[nfb-talk] CSDB Coach who Teaches The Deaf and Blind Returns:

[Kenneth Chrane]

I thought all would be interested in reading the article in today's Gazette 
bout Sissy.

Football LEGEND returns


CSDB coach Joe Sisneros outlined plays for his team during Tuesday's 
practice. Sisneros came out of retirement to coach the Bulldogs again. (MARK 
REIS,
THE GAZETTE)

Sisneros abandons his retirement for coaching

By PAUL HARRIS THE GAZETTE

In the high school coaching ranks, many would consider Joe Sisneros to be 
nothing short of a living legend.

He is a National High School Sports Hall of Fame inductee whose 
accomplishments earned him, among other things, an invition to the White 
House in the 1970s
from then-President Nixon.

But to the football players at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the 
Blind, he's just coach Sisneros.

Returning after a 15-year absence, Sisneros is back at the Colorado Springs 
school he led to a state 8-man football title in 1977. At 70, Sisneros came
out of retirement this offseason to lead the Bulldogs again.


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This season, he's guiding a 21-player team that, with the exception of a 
vision-impaired offensive lineman, is comprised entirely of deaf players. 
Lutheran
High School of the Rockies visits the Bulldogs for a game at 4 p.m. Friday.

"The kids, that's why I came back. It's not because of anything else. I love 
these kids," Sisneros said. "And I don't want to see the kids have a new 
coach
every year."

Indeed, the Bulldogs have had several coaches the past few years.

It's a contrast from the stability Sisneros gave them while coaching at the 
school from 1965 until his retirement in 1991.

During that time, he helped shape the 8-man football team into a program 
that earned statewide respect.

The Bulldogs regularly beat public schools, won numerous league titles on 
the way to several appearances in the state finals, and produced All-America
standouts like Gary Washington, who went on to play at Colorado.

A $6,700 yearly salary in 1965 was all it took to lock up the coach who 
would forever alter the program's history.

"A lot of coaches take credit, but it doesn't happen unless the kids do it," 
Sisneros said.

But the team's success attracted plenty of attention for Sisneros. During 
the Bulldogs' heyday in the 1970s, he appeared on radio and television 
shows,
met broadcaster Howard Cosell and eventually was summoned to Washington by 
Nixon for an award ceremony.

Sisneros assumed a more anonymous role after he retired from CSDB, coaching 
as an assistant at Palmer and St. Mary's for four years apiece.

However, he continued to attend CSDB games and approached the school's 
athletic director, Tim Elstad, last season about returning as a volunteer.

Elstad, the quarterback for Sisneros on the 1977 state title team, said he 
would accept his old coach back, but only full time. Sisneros agreed on the
condition that his old quarterback would be his assistant.

Now, a new generation of players, including Elstad's son Nicholas, are 
learning from Sisneros.

"I think it's been great," senior defensive end Ron Reed said with the help 
of a translator. "At the beginning, we were making a lot of mistakes. But we
saw improvement right away and now we're seeing huge improvement."

Sisneros said having an assistant like Elstad, a deaf role model who was 
once in the same position as the current athletes, is perhaps the greatest 
influence
on the team.

"I think they can relate to him like a mentor," Sisneros said. "They can see 
him, and say Tim has made it, and we can too."

The team is no longer the state power it once was, but it went a respectable 
3-4 last season. The Bulldogs started this season 0-4, though Sisneros said
a difficult early schedule could give way to wins later.

While the Bulldogs suffer from a lack of depth, the players don't count 
their inability to hear as a disadvantage.

"It might be easier that we can't hear," said Nicholas Elstad, a sophomore 
who plays quarterback and defensive back. "And with our signs, nobody knows
what we're doing."

Sisneros began learning sign language immediately after he accepted the job 
in 1965; he practiced with road signs on the way to work. Before coaching at
CSDB, his only coaching experience was four years at Calhan.

He planned to get out of coaching after his time at Calhan because he 
thought he wasn't making enough money. But the CSDB athletic director was a 
friend
of his and talked Sisneros into staying in the profession.

Now, 41 years later, Sisneros is still coaching. He said he doesn't know how 
long he will stay at the school, but he certainly doesn't appear to be 
slowing
down any time soon.


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