JERRY CITY — Dean Pees was very content to be the head football coach at Elmwood High School
forever.But his career took him much farther. The former Elmwood coach and Bowling Green State University
graduate worked his way up the ranks to the NFL where he has helped two teams win three Super Bowls,
including this year as the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens.Pees returned to his old stomping
grounds at Elmwood on Friday as part of a fundraiser dinner to benefit the school’s stadium project.The
Hardin County native said while coaching the Royals in the 1970s, it never crossed his mind he would one day
break into the pros.“I had no idea. I always wanted to be a high school football coach. It’s what I aspired
to be. I had no thought of even being a college coach. I was very content here,” said Pees during an
interview with local media on Friday.It was during his eighth-grade year, quarterbacking for his team, he
realized coaching was his calling.“I actually got the coach’s permission to change a couple of things out
there in the huddle and we ended up winning,” he said.His first opportunity to coach came as an assistant at
Elmwood in 1973. He later became head coach.“It was a lot of fun to build that program and get it going. It
was even more fun when we started winning.”He moved on to the University of Findlay in 1979 as the defensive
coordinator/secondary coach. The Oilers won an NAIA Division II national championship in 1979.Pees also
coached at Miami of Ohio, Navy, Toledo, Notre Dame, Michigan State and Kent State before accepting a
position with the NFL’s New England Patriots in 2004. He joined the Ravens’ staff in 2010 as linebackers
coach and was later promoted to defensive coordinator.While there are certainly differences between coaching
high school, college and professional football, Pees said having a passion for what you do is a
constant.“I’ve spent 41 years in football and I still love to go to work everyday,” he said. “When you like
what you do, it shows.”“I approach it the same “I approach it the same way I did here (Elmwood) as I do
there (Baltimore),” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you are playing in a 100,000-seat stadium or out here in
a 5,000-seat stadium, you just concentrate on the game and the players and what you are doing.”Some would
assume Pees’ most memorable coaching moment was winning one of his three Super Bowls.But, in fact, his most
memorable moment came while coaching Kent State.It was the final play of the 2002 season. The Golden Flashes
were playing Miami of Ohio at home.“Kent State has not beaten Miami of Ohio in who knows how long, hadn’t
had a winning season in 20 years. We are 5-5.”Fourth down. Ball on the 20-yard-line. 20 seconds to go.“I
switched James Harrison from one side of the defense to the other side of the defense and he sacks (Ben)
Roethlisberger on the last play to give us our first winning record in 20 years.”“They had a Kent State
Football Day after that, the mayor decreed. We were 6-5,” he said.While winning a Super Bowl is certainly an
accolade, but from a coach’s perspective, Pees said, the victory is a sense of relief.“It’s a culmination of
an incredible amount of work and time … You are going seven days a week, non-stop.”At this year’s Super
Bowl, he had his six children, their spouses and seven grandchildren on the field when the confetti showered
the stadium.“That’s the stuff I remember even more than winning the game, although the fourth-down play, I
do remember.”On that final play at the goal line, Pees called a successful blitz which forced San Francisco
49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick to throw an incomplete pass in desperation. The Ravens won 34-31.