to become the new Head Coach at Marietta High School in Georgia. He guided the Tigers to a record of 164-20 overall (.891), which included two State Championships, six regional titles and a record 12 consecutive Southeastern District crowns.
Last season’s Tigers team went 13-1 overall, not suffering its lone loss until a heart-breaking 49-42 defeat in triple-overtime to Westfield in the 6A State Championship.
Several ingredients from that squad – led by star quarterback Shon Mitchell – are expected to return for a team that will have high expectations in 2016.
Known for his smash-mouth running style at Phoebus, Dee is eager to see if they can meet them and shouldn’t have any trouble throwing the ball as shown when Tajh Boyd – an ACC Player of the Year at Clemson – directed his offense.
“I’ve always tried to accommodate the personnel that I had. I’ve been around the spread a lot over at ODU. When I had Tajh, he threw for over 3000 yards his junior year and was Regional Player of the Year and Second Team All-State. We opened it up a lot more when we had him,” Dee pointed out.
“We want to put out a hard-nosed brand of football. Don’t beat yourself and play hard, which is pretty similar to what those guys had been doing. I know that they have some good players back, but I have to evaluate them to see where we are, adjust to the personnel that we have and get to work.”
In his final game at Phoebus, the Phantoms beat Dinwiddie 37-13 at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium in 2008 to complete a 15-0 season. That squad has long been considered one of the best in VHSL history, ranking #3 in the nation by Rivals.com.
On that same day – December 13, 2008 – Oscar Smith won its first state title, defeating Osbourn 54-24. No one could’ve imagined then, eight years later, Dee would be guiding the Tigers.
“It never entered my mind. Of course, I was moving on from Phoebus. But you never know how things will work out,” he admitted.
“I feel very fortunate to be coaching at a program like Oscar Smith. I know the kids are hungry to get going, I’m hungry to get going and we’re going to play tough football. I’m excited about it.”
Matthew Hatfield has covered football and basketball since 2004 for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a staff writer for Tar Heel Illustrated. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him every Saturday at 10 AM on ESPN Radio 94.1, plus watch him on the Cox 11 Sports Report.