Published: November 08, 2009 12:49 am      

Dodd takes Bis-Henn football to a new level

BISMARCK — When Mark Dodd took over as head coach of the Bismarck-Henning Blue Devils football team, he might have wondered what he had gotten himself into.

Between the four classes, the Blue Devils had a total of 33 athletes willing to put on a helmet and pads and take the field.

Now in his third year, the program has nearly doubled in size with 61 athletes making up the freshman, junior varsity and varsity squads.

And with the numbers to work with, Dodd has seen a progression from a program that only wanted to win, to one that hosted a playoff game for the first time since 2003, and won its first playoff game since 2002 when the Blue Devils defeated Flanagan 33-32 in double overtime.

“My staff, we’ve worked really really hard,” Dodd said. “We think we’re going in the right direction. The numbers are there, the talent is coming.”

Bismarck-Henning fell 49-7 in Saturday’s second round Class 2A playoff game to perennial power Maroa-Forsyth — which has lost only five games in the last four years — and saw up close the level the young Blue Devils hope to reach.

With six of the team’s top offensive producers returning (three are only sophomores), and only seven seniors total on this season’s roster, Dodd is confident they are making strides in the right direction and will continue to do so.

“Everybody has committed themselves. I think the parents have bought in, the kids are being real positive and we can’t let something like this damper the successes that we’ve had,” Dodd said. “We think this is just the beginning in our program. We’d like to be where Maroa is in a couple of years.”

Senior quarterback Michael Grant, who passed for 88 yards in his final high school football game, has seen a shift in confidence and the overall culture of the Bismarck-Henning program.

The Blue Devils (6-5) struggled to record four wins in Dodd’s first season, saw a disastrous season in 2008 be turned around by winning their final four games of the season, and gave their fans hope by making it to the second round of the IHSA playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.

“Coming in, we had linemen who never thought they would play,” Grant said. “We had Derek Davis, Cody Longest, and the way that they’ve worked hard in the weight room and everything, they’ve made our program step up bigtime. Luke Thornsbrough, we knew he was going to be good and he fulfilled that. Everyone has worked hard. The sophomores here, they came in and helped us get this program going, too. They’re going to keep it rolling.

“I’m excited for the future for them all.”