Todd Dodge joins Texas High School Coaches Association hall of honor

Former Westlake coach Todd Dodge made his return to the Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual convention in San Antonio this past weekend, and his longtime peers welcomed him home with one of their top tributes.

The THSCA announced Dodge as the latest member of its Hall of Honor almost seven months after the coach ended his remarkable career by leading Westlake to a third consecutive state championship. Dodge, who will turn 59 later this week, left a legacy almost unmatched in the state’s rich coaching history. He has a 233-72 career record, ranks fourth all-time in titles won as a head coach, and all of his championships came in the state’s highest classification. No coach has won as many state titles at the state’s highest level.

Four of those titles came during a dominant run at Southlake Carroll in the 2000s, and the past three championships have come at Westlake.

More:Westlake tops state Class 6A preseason high school football poll

Dodge’s storied career began in the mid-1980s at Westlake, where he worked as a student-teacher and worked with then Westlake football coach Ebbie Neptune, who later became Dodge’s father-in-law.

After student-teaching at Westlake, Dodge began his coaching career as an assistant at Rockwall in 1987. He became a head coach for the first time in 1994 at Cameron Yoe, but his career began to soar when he took over the Southlake Carroll program prior to the 2000 season. At Carroll, Dodge solidified his reputation as a pioneer of the spread passing game and a guru for quarterbacks. He led Carroll to arguably the most dominant stretch of football in state history from 2002-06, when the Dragons won 79 of 80 games and captured four state titles.

Dodge then became the head coach at the University of North Texas but managed just a 6-37 record. After a year as the quarterbacks coach for the University of Pittsburgh, Dodge returned to Central Texas and took over the Marble Falls program for two years before returning to Westlake.

More:Westlake football coach Todd Dodge to retire after 2021 season

According to Dodge, his desire to coach began to form at Port Arthur’s Thomas Jefferson High School, where Dodge broke several state passing records under head coach Ronnie Thompson. After graduating in 1981, he spent five years as the on-and-off starting quarterback for Texas, where he finished with a career record of 9-5-1 and set several passing records. He still ranks ninth on the Longhorns’ all-time passing list with 2,791 yards and stands ninth in touchdown passes with 18.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Todd Dodge named to Texas High School Coaches Association hall of honor