Wayzata vs. Blaine: Two with an old-school approach

During a preseason practice in 1981, some of the players whistled and made catcalls at a group of girls walking past. Anderson and his fellow captains, Ken Pauly (now the boys' hockey coach at Benilde-St. Margaret's) and Gaston Garrido, delivered a message to their teammates.

"Those captains got the boys together and said, 'That isn't Wayzata football; we do things with class,'" said Lipelt, who came out of retirement several years ago to coach at Providence Academy. "That's the moment the program turned around."

The Trojans finished 10-1 that season and made their first trip to the state tournament.

"For a lot of years football at Wayzata was something you did in the fall, but it wasn't that important," said Anderson, 45. "Our big message was we were going to be committed."

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In late 2002, Gerrety was ready to leave the school he loved. A new high school, Andover, was opening nearby in the fall of 2003, and Gerrety had been hired as the football coach.

But a few days later, Blaine coach Dave Nelson resigned to take over at Minnetonka. Blaine administrators asked Gerrety to apply for the job.

"It wasn't necessarily a no-brainer," said Gerrety, 42, a St. Cloud State graduate. "Those were some big shoes to fill. Some said I was an idiot to do it, some said I was an idiot not to do it. But I had to go where my heart was."

Gerrety, who was a sophomore linebacker when Nelson came to Blaine as an assistant coach, spent 10 years coaching linebackers and seven as the defensive coordinator.

"We had such a good staff, and I was just part of that," Nelson said. "Shannon contributed so much, he played there and he was an integral part of the staff. It did make it easy on me, knowing the program was in great hands, and he hasn't missed a beat."

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Anderson was a 10th-grader, playing quarterback in a sophomore game. He rolled out and planted one foot just as a tackler hit him. Knee ligaments and tendons went kaboom.

"Brad had a great arm," Lipelt said. "We could throw on any down." But Anderson's mobility was forever limited by the knee injury.

"In our offense I didn't have to run the ball," he said. "Otherwise I would have been in some trouble."

He accepted a football scholarship at Mankato State, where the coaches had told him they would throw the ball a lot. But when Anderson arrived for his first practice as a freshman, the team was running the option. He knew he wasn't an option quarterback, so he packed his bags and walked on at the University of Minnesota. Then Lou Holtz was hired as the Gophers coach, he brought in the option, and Anderson was out of luck again.

His playing career over, Anderson completed his studies at Augsburg. While in college he was hired by Lipelt to coach ninth-grade football at Wayzata, and his first varsity job after college was coaching quarterbacks at Henry Sibley. Four years later Lipelt brought Anderson back to Wayzata. In 1998, Lipelt's final year with the Trojans before retiring, he named Anderson co-head coach.

"You come across a few guys who are born to coach, and Brad is one of those guys," said Lipelt, who sat with Anderson at the Metrodome two weeks ago to watch Blaine's semifinal victory over Cretin-Derham Hall.

Tonight's game is Wayzata's third Prep Bowl. The Trojans were runners-up in 2004 and champions in 2005.

Expectations for Wayzata have been high since before the season began. The Trojans were ranked No. 2 in the Star Tribune metro Top 10 all season behind two-time defending state champ Eden Prairie. The Eagles' 39-game winning streak was ended in the state quarterfinals -- by Blaine.

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Blaine won a state title in 1988 and returned to the Prep Bowl in 1996, 1997 and 2001. Gerrety was an assistant coach in all those games, and he relishes every one of them.

"It's special being in the Prep Bowl," he said. "My gosh, this is five Prep Bowls for me in the last 20 years. That's once every four years. I'm a lucky man."

Before the season began, few would have guessed that the Bengals would be playing tonight. They were 3-7 in 2007, which was cause for uncertainty as the 2008 season began.

"It's still surreal," senior quarterback James Peterson said. "We never expected it to happen."

Gerrety said he never felt his job was in jeopardy after last season, but he knew something had to change.

"There are enough good people around our program and good kids around our program, I knew nobody was going to be satisfied and we all had to work hard to fix the problem," he said.

Before this season began, Gerrety scrapped the wing-T offense that had been a Blaine staple for decades and went to a spread attack. The new offense helped revive the Bengals.

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In tonight's Prep Bowl, Wayzata will lean on an offense than can grind as well as make big plays and a defense that is quick to the ball; Blaine will counter with its no-huddle, rapid-attack spread offense and an opportunistic defense.

"Hopefully, what we are is good enough to win it," Anderson said. "If not, we're going to go down doing what we do best."

Gerrety said: "We are who we are. We're not going to change. You're not going to see us come out under center, you're not going to see us slow the game down. We're going to do what got us here."

The message, in two coaching careers and two game plans, is the same: Be true to your school.