Dan Casey: Coaching the Whole Athlete
I recently got to spend some time with renowned high school football coach Dan Casey. Known by many for his influential social media presence, Dan – who was named to the 2020 AFCA 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute – is the head coach at St. David’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina. In this interview, Dan talks about how he gets his players to open up to each other, how becoming a father changed the way he coaches, what makes football the greatest sport in the world, and much more. Enjoy!
Dan Casey, head coach at St. David’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina
SFW: If I were to ask some of your players to describe you in three words, what words do you think would get mentioned?
DC: I think the way my players perceive me would probably be someone who is creative because I'm kind of an outside-the-box thinker. They also might say I'm quite obsessive about the things I get interested in because I tend to go down rabbit holes on a particular play concept or type of offense and I try to include them in that process. And then also I think they would say I'm someone who cares a lot about their future and investing in it.
SFW: What words would you want to get mentioned?
DC: I think it would be pretty similar. I would definitely hope that words like relatable, trustworthy, empathetic, and challenging would get mentioned.
SFW: What's your Enneagram type?
DC: I'm an Enneagram 8 (The Challenger). I don't like to accept things at face value. I like to dig on things and figure out if there's a way to do something better. I need to be careful with ego, and balance it with the humility of I am just in pursuit of what is best.
My father was also a coach and one of the things he would always say to his players is this:
"There are three things that are always true about you: you are loved, you are valued, and you are respected."
And I know for me as an Enneagram 8 that's particularly something that's important for me to remember. It's also something I try to instill in the players who play for me and the coaches who coach with me. And I think no matter where you fall on the Enneagram, if you don't feel loved, valued, or respected by the person leading you, then it's not likely that you'll want to continue following that person.
SFW: I've asked this question to people before and I would love to hear your answer on it as well. I want to talk about priorities. Growing up I always heard the phrase "actions speak louder than words" and, although I think it's true, oftentimes we say we're going to do something or we say we're going to change our behavior but we don't. One of the things I'm learning is that my actions should reflect my priorities. If someone could only see your actions and not hear your words, what would they say are your priorities?
DC: Man, that's a good question. I don't think anybody could question that my number one priority is my family. Faith is obviously a huge component of that. I'm actually the chaplain at my school and I thought I was going to be a pastor after I went to seminary. Football eventually became my calling. I think a lot of coaches have this hierarchy of Faith/Family/Football but if you only look at their actions it's usually football that gets the most attention before anything else.
I love football and getting creative within that. But even if I was born in a different era, let's say the 1800s, I would find something else other than football to be passionate about and obsess over. That said, I think the things that will always be true about me are the investment I make in my relationship with Christ and the investment I make in my family.
SFW: I know you work and coach at a private, Christian school. How does that impact the way you spiritually lead your players? Do you think it's easier or more challenging than sharing your faith at a public school?
DC: Yeah, I mean I have total freedom to talk about my faith and be open about where I'm at with things. What I hope more than anything is that really sound biblical principles come through in the way that I coach, the way that I treat people, and the way that we try to develop a community.
I don't necessarily think that I get up and preach a whole lot but what we do is really try and draw out opportunities for our guys to share their life stories, share their struggles, and really just create a unit that will rally around each other and be supportive of one another in difficult situations.
I think one of the reasons why football is such a great sport is because it's such a microcosm of life. I know it's a cliché to say that and everyone says that but there’s no other sport where you get together such a diverse group of individuals, a diverse group of body types, a diverse group of thought, and they have to work together in such unique capacities to help the group reach a goal. There’s so much self-sacrifice that needs to occur in those settings.
One of the things we do is we have a team meeting every week where we sit down and everybody gets to share the Four H's: the highlight of your life, your hero, your heartache, and what hope you have for the future. And so we've had guys have really great breakthrough moments when we do that. When you're dealing with high school students not everyone takes it seriously and that's okay. But we always try to affirm how difficult it is to share in front of your peers.
So every time someone shares, no matter if it's thirty seconds or thirty minutes, we give them a round of applause and we offer up a prayer for them at the end of that time together. So again, it's not really me preaching to the team but instead we really try to emulate a Christlike community within our team.
SFW: Do most of your players come from a Christian home? Or are many experiencing Christianity maybe for the first time when they come to campus?
