Football won't be the same without Hafe - St. George Daily Spectrum

I already miss Kirk Hafen on the football field sideline. He announced his resignation from the Virgin Valley High School head coaching position last week after guiding the program for 21 years.

My friends and I had been speculating when Hafe would walk away from the job. We didn’t think he’d go after the disappointing 3-7 season two years ago. He coached a team without experience, speed and the tools to win. Great bunch of kids, but they were still earning their learner’s permit on the gridiron. Hafe had unfinished business. He stuck around another year. The kids grew up and went 7-3 in 2010.

Maybe this would be the year Hafe hung up the coaching hat, we thought. Who has a coaching shelf life of more than 20 years? That’s a lot to ask from a person.

We were wrong. Turned out Hafe had another season left in the tank. He led another inexperienced team to a 5-5 record, outcoached Moapa Valley in the state playoff play-in game, but lost because of turnovers and a delay of game penalty by the zebras that was the worst call since Hitler decided to invade Russia in the winter.

Some of us figured he was ready to go another season. He had a strong group of players with potential. Last Thursday I got a text from Hafe saying that he resigned the day before. He wanted me to hold off writing the story on his resignation until he told his players.

“I don’t want them to see it in the newspaper first,” he said. “I want to tell them face to face.”

It won’t be the same next fall. Kirk Hafen won’t be on the sideline anymore. I’ve watched him coach for 17 years â€" Bulldog cap pulled down tight over the head, pale Fu Manchu, hunter’s eyes peering out of the shadow of the cap bill, headphones clamped on the hat. I told him he looked like former Fresno State coach Pat Hill out there.

Hafe created his own rhythm for football games â€" long, time-consuming drives that took out the legs of the defense, between-the-tackle power, the sudden stab of a counter and then the ball in the air on the play action or the unexpected halfback option.

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He took risks: he let Spencer Zarate kick the field goal that won the state championship for the Dogs in 2006 against Moapa Valley. Hafe would rather walk against traffic on the interstate than let a kicker determine the outcome of a game. But he did it. The next season, down 34-33 with a minute left in the state semifinal game with Fernley, he looked into the eyes of his players and believed they could win the contest with a two-point conversion.

He didn’t hesitate to call it. Virgin Valley won. And his son, Doug, playing at safety, clinched the victory with an interception in the end zone on the last play of the game.

You don’t win 166 games in 21 years by backing down to anyone. He played Hurricane, Dixie, Truckee, Legacy, Fernley, Richfield, Cheyenne. He beat teams that were bigger, stronger and deeper.

Once, after defeating a Las Vegas 4-A team that should have put VVHS away, assistant coach Nick Hansen asked Hafe, “How do we do it? How do we beat these teams that are bigger and better than us?”

Nick knew. It was coaching and getting the best out of a team. The two coaches laughed.

Coaching in any community is a high-stress occupation. Everyone in the bleachers knows more than the head guy. But none of them supervise weight room workouts, run football camps and practices and make the decisions that show up on the scoreboard and in the newspapers. Anyone can coach 16 rows above the field. And none of them could ever coach like Hafe.

He missed the normal summer stuff others take for granted â€" getting away from it all, vanishing into thin air to sit in a boat on Lake Powell without people trying to find out what he’s doing. His summer lasted until early July with the first football camp.

“I may go hunting this year,” he said. “I haven’t hunted since I started coaching.”

He taught a lot of young men how to win and how football often reflected life for 26 autumns. The community owes him a ton of gratitude.

Maybe he heard the wintry voice of Jim Morrison whispering, “This is the end, my friend” in his ear. Hafe is a big Doors fan. But Hafe only said, “It was just time to be done.”

That was it. The coach ranked third in victories in Nevada was stepping down.

Palo Verde High School head coach Darwin Rost, another huge winner, once called Hafe “a legend.”

Yeah, that’s what he is. A legend. Football won’t be as good without him.