Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

The following comments were sent to New Hampshire Football Report following Rod Wotton's decision to step down as the St. Thomas Aquinas football coach following the 2010 season.

Wotton leaves coaching with a career record of 342-81-3. He was 111-43-0 during his 15 seasons at St. Thomas, and guided the Saints to four state championships.

Wotton, 71, coached at South Berwick (Maine) High School before he became the head coach at Marshwood High School in Eliot, Maine, in 1966. His Marshwood teams posted a 220-33-1 record and won 17 state titles.

In 1987 Marshwood owned a 45-game winning streak, which, at that time, was the longest streak in the nation.

Wotton's Marshwood teams won state titles in each of the state four classifications: Class D, Class C, Class B and Class A. In 1989 Marshwood was scheduled to compete in Class B, but moved up to Class A to help solve a scheduling problem. Wotton's Hawks went undefeated and won the Class A state championship that season.

Wotton passed former Brockton (Mass.) High School coach Armond Columbo and became the winningest high school coach in New England history when St. Thomas beat Fall Mountain, 26-16, on the regular season's final weekend in 2007.

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The first time I met Rod was around 1998. I walked into Saint Thomas as a sales rep and asked Coach Wotton to show me some of what he was doing. He stood at the white board and gave me an education I will never forget.

In 2008 as the head coach at Trinity we beat Saint Thomas by one point in an overtime classic and lost by a TD a week later in the semifinals. Again Coach Wotten gave me another lesson I will never forget!

It was an honor to be on the field with you Coach and something I will always cherish. Thanks for the memories! Your a class act and nobody is better than you!

John Trisciani

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New Hampshire high school football is losing not only a great coach but a gentleman and a real class act in Coach Wotton. I have fond memories of the coach from discussions I would have with him when we ran into each other scouting opponents. While I was always armed with a video camera, clipboard and notebook, I marveled at how Coach Wotton would stand there with nothing -- no notes -- just taking it all in. And then he would say, "watch this" here is what they are going to do next. And he was usually right.

I was also an assistant at Fall Mountain in 2007 when St. Thomas beat us 26-16 when he set the record for the winningest coach in New England. My son was a sophomore on that team and I remember him and the other players feeling very good about themselves after playing St. Thomas (who was big, physical and very good that year) in what appeared to everyone as being a very closely fought contest.

We had not won a game all year and we did play pretty well that day, but even with his record on the line, from the start of the game, Coach Wotton was mixing his second and thirds into the game, somewhat quietly, but enough to keep the game close. After the game Coach Wotton came up to our team in the huddle and told them they played "one hell of a tough football game."

For a team that was 0 and 9, coming from Coach Wotton, it was a great compliment and the kids felt great about their effort and helped close that season on a positive note. If Coach Wotton wanted, to, the score could have easily been 52-0 or worse, but that is how I will remember him - a class act all the way.
 
Steve Bentley
Assistant Coach
Fall Mountain Regional High School

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I moved from Fayetteville, Ark., to Eliot, Maine, and played football for Coach Wotton in 1984. It was a big change from Southern to Northern football.

I greatly enjoyed playing for Coach Wotton. I went on to play football for North Carolina State University. A couple of my favorite games in my career were  beating Brett Favres' Southern Miss. team in the All American Bowl; a last-second win vs. Texas Tech in Texas and a close, very exciting win against York High School in York Maine. I still hate Michigan for handing us a terrible loss in the Hall of Fame bowl - but that is another story. My two favorite coaches were Coach Sheridan of NCSU and Coach Wotton.

I was impressed to hear Coach Wotton was still coaching, but not surprised by the records of his teams. He knows how to win games. I wish him the best in retirement. We would all be very lucky if we could positively affect the lives of one-tenth of the people Coach Wotton has influenced.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    John Dean