“Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again…”
– Proverbs 24:16
In 2009, Boerne High School reopened its doors, and with it, the heartbeat of a small-town tradition came back to life. We had closed the school for a calendar year while it was remodeled. And with that return came the need for a head football coach.
We hired Dane Johnson.
Coach Johnson was young, hungry, and carried with him the pedigree of excellence. He had graduated from the legendary Southlake Carroll High School—a place where winning wasn’t expected, it was required. In fact, 33 seasons later, his name and image are still displayed on the wall of their indoor facility—a lasting tribute to his impact as a legacy contributor in football. After high school, he went on to play for four years at Texas Tech University, where he made his mark as a quick, fearless defensive back and return specialist. Before coming to Boerne, he served as the defensive coordinator at Lewisville Hebron, helping lead the Hawks to the 2005 UIL 4A Division 2 State Championship. He was sharp, confident, and ready for his first head coaching opportunity.
Not long after we hired him, we attended a Rotary Club meeting where Coach Johnson was being introduced to the Boerne community. He stepped up to the microphone with that mix of humility and charm that would soon win over the town. He smiled, and told the crowd about the day I first called him to schedule the interview. It was 2009 back when most of us still had home phones. His wife, Jill answered and walked into the other room, saying “-Dane, it’s Coach Leech.”
Being a proud Texas Tech alum, Coach Johnson’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he thought it was Mike Leach—the iconic, eccentric head coach of the Red Raiders. He raced to the phone in excitement…only to hear my voice on the other end.
The room laughed, and so did I. That little story stuck—not because it was funny, but because it was honest. We were both in the right place at the right time. Boerne needed a respected leader to re-launch a football program that played its first game in 1924. And Coach Johnson needed someone to believe in him—to give him the opportunity that would become the first chapter of a long and impactful coaching career.
The 2009 Greyhounds were, for all practical purposes, a junior varsity team playing what we called an “outlaw” schedule—a patched-together list of opponents made up of other new programs, JV teams, and anyone willing to fill a Friday night slot, it was anything but traditional.
It was humbling.
Most varsity programs didn’t want to schedule us. And truth be told, we didn’t blame them. We were too young, too green, and too in-between. We needed eight games to build a season, but we only had seven. Then, the phone rang.
It was Lake Travis. They had won the state championship in 2007 under former Boerne Head Coach Jeff Dicus, and then again in 2008 and 2009 under Chad Morris—going 16-0 in 2009 to claim their third straight title.
Yes, THAT Lake Travis. The one rolling through Texas 4A football like a freight train. State championship caliber. Future college stars everywhere. Their coach needed a non-district game, and nobody was saying yes—because nobody wanted to count that kind of loss on their schedule. But we needed a game. They needed a date.
Coach Johnson came into my office that day. He knew what he was walking into. We talked it over. Made some calls. And after a little pause and a deep breath, we said, “Let’s do it.”
We were going to play Lake Travis.
I’ll never forget the Friday morning before that game. It was early—7:00 a.m. —and we gathered at St. Helena Episcopal Church basement off Johns Road. Parents brought breakfast casseroles. Coaches poured coffee. Administration and players bowed their heads in prayer. There was something sacred about that basement, the same age as the original Boerne High School built decades before on that same street. There was laughter, encouragement, and beneath it all, a quiet sense of reality.
And then Coach Johnson stood to speak.
Now, I’ve heard a few pregame speeches in my day. Speeches that fired you up. Speeches that calmed you down. Speeches that made the hair on your arm stand up. But that morning, what Coach Johnson said wasn’t about winning or losing. It wasn’t about game plans or matchups. It was about something deeper.
He turned to an old movie—Cool Hand Luke.
He told our young Greyhounds the story of Luke, the prisoner who just wouldn’t quit. The guards beat him. The system tried to break him. Dragline, the toughest man in the camp, beat him to the ground—over and over. But Luke kept getting up. Again, and again. Until even Dragline, fists bloodied, and heart cracked open, begged him to stay down.
“But he wouldn’t,” Coach Johnson said “Because sometimes, the only way you gain respect in this world is by refusing to stay down. Even when you’re outmatched. Even when it hurts.”
He looked around the room, at a group of boys about to take the field against giants.
“You might not win tonight,” he said. “But you can earn their respect. Don’t stay down.”
That night, the Greyhounds played their hearts out. They lined up against the best team in Texas and never blinked. Sure, the scoreboard told one story—but the heart on display told another. Every tackle. Every block. Every moment those kids stood tall against the onslaught—it mattered.
Lake Travis won the game. But Boerne walked away with something too—identity.
It was the night a team was forged in fire, not medals. A group of boys played with a grown man’s heart. A coach made his mark, and a school remembered what it meant to be the Greyhounds.
In life, there will always be games where you’re outmatched. Moments where people expect you to crumble. Days where the world says, “Just stay down.”
And maybe, sometimes, staying down is the wise move. But more often, the quiet voice of conviction inside of us knows better.
Get up.
Even when it hurts.
Especially when it hurts.
Because there’s a kind of respect in this work that isn’t handed out with a victory. It’s earned on the days you refuse to quit.
Just stay down?
Not this time.
“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9
More from Stan Leech’s Faith & Leadership column: For the calling that pulled Stan back to that hallway, read A Call to Serve. For another piece of coaching wisdom carried through the work, read Work Heartily, as for the Lord.
