At the age of 73, it would be easy for Jim Oddo to slow it down a bit. However, the Charlotte (N.C.) Catholic High School coach is doing the opposite as he prepares for his 36th season on the sidelines.
While others his age are enjoying their retirement, it’s the football field and the games on Friday nights that motivate Oddo each day and have him looking forward to each fall in the Tar Heel State.
“There is some surprise that I’m still coaching,” Oddo said. “I love football. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also work. I am semi-retired. I teach part time, but I coach full time. I go year-to-year and I feel great. I’ll probably hang with it.”
A native of Delaware, Oddo considers North Carolina his home.
After all, it was where he made a name for himself as a member of the 1957 North Carolina State football team, which won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. As a member of Earle Edwards’ team, Oddo, a center, was named to the All-ACC team as both a junior and senior and also named as an honorable mention All-American as a senior.
It was during this time that Oddo found an offensive style he absolutely loves -- the Wing-T.
After graduation from North Carolina State, Oddo left the state for a brief period, coaching in Florida before returning to North Carolina.
“I knew I wanted to coach,” Oddo said. “I enjoy football. It’s one of the few things I have had success with. It is a great team sport and teaches a lot of life lessons.”
In 1973, Oddo became the head coach at private Charlotte Catholic, a 3A member of the Queen City League. Despite often competing against schools with larger enrollments (CCHS has 1,400 students currently), the partnership of Oddo and the Cougars has been a great one with five state titles.
As for what makes the Cougars special, Oddo says it is a combination of three things -- the team’s offensive style, kids playing hard and the fact the coaching staff has stayed intact.
“We’ve run the Wing-T for years. It gave us leg up on the competition and it’s kind of a deceptive offense,” he said. “It’s hard to mimic in practice. Also, our kids play hard for us. I’ve been fortunate to have a good staff, and we’ve been with each other for several years. It’s a huge key to our success. Things and styles constantly change when the coaching staffs change. If you look at successful teams, they are successful because their coaching staffs stay intact.”
Another reason why the Cougars have been one of the top teams in North Carolina could be the fact that the players are disciplined in every facet of the game and also off the gridiron.
Charlotte Catholic's Jim Oddo (right) talks with his staff prior to a game against North Gaston last season.
Photo by Ron McCann
While other programs may allow their players to wear their jerseys and jeans to school on game days, members of the Charlotte Catholic football team wear CCHS dress shirts, a tie and navy or khaki pants on game days.
Special teamFootball fans familiar with
North Carolina may quickly think of nationally-acclaimed Independence High when it comes to greatness on the gridiron, but the Cougars have been as strong as anyone else in recent years.
Heading into the 2008 season, Charlotte Catholic had advanced to the state championship game four straight years, winning two.
“We’ve been doing well,” Oddo said. “You work your tail off and hope to be successful. As a coach, I know these things go in cycles. I can remember taking over and there were 17 straight (winning) seasons. We had three or four losing seasons, and I began to wonder if I made a mistake. If you are sound, execute and have players, you can be successful.”
Oddo says the rise to prominence of his program has to do with the emergence of a middle school program. Previously, Charlotte Catholic lost players to soccer.
“When the middle school started football, we began to get good again,” Oddo said.
In 2004, the Cougars went 16-0 en route to capturing the Class 2A title with a 14-7 victory over
Western Alamance. One year later, Charlotte Catholic again went 16-0, defeating Walter Williams 21-13 to win the Class 3A title.
In 2006, Charlotte Catholic fell 15-7 in the final to
Eastern Randolph, and in 2007 the Cougars lost 28-20 to
Dudley in the final. Over a four-year stretch, Charlotte Catholic had gone 59-6.
Last season, Charlotte Catholic finished 11-3, falling in the third round of the playoffs to
A.L. Brown High School, a team the Cougars had knocked out of the playoffs in previous seasons.
Charlotte Catholic had a 27-21 lead with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter of that game following a touchdown pass from quarterback Danny Reyes to Joe Felts. The lead was short-lived, as A.L. Brown marched down the field and scored the game-winning touchdown with 10 seconds remaining.
“We truly lost on the last play of the game,” Oddo said.
Leading the way up front for the Cougars were linemen Nick White, Griff Shapack, Andrew Muller, Adam Guess and Patrick Huston. Muller will be headed to Miami of Ohio.
Running backs Joe Felts and Jadarius Bruce each rushed for more than 1,000 yards, while Johnny O’Boyle had 487 yards receiving and amassed 485 yards on the ground.
Reyes threw for 19 touchdowns on the season and completed 55 percent of his passes. Tight end Tucker Windle led the team in receiving with 24 catches. Windle committed to the
University of Virginia. O’Boyle and Guess each are headed to Navy.
Defensively, the Cougars were led by Mark Moll, who recorded 67 tackles and 4.5 sacks.
The 2009 season will feature a young team for Charlotte Catholic as Oddo brings back just three starters on both sides of the pigskin.
“We lost a lot of linemen who had size,” Oddo said. “We will probably have a good number of juniors play. There are a lot of young players we will play.”
Back with the Cougars on offense are White, Bruce and Reyes.
“Danny does a good job of running the offense,” Oddo said. “Jadarius came on strong last year and he has good speed. Nick White is a good high school football player.”
Special honor
Regardless of what happens this season for Oddo and Charlotte Catholic, the veteran coach will experience quite an honor in December as he guides the North Carolina Tar Heel team into battle against the South Carolina Sandlappers in the 73rd Annual Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas played at Wofford University.
The game is played to benefit the Greenville (S.C.) Unit Shriners Hospital for Children and 21 other Shriners hospitals across America. Since the first Shrine Bowl in 1937, more than $69 million has been raised for Shriners hospitals.
“It is a tremendous honor, and I am truly awed by it,” Oddo said. “I’ve been coaching a lot of years, and I think played a part of it. The number one cause is helping kids, and it is a super game.”
However, this is not his first encounter with the game, as Oddo was the coach of the 1991 North Carolina squad, which lost 13-10 to the Sandlappers.
Currently, Oddo and his Shrine Bowl staff have been trying to form a team through four combines, something he says is a daunting task.
“It’s hard,” he said. “We looked at over 1,000 kids during the four combines. We are looking for the best athletes.”
Paul Gable is the Senior Prep Writer for football.com. Check out football.com. for NCAA football and NFL coverage.
