After 50 seasons, Reed still wants to be ‘a part of it’
All totaled, Dick Reed is in his 50th year helping student-athletes. He was a teacher and coach at Hillsdale, Smithville, Waynedale and Wooster, before retiring in 2003, and is now in his 25th year doing stats for the Wooster High football program.
About an hour before each Wooster High School football game, Dick Reed unassumingly makes way up to a press box, dutifully finds his seat and sets up his laptop computer.
Reed’s gait is slower, his steps more carefully measured than when he first started as the Generals’ statistician 25 years ago.
All totaled, Reed is in his 50th year helping student-athletes. He was a teacher and coach at Hillsdale, Smithville, Waynedale and Wooster, before retiring in 2003.
The 71-year-old has only missed two high school football games in a half century: both to be with his late wife, Nancy, who he was married to 46 years before she passed away in 2017, while she battled cancer.
Why keep going out as a volunteer stat keeper every Friday night, long after most of his peers have retired?
“I’m still a part of it,” Reed said. “That what I look forward to.”
Reed, a 1967 graduate of Doylestown High School, now called Chippewa, was bitten by the sports bug while participating in football, wrestling and baseball. He went on to wrestle at Ashland University. Throughout his career in education, he was a football assistant coach at all his stops and also the head wrestling coach for the Smithies, Golden Bears and Generals.
“I was a lineman,” the stocky, 5-foot-7 Reed said with a smile. “Look at me.
“Both my sons – Rob and Chris – were linemen, too. They played for Wooster.”
Watching the development of high school athletes and sharing in the excitement small towns have for their teams are big reasons why Reed still wants to be “a part of it.”
“I quit coaching varsity because my wife had been ill and I moved down to coach at Edgewood Middle School in 1995,” Reed said. “They asked me, ‘Do you want to scout, or do you want to do stats?’ I said, ‘I’ll do the stats.’
“I just continued doing them. After I retired, Mike McCreary was the coach then and he was nice enough to keep me on doing the stats. Doug Haas was kind enough to let me continue when he was hired and I’ve just kept going.”
Perhaps it comes from his upbringing as a lineman, and may have continued due to his long career as an assistant coach, but Reed wants no part of the limelight.
A simple “thank you” from Haas and the knowledge he got the job done keeps Reed driving from his home in North Ridgeville each week to wherever the Generals are playing.
Reed was even apprehensive about this story being written – the first about him in his 50-year career.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Haas, the Generals’ ninth-year coach, who led the team to a 6-0 regular season and into a second-round, home playoff game against Olentangy Berlin on Oct. 16. “Dick is such a quality guy, such a quality human being.
“I think his humility is one of the things I admire most about him.”
When the Generals are playing at Follis Field, Reed sits in the front row of the press box to the left of PA announcer Scott Allen. When the team is on the road, he goes to the spot designated for the visiting team’s stat keeper.
The stat-keeping gig is far from the only thing Reed has going on in his life.
If there was ever a contest for the World’s Kindest Man, Reed could be a candidate.
Reed is also involved with Therapy Pets Unlimited and has a certified therapy dog named Abbey, which he took to hospitals, schools and nursing homes before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reed also has been an usher at Cleveland Indians games since 2003. In 2008, he was given a permanent position behind home plate, where he greets everyone with a simple “hello” and a smile.
The stat keeper’s dedication is so strong that in 2016 he went to a Wooster football game instead of ushering a World Series contest between the Cubs and Indians at Progressive Field.
“I’d made a commitment and (keeping football stats) is not something that’s easy to find a sub for,” said Reed, who has three grandchildren.
Reed has used a stat program from Figyrs Software since 2013 to log each play, generate a final box score and update season stats. He passes the information along to Haas and local media outlets.
Prior to joining the computer age, Reed did his stats with good old-fashioned paper and pencil.
When asked to name his most memorable game as a state-keeper, Reed pointed out last season’s 18-17, last-second win against Mansfield Senior, which gave Wooster the OCC title.
Asked to name his favorite players, Reed wouldn’t single anyone out. Instead, he stated that he admires players who display strong character on and off the field. And, he’s definitely a big fan of Haas.
“Wooster is very fortunate to have Doug,” Reed said. “He’s a coach who dads should want their sons to play for.”
The Generals’ PA announcer Scott Allen relies on help from Reed to make sure the right player gets credited after each play.
“I told the superintendent and athletic director that when Dick leaves they will have to find another PA announcer because he makes me sound way better than I deserve,” Allen said.
So how much longer will Reed keep the Generals’ football stats?
“As long as I keep feeling good and Doug is happy with what I’m doing,” Reed said. “I’d probably be going to a high school football game anyways, so why not go where you know people and can help out?”
Aaron Dorksen can be reached by email ataarondorksen24@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @aarondorksen.