DC: I would say it's a 50/50 split. We have athletes who are Christians, others who aren't, and guys who are all over the spectrum of where they're at with their faith. I always want to be respectful of that and not have people think that I'm just using football as a covert operation to convert people.
I've heard the American South described as "Christ haunted" and there are these resonances of religion and faith that are still present in our traditions and the way that we go about things. I think in some ways it's more difficult to be around people that are "religiously literate" but haven't seen any impact in their own life or in the lives of others.
One of the things I try to do is give people a window into the way the gospel has really shifted my life from being about me to being about the Lord and serving others. Growing up I was a very self-centered, ego-driven person, and I still battle that everyday, but that's the process of sanctification.
One of the best quotes I heard when I was in seminary was "the gospel disturbs the comfortable, and comforts the disturbed." A lot of times when people are in these comfortable settings if they're not willing to reckon with the way the gospel is going to disrupt their status quo and disrupt their comfortability, they're probably never going to experience the transformation that happens through it.
SFW: I know you're a father of two. How has becoming a father changed the way you coach? Or has it had any effect at all?
DC: It definitely has completely changed my life. Becoming a father gives you a lot of perspective. It reminds you that life is so much bigger than football. The ultimate goal for me is not that my son or daughter would one day win a state championship but instead who are they becoming along the way? That's something that I think I've gained a little more perspective on.
SFW: Besides Jesus, which biblical figure do you wish you could hang out with for a day?
DC: Well I've spent a lot of time studying this character because he's my namesake but I think Daniel. And not just because of the lion's den story, but I'm more interested when he was taken into captivity in Babylon and the favor of God just rested upon him. Him and his buddies completely trusted God with everything and he would eventually become one of the most trusted people in the whole kingdom. And he was an immigrant; a slave who was taken from his homeland.
It's cool to me to see people in the Bible or people I meet in daily life who really stack their faith. Where they trust God with something little and that grows and grows. So I think by the time Daniel got to the lion's den he was like "Nah I'm good" because God had already come through for him so many times.
SFW: Okay one scheme question. I have this crazy 'Masters Thesis' idea I've thought about for years and have only really asked this to one other person. And the idea is that if you went to MIT and found a group of graduate students studying mathematics who had never before seen football, and you explained to them the rules of the game and asked them to create an offense based solely on the rules alone, how would they design an offense? Only knowing the rules and never having really seen or studied it, how do you think they would create an offensive philosophy?
DC: Hmmm. I would think someone studying math would be very interested in the way time works in football. So I think time of possession and tempo would be things they would look into. Football has this weird way to either stretch time and/or shrink time depending on when/where you're at in the game.
I think eventually they would land on the idea that teams are most successful when they keep the ball in play. This idea that you can't go broke if you're making a profit. Time interacts with football in such a unique way that's different from other sports because of an incomplete pass stopping the clock - that's such a unique rule. Teams that focus on keeping the ball in play and doing it quickly have probably been the most successful over time.
And I bet they would go for it on fourth down always. Like why would we just give it to the other team?
SFW: What's your goal in football?
DC: I think football is an endlessly interesting sport. Whether it's player development, building a team, scheme, or a multitude of other things, there is always so much more to learn. For coaches and players, it's such an amazing tool for self-discovery.
It's something I can see myself doing for the next fifty years. I'm prepared to be in this thing for the long haul. And I think over the course of the next fifty years, it will be cool to see all of the young people I came across and see the ways that they figured out who they were as a result of playing football.
SFW: I know you're a big reader. What are three books that have impacted you the most? Not just as a coach, but maybe spiritually, or helped you grow as a husband/father.
DC: I have a goal of trying to read ten pages every single day. The number one book that comes to mind is a book by Frederick Buechner called Telling the Truth. It's an interesting take on the gospel and it's had a huge impact on me.
Essentialism by Greg McKeown is one that had a big impact on me and my wife as we were preparing to adopt our first child. That book really helped us better understand how to say no to a lot of superfluous things so that we could focus more on the things that matter.
From an athletics standpoint, there's a great book called Peak by Anders Ericsson. The 10,000 hours rule from Malcolm Gladwell actually came from Anders Ericsson's research. The book talks about deliberate practice and how to become world-class in anything.