Tim Dixon coaches West Rowan’s defensive backs, but he’s as responsible for team motivation as pass coverage.
Shortly before kickoff tonight the Falcons will congregate and “rock” a goal post. Then they’ll all crash together in a muscular dogpile of humanity. To cap the warmup, Dixon will take a running start and soar to the crest of a Falcon blue mountain.
Dixon, a man in his early 50s, obviously has a 30-year-old body and a teenage mentality.
“We call that going up top,” said Dixon, West’s ISS teacher when he’s not impersonating Superman. “And once I go up top, the Falcons are ready to play.”
Under coach Scott Young, West has been ready to play for a decade.
Dixon’s been instrumental in 95 wins the last 10 seasons. He relates to kids, regardless of age, size or color. They respect him, but he’s also one of them.
West’s pregame rituals ó from applying nasal strips, to painting eyeblack, to “spatting” ankles ó falls under the dynamic Dixon’s jurisdiction.
“Our kids love the guy,” West defensive coordinator David Hunt said.
Dixon, a fine athlete at Salisbury in the early 1970s, is far less popular on the road. His motivational moves include performing the “Dirty Bird” dance on the home team’s midfield logo.
No matter the weather, Dixon rolls up his sleeves an hour before kickoff and flaps his arms vigorously like a human Falcon. He gets the angry attention of any home fans in the bleachers at 6:30.
Dixon has always been intense. Looking over the 1972 all-county football head shots, Dixon appears the most likely to still be jumping on piles in 2008.
Dixon’s family life isn’t wild and crazy. Wife Deborah teaches at North Rowan. Grown daughter Joi is a med student, and the Dixons also have a 16-year-old girl named Torie.
Dixon grew up on Boundary Street in Salisbury. He was the son of a J.C. Price majorette who became a school teacher and a Dunbar High basketball star everyone knew as “Baby.”
He learned sports and hard work from his father, who passed away last July. The value of education he learned from his mother.
“Any success I had was due to others,” Dixon said. “Bob Davis gave me a chance to play Little League baseball when not everyone got the opportunity.
“Charles Love picked me up and drove me to play ball in East Spencer.”
Dixon, a regular spectator at Price and Dunbar athletic events, was so enthusiastic he got his head cracked open when he got too close to the action at a Price practice. Fred Evans stopped practice, patched him up and got him to the emergency room.
“Still have the scar,” said Dixon, pointing at his shaved head.Dixon played on Salisbury teams that were part of coach Pete Stout’s dynasty that went 83-20-10 from 1966-75. Stout was a master of Xs and Os. Assistant Charlie Little taught toughness. Assistant Aaron Neely taught life.
As a wideout on running teams, Dixon’s job was to block.
“Coach Neely used to tell me, ‘You’re only going to get two passes per game, so you’d better catch those two,’ ” Dixon said.
Salisbury’s Johnny Stratton was the all-county QB in 1972, and Dixon was second in receptions with 18 grabs for 271 yards.
“My first touchdown catch was against West Rowan,” Dixon said almost apologetically.
Dixon’s cousin, Melvin, who played at North Rowan, was 1972’s other all-county wideout. Melvin had 690 receiving yards, including 213 in one game.
“The rivalry was fun,” Dixon said. “Coach Stout would make me a captain when we played North.”
Salisbury was 8-2 in 1972 but missed the playoffs. But the Hornets won the WNCHSAA in 1973 with a playoff run that included a 52-0 destruction of Thomasville.
“My best game my senior year was against East Rowan,” Dixon said. “Caught four or five balls.”
Salisbury teams also won three consecutive WNCHSAA track championships in that golden era.
“I got more accolades for track than anything,” said Dixon, a jumper, hurdler and sprinter.
His best event was the high jump, and it still shows.
Dixon had offers from several colleges, but he felt loyalty to John Marshall, the Virginia State coach. Marshall had been the coach at Livingstone when Dixon was a ballboy.
Dixon went to college as a wideout, but he didn’t make the travel squad for the opener. That led to a position change.
“Coach Marshall asked me when they got back from Morgan State if I’d try DB,” Dixon said. “I told him I didn’t care where, just so long as I played.”
Dixon jokes he went both ways not long after that against Elizabeth City State ó “one play on offense, one play on defense” ó but the future captain’s role expanded. He had a two-pick game against St. Paul’s (it was almost three) and returned an interception 55 yards for his first college TD against Hampton.
In 1977, he had six picks.
“Tied for the league lead, second team All-CIAA,” Dixon said.
He played semi-pro ball. Then he worked at warehouses and mills and for an asphalt company that repaired racetracks. The winding road eventually led back to Rowan, and he found his calling working with young people.
His first day at West was as a substitute teacher in 1997. The next summer, then-principal Henry Kluttz introduced him to Young, the newly hired football coach. Dixon has been with Young ever since, and he’s filled those days with grins and wins.
“We pick on Dixon a lot,” Young said. “Most of us coaches admit we could not have played with today’s kids, but not Tim. The older he gets, the better he was.”But Dixon is serious about the night West got over the hump.Linebacker James Francis’ sister, Lakeina, was a sailor who was killed in a terrorist attack on the USS Cole during the 2000 season. With national media watching, the Falcons followed a breakthrough win against A.L. Brown by beating Concord on the road for the first conference title in school history.
“I remember Concord,” Dixon said, his voice rising with pride. “We went down there, we whipped ’em and they didn’t like it much when we rocked their goal post.”But that’s where it all started, and in the back of my mind, that old Salisbury High ball is what we have now at West. It’s team ball, and it’s hard, and it’s tough.”