Dick Stiles


Through four coaches, Stiles has seen it all
By TROY HYDE NDN Sports Writer, September 2008

Dick Stiles coached at Newton for 30 years and worked under four different head coaches, including Frank Gilson, John Jenkins and Ed Ergenbright.

There are a lot of legendary people that have roamed the sidelines at H.A. Lynn Stadium. Frank Gilson was responsible for changing the complexion of the Newton football program from loser to winner. John Jenkins is the all-time winningest coach in school history, and current head man Ed Ergenbright is on track for much of the same success. But the one man who has been around for it all is offensive line specialist Dick Stiles.

Stiles spent 30 years as an assistant football coach at Newton and worked under four head coaches, including Gilson, Jenkins and Ergenbright. While Gilson and Jenkins get a lot of the credit most of the time, Ergenbright said Stiles was just as instrumental in building the winner Newton has become. “He was instrumental in turning this thing into what it is today,” said Ergenbright, who also played at Newton when Stiles was coach. “He had a unique style, but the players had a lot of admiration for him.” That unique style is referred to “old school” these days. One minute he was tearing players down, and the next minute he’d build them back up to go to battle.

“He knew how to push us harder, and we wanted to work harder for him,” said Dave Sampson, an elite all-state offensive lineman who played on the 1980 championship team. “He was old school, but we respected him a lot.”
Brad Hansen played for Stiles while at Newton in the late 1980s. “He made practices fun,” Hansen said. “He pushed us to the limit. He got after us because he knew we could get better.” 

Stiles was known for teaching the fundamentals and making even the average lineman into an important piece to the puzzle. “You teach fundamentals and let the chips fall where they may,” Stiles said. “Doing fundamentals is a step in the right direction.” But what else do you need to create big holes for legendary backs such as Todd Scott, Chad Guthrie, Treye Jackson and Derrick Law? “You have to be disciplined at what you’re doing,” Stiles said. “It helps to have speed and strength. And the person’s work ethic has to be really good.” Eli Shipley and Matt Graber (right) are just two of Newton’s talented offensive linemen to come through the program. Dick Stiles deserves a ton of credit for his role as offensive line coach at NHS for 30 years. 

There were a lot of good offensive linemen to roam the halls at Newton Senior High School. The best may have been Sampson. Hansen, who played on the 1988 runner-up team, also was good. But when asked who the best lineman he ever coached was, Stiles simply couldn’t answer. “I am hesitant to answer that question because there were so many good ones,” Stiles said. “Every year somebody does an excellent job. Sampson was tremendous though.”

Stiles was a part of all the good Newton teams of the past 30 years. He helped coach the Cardinals to 22 playoff appearances since 1977 and 12 conference championships since 1980. The Cardinals won the title in 1980 and were state runner-up three times with him as coach. “That 1980 team had Treye Jackson, and no one could catch him,” Stiles said. “We had some good kids on that team. The fullback (Steve Morris) ran hard, too, and the quarterback (Todd Wheatley) had tremendous fakes. The linemen blocked hard. That was our secret.”

After 30 years of roaming the sidelines and breaking down game film, Stiles still remains a part of the program today, coming to many games and keeping up with his Cardinals. “I enjoy the games, but it is getting to a point where I am starting to lose track of things,” Stiles said. “The enthusiasm isn’t what it used to be. It was hard at first to stop coaching and watch from the sidelines, but we travel more now so it’s a bit easier.” Ergenbright said he still thinks about Stiles even today and wishes he was still on the field somewhere. “He’s a wonderful guy,” Ergenbright said. “We miss him out here. I think about him all the time. He had a gift.”