Speaker: Today I’m honored to have Coach Dennis John Dunn join us. Uh, Dennis is the head football coach and athletic director at North DeSoto High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. Uh, he’s also a pastor of River Outreach Church here in Pineville. In case you hadn’t done that math, it’s about two hours from Shreveport to Pineville that he commutes each week. Uh, but Coach Dunn attended a college at Southern Arkansas University, LSU, Shreveport, and Centenary. He graduated from college in 1984, and he has been coaching ever since. He’s been coaching and an educator for the past 42 years. Uh, so Dennis Dunn is truly a legend in Louisiana football. He spent most of his years coaching high school, but he also had a 10-year term coaching at Louisiana College. Uh so just listen to these numbers. Dennis has been part of coaching 19 district titles, nine state championships, two state runner-ups, and one national championship. He’s won District Coach of the Year 19 times, state coach of the year nine times, and was a 1999 National Coach of the Year. Uh so off the field and away from church, uh, Dennis is a devoted family man. Uh, he and his wife Melanie are the proud parents of four children and 10 grandchildren. And so being the head football coach, an athletic director, a pastor, a husband, a father, a grandfather, you’re probably thinking that Dennis Dunn has just cruised through life. Uh well, just like everyone else, he has had his bumps along the way. But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And Dennis Dunn definitely has a plan for finishing strong. In 2 Timothy 4 7, the apostle Paul is in prison, facing his impending death, and he says these words as a final reflection on his life and ministry. I’ve fought the good fight, I’ve finished the race, and I have remained faithful. Needless to say, Paul’s life didn’t start out strong. Persecuting and killing Christians isn’t exactly the blueprint that God has for a man’s life, but God had other plans. God said, I want that man. So Paul switched jerseys and made it his life’s mission to spread the gospel no matter the circumstances. He made the decision that he would never give up, he would never back down, and he made the decision that he would finish strong. So as you just heard from Dennis Dunn, life’s not easy. But if you are a follower of Jesus, God has said the same thing about you. I want that man. So how will you respond to that? The purpose of this podcast is not to give you another to-do list or to help uh heap guilt or shame on you from where you started or where you’ve been. The purpose of this podcast is to inspire you to action by hearing how godly men like Dennis Dunn don’t just make lofty goals, they make commitments. Because commitments are greater than goals. Finish strong is a daily decision that requires a daily commitment. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Coach Dunn, welcome to the podcast. Glad to be here. I appreciate you having me, Jeff. Well, from the time I started this, you’ve been on my list. I’m like, I have got to interview Dennis Dunn. So so glad to have you here today. And it’s an honor. Thank you. Been personal friends with you for a few years now, but I’ve watched you for afar for for decades. And uh just uh your legend precedes you in the state of Louisiana. There’s no no doubt about that.

Speaker 2: I appreciate that. It means a lot coming from you, Jill. You’re a legend as well.

Speaker: Well, I don’t know about that, but uh but so let’s just kind of start from the beginning. You know, tell us about kind of your growing up years. Uh you grew up here in Louisiana, I think in the Shreeport area. So tell us about kind of growing up and all the years.

Speaker 2: So actually born in Ruston, Louisiana, yeah, and my my dad uh got a job at Woodlawn High School, new school there in Shreeport, Louisiana, and he was one of the original teachers uh at the Woodlawn campus starting in in 1960. So we we moved to Shreeport, and uh I was six months old, I think, when we moved, and uh grew up right there. My dream was to always uh graduate from Woodlawn High School, which I did, and um, you know, had a very simple life, both parents, educators, um uh grandmother was an educator, so it was always uh pretty much in my blood that I would probably be in education in some form or fashion, but um really you know, simple li again, nothing uh extravagant in terms of of you know my life. I just early, earliest memories of of wanting to coach and be an educator was Woodlawn High School. I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but it it is the home of uh Terry Bradshaw, Joe Ferguson, which is a name I’m not a not a lot of people really can relate to anymore, but he was a longtime NFL quarterback as well. Yes. But then Robert Parrish, the chief who played for the the Boston Celtics for a long time, all went to Woodlawn High School. So it was a home of legends. So the fact that I grew up in that in that community was was was something truly to to behold, especially as a young boy. And my dad was right there in the center of it. He actually taught uh Terry and Joe. Uh it taught him math. And uh he did say that Joe was a pretty good student. Terry could have been.

Speaker: A little distracted.

Speaker 2: But uh I got to be on the sideline a lot as a little boy, and and uh some vivid vivid uh memories, you know, as a child, uh, with my dad standing there watching my heroes, the Woodlawn Knights, play football. Wow.

Speaker: So what was sports like for you growing up? Played played the different sports, participated.

Speaker 2: I you know, I I grew up playing football, baseball, a little bit of basketball, but baseball and football were my favorites, and and uh played all the way through as long as I can remember. I was I had a ball in my hand.

Speaker: Yes. Started at a young age, that is though. Uh so what was the faith environment around your home? What was it like uh growing up?

Speaker 2: We Jeff, we grew up in church, my sister and I, and dad always had us in church every time the doors were open, and um uh grew up in a little Baptist church, Janet Lane Baptist Church, um right there in the heart of uh uh South uh South Freeport. And um so from my earliest memories, you know, my dad would always have us there. And unfortunately, when when I was about uh a freshman in high school, I started to see the strain between him and my mom. And uh it was at that point, probably freshman, sophomore year, that um we began to uh move away from church. We just stopped going to church. And I’m sure it was related to to their issues and things going on in their personal lives. But as a boy, um uh, you know, my I could see the the problems and didn’t really understand them. But I mean, we can go into some of that if if you want to, but but those, you know, those those were the days that I I look back on and and really it it began my faith journey because it was the first real trial that I faced as a as a young boy. You know, I was probably 12, 13 when those issues started taking, and then I knew for a fact there was a major issue when I turned 14 years old. And uh then all the way up until you know from 14 to 28, uh football kind of became my God, little G. And uh so my I feel like I was, you know, I may I I walked the aisle and signed a card when I was a little boy, but I wasn’t truly saved because I I went out and and um you know didn’t really walk a a faith life for a lot of years. And and then I I tell people all the time, you’re really born again when the fruit of your life changes. And I was 28 years old when the fruit of my life changed.

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