While the Frontier Regional football team will officially have a different head coach running the show this fall, Scott Dredge is anything but new.
Dredge, who was the head coach for the program from 2005-2012 and was an assistant on the staff for the past five has been hired to be the school’s head coach for the 2020 season. Former coach Don Gordon, who went 45-28 in seven seasons leading the Red Hawks, retired after last season.
Dredge posted a 54-29 record in eight seasons as Frontier’s head coach. He’s second all time (Dick Howe, 96) in program history for wins.
“The good thing is I know how to be a head coach and that worked out pretty well last time,” Dredge said. “I’m excited. I have that old skill set a head coach needs – the administrative side of things. It all comes down to good practice planning, which I’m comfortable with.”
Dredge stepped aside following the 2012 season due to his role as an administrator at Frontier.
“When I stepped down, the reason was to make a career move to administration,” he said. “I felt like learning a new job like that would require a lot of time. And I wanted to focus on my family. My kids were young at the time. My career had to come before football.”
He’s been the assistant principal at Frontier since 2012. After two years completely away from football, he came back on board as an assistant under Gordon in 2015.
“We had an opening in our assistant coaching staff,” Dredge recalled. “Don and I talked and he’s like, ‘I’d love to have you.’ So I slid right back. That was fun, to be back as an assistant coach, where I started off. To be able to show up and just coach, that was fun.”
Dredge also got involved coaching for Frontier Youth Football, and he said the relationship between the youth program and the middle/high school teams has been integral in building successes at each level.
“We’ve got a good system going here in the Frontier district with youth football and connecting it to the program from second grade to seventh grade,” he said. “We’re all familiar with the terminology, how we’re teaching football. It’s nice to be able to connect those two. Having my feet in both programs has been helpful. I know the kids. With our junior class, I will have coached them since youth football. That’s really awesome. I’m excited for that continuity.”
As for the varsity program this fall, Dredge reached out to old friend Mike Earl, who was on his staff during his first head coaching stint. Earl is on board as the defensive coordinator, while Dredge will slide over to the offensive side of the ball and handle the play-calling duties.
“That was a no-brainer for me. Mike was my first call, first choice, and he said yes right away,” added Dredge, who said middle school coach Dan Cleary will move into the junior varsity coaching role.
Dredge said while he isn’t looking to overhaul the program, he is hoping to add some new wrinkles to the formula.
“Success will take care of itself with the talent we have. For me, it’s about refreshing the program, staying true to what we do defensively,” he said. “When I was the head coach last time, our defense was lockdown. So that’s where we want to start. But I like to use variety in formation on offense and motion people into certain sets. It forces a defense to play basic, which is what I want to do.”
Frontier went 8-3 in 2019 and won the Intercounty League title for the second time in three years. The program hasn’t had a losing season since 2013.
“Being successful for so long, you can’t get complacent,” Dredge said. “You have to move that needle above baseline because if kids get complacent, you won’t be successful anymore. Our kids need to understand that you don’t just put the Frontier jersey on and expect you’re going to be good. If anything, I’m going to be kicking it into gear even more with these kids.”
Part of that discipline will come outside of football, Dredge said. He said the program will emphasize developing his team as much more than just football players.
“We’re going to install a purposeful and meaningful character development program,” he said. “We’re going to have discussions about what types of values these young people should be building. We’ll touch all topics that are important to our climate these days. I’m focused about what these kids are going to be 10 years from now, when football doesn’t really matter anymore. With everything going on with our world today, it’s time for us to show what kind of leaders we can be in our school community.”
As for the upcoming fall season, Dredge said there’s relative uncertainty about whether games will be played, or how they would look. For now, he’s moving things full speed ahead.
“I’ve been telling our team that right now, we are going to plan for things as stated currently with August 22 being our first official day together,” he said. “They can’t work out in our weight room right now together but we want them to continue to work out individually. When the summer comes, we’ll have someone open the weight room, move to captain’s practices outside if we can. We’re going to prepare as if we’re playing, and we’ll adjust if we’re told otherwise.”