Parish will name field of dreams for longtime football coach

For 40 years, Pat Devine coached football teams at St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the lives of the children who played on his teams, the parish will name the football field in his honor during a ceremony on Aug. 29. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

Football coaches often have an intense demeanor on the field, but their stern approach can quickly dissolve into a smile or a laugh when they recall a funny moment about something a player did or said.

So it is for Pat Devine as he tells a story from his 40 years of coaching grade school football in the Catholic Youth Organization.

At the time, Devine was leading his football team at St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis during a push-up drill. He noticed that one of his players wasn’t exactly showing proper form in doing the push-ups so he told the boy, “Get lower.”

The boy returned to doing his push-ups, but Devine still saw room for improvement so he again said, “Get lower.”

This time, the boy lowered his body to the ground, laid there and said to Devine, “Is that low enough, Mr. Devine?”

Now, some football coaches would have turned beet red in the face, glared at the boy and barked, “OK, funny guy, run a few hundred laps around the field while I try to find the humor in what you just said.”

Instead, Devine smiled at the boy and said, “Yes, that’s low enough.”

While there were low points in Devine’s four decades of coaching, one of his high points will come on Aug. 29 when the football field at St. Lawrence Parish will be named in his honor.

It’s a fitting tribute to the 80-year-old man who coached from 1965 through 2005. Devine and his wife of 57 years, Maria, never had any children of their own so the coach regarded his players as his sons.

“That’s why I stuck with it all those years,” Devine says. “Those kids were my children. I wanted to help them out.”

Chris Roberts was one of the players who benefited from Devine’s influence. Now the athletic director at St. Lawrence Parish, Roberts played for Coach Devine in 1973.

“His whole perspective and his whole intentions were for the youth,” Roberts says. “He was firm. He was old school, but any decision he made was in the best interest of the youth. He was a very good coach. He’d work with you one on one, and he saw the overall game so he could make the team develop. He got along with the youth very well.”

He never forgot a player either.

“The fun thing about Coach Devine was he always remembered siblings, and when parents that he had coached would have kids and they started playing football for him, he would tease your kids about the way you played,” Roberts says. “That was fun.”

Devine started coaching purely by chance when he stopped by the parish one day.

“The football team was coming out of the school and there was only one guy out on the field coaching them,” Devine recalls. “I started helping him with a few of the kids, and afterward he asked me if I wanted to help him. I just stuck with it.

“I enjoyed the kids very much. I just wanted to see them progress from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. I tried to teach them their stance, how to tackle, the fundamentals of the game. I tried to teach them how to be a good person, too—to do what they think is right and stay strong. I told them, ‘It’s up to you.’ ”

That approach contributed to Devine receiving the St. John Bosco Award from the CYO, the highest honor from that youth organization.

It also says something about Devine that he doesn’t mention the city championship that one of his teams won until well into the interview.

“It was in 1980,” he says. “That was a great year. I’ve had some kids go on to play on state championship teams at [Bishop] Chatard [High School in Indianapolis]. It’s great to see them go on and do well. I know I taught them something.”

His smile grows when he talks about the way he learned that the parish football field would bear his name.

“Some guy I know told me that the football field was going to be named for me,” he recalls. “I told him, ‘They’re crazy.’ I thought he was putting me on. I never expected it. It’s a great honor.” †