Legendary Texas high school football coach Todd Dodge announced before the season he was retiring at the end of the year. His Westlake (Austin, Texas) team sent him off in style with a 16-0 record, a third consecutive state championship, and a spot at No. 2 in the final Max Preps Top 25 high school football rankings.
For that, Dodge earns Max Preps National Coach of the Year honors for the second consecutive season.
Prior to Dodge’s 2014 hire, Westlake had one state title — in 1996 with Drew Breed at quarterback. During Dodge’s tenure, the Chaparrals added three more state championships, all coming over the last three years. In 2019, the Chaparrals went 15-1 to win the UIL 6A Division 2 title. The following season they went 14-0, took down the back-to-back 6A Division 1 state champs North Shore (Houston) in the semifinals and beat Carroll (South lake) 52-34 in the UIL 6A Division 1 title game, and finished the season ranked No. 3 in the Max Preps Top 25.
The Texas coaching icon retires riding a 40-game win streak. During his eight-year tenure at Westlake, he led the Chaparrals to a 104-11 record.
Dodge spent 23 years as a high school football head coach in Texas, most notably with Westlake (2014-21) and South lake Carroll (2000-06). He finished his career 234-72 overall with seven state titles. He won four with the Dragons (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006) and three with the Chaparrals (2019, 2020, 2021) with a playoff mark of 72-7.
Only Gordon Wood (9), G.A. Moore (8) and Scott Surratt (8) have won more state titles as a Texas head coach.
Eric Kurle of Graham-Kapowsin (Graham, Wash.), Jon Kay of North Shore (Houston), Lenny Gregory of Collins Hill (Suwanee, Ga.), Vito Campanile of Bergen Catholic (Oradell, N.J.), Troy Thomas of Servite (Anaheim, Calif.) and Matt Thompson of Jesuit (Tampa, Fla.) were among the others considered for Coach of the Year honors.
Dodge joins St. John Bosco’s (Bellflower, Calif.) Jason Negro (2013, 2019) as the only coaches to be selected as National Coach of the Year multiple times. This is the seventh time a head coach from Texas takes home the honor since 2008, the most by any state.
Past MaxPreps National Coaches of the Year
(2008) Mike Alberghini, Grant (Sacramento, Calif.)
(2009) Mike Newsome, Butler (Matthews, N.C.)
(2010) Tony Heath, Pearland (Texas)
(2011) Hal Wasson, Southlake Carroll (Southlake, Texas)
(2012) Bob Ladoucer, De La Salle (Concord, Calif.)
(2013) Jason Negro, St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.)
(201) Tom Westerberg, Allen (Texas)
(2015) Gary Joseph, Katy (Texas)
(2016) Kenny Sanchez, Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas)
(2017) Bruce Rollinson, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.)
(2018) Jon Kay, North Shore (Houston)
(2019) Jason Negro, St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.)
(2020) Todd Dodge, Westlake (Austin, Texas)
