Coach, Leader, Statesman – – Coach Deitz Is More than Football
By Brandon Stephens
(Sylva) – – There is much more to the man most people know as the red-faced, Maroon Devil Head Football Coach Boyce Deitz. Boyce Deitz was a talented football player for the Sylva-Webster Golden Eagles in the 1960’s and his life journey developed into a path that took him to Swain County to build a high school football dynasty; promoting leadership in Washington, D.C.; to being a Jackson County commissioner. He is more than a successful football coach, where most of his talent and notoriety lies in that portion of his career. Saturday morning (December 30, 2023), Coach Deitz left our community after a lengthy battle with complications from cancer and treatment. He was 74 and left a long line of family that is blood and adopted football players, coaches, politicians, and neighbors.
November 22, 1963, is a day most people remember President John F. Kennedy being shot in Dallas, Texas. Boyce Deitz remembers that tragedy and it also being the same night he and the Sylva-Webster Golden Eagles traveled to Boone to play for a Regional-State Championship for the West. He said the teams wanted to be respectful to the passing of the President, and they wanted to play football. Reliving those days brought a sparkle to his eye and a little more volume to his voice. It was filled with how Sylva-Webster won two more of those Regional State Championships in 1965 and 1966 with players like Tommy Love, his brother Randy, Arthur Dillard, and legendary Coach Charles “Babe” Howell, once the most winningest active coach in North Carolina. Eventually, Deitz would coach for Babe Howell in the 1970’s, sometimes getting a little too close to the action and wearing a black eye.
Swain County
“Boyce touched so many of our lives. Many of us would not be where we are today if it were not for his leadership, coaching, discipline, and love. He taught us to make a difference, and that was a trait he lived by each and every day. We love you coach!” – Former Swain County Quarterback, NFL Quarterback, and Congressional Representative Heath Shuler.
Swain County appears to be where the real journey in football started for Boyce Deitz. He would often tell you its his raising and work ethic he gained in Buff Creek, North Carolina (a community in Sylva) is where he learned everything. Farming stayed in his blood until his passing. Coach Deitz started a new garden in Swain County. Early in his head coaching career he was dealt a hand with few wins in his history and athletic facilities that needed work.
“He (Boyce) was one of the greatest high school head coaches the mountains has ever seen,” states Voice of the Maroon Devils Gary Ayers. “Oh man he is old school. He wanted lots of discipline and lots of commitment to the team from his players, coaches, and the community. Somehow, he motivated the team to do well enough to win a state championship in 1979. After that I have never seen a community get behind a program and build. He simply told the community there would be football facilities and a field built; he went to work; and people pitched in to make the field house, field, and stadium you see today. It is amazing what he could do,” Ayers added. After the facilities came out of the ground, great things in football occurred for Swain County. Deitz was also successful in getting the team a donated “Greyhound” bus for traveling.
Boyce Deitz had a phenomenal career as a coach and athletic director at Swain County High School before serving his community in many different political aspects after retirement. Deitz served as Head Football Coach and Athletic Director for the Maroon Devils, compiling a 218-72-2 record in his football career. His record at Swain County alone was 201-58-1 including four 1A Football Championships and a 2A State Championship.
He was chosen as the 1979 Coach of the Year, and the football field at Swain County has been named in his honor. Deitz served as a member of the NCADA Board of Directors and has served as an officer in that organization for three years. In his civic career, Deitz was instrumental in the construction of the Western NC Regional Livestock Center. He has been inducted into the Jackson County and Swain County Athletic Halls of Fame. This past August 19th (2023), Coach Deitz was inducted into the North Carolina High School Athletic Hall of fame.
It was Grit
There is a common theme in the conversations with former Swain County players and coaches to Boyce Deitz. It is his grit and determination that made him a titan in the football coaching world.
“Coach Deitz, not just to me, but to lots of people in this community and western North Carolina as a whole is a great friend,” says current Swain County Head Football Coach Sherman Holt. Holt says Boyce Deitz has a way to get the best out of everyone. “He made you feel a certain way to get the best out of you. Coaching with him, for him, against him, or after him, he was special and he had special talents to make get you to your best. He is a real special man as he knew what he needed and you needed to be successful and to make it happen. He did something special here at Swain County for 20 years. Everyone that comes after him has to live to his expectations and legacy, which is something else,” Holt adds.
Simply going through the motions is not in the Coach Deitz character or philosophy. He demanded perfection and for those who played and coached with him to be good citizens too. Gary Ayers also adds he carried that work ethic with him to his final day. “Man, just like he did all of his life, he fought it (cancer) just like he fought as a football coach,” Ayers stated.
After Swain
The post-Swain County era is equally impressive. For a brief time through the turn of the century/millennium he finished his head coaching days at Smoky Mountain High School. It was a nice return home to Sylva. Similar to his beginning at Swain County, Coach Deitz went to work at Smoky Mountain High to build up the stadium and construct a field house. He went to every contractor and told them he needed help building the stadium. He came to me to use the radio station to do a one-day fundraising event. In one eight-hour day we raised around $75,000.00. There was a lady who pulled up to the remote radio site in town where we were raising funds. She got out of her car and gave Coach Deitz a $100-bill. She said, “My son played at Swain County and playing for Coach Deitz made a man out of him. If I can give him any of my support, it will make good men out of Jackson County boys.” Then she drove off as quickly as she arrived, having driven from Bryson City.
Coach Deitz would discover his leadership talents would be needed in other places. He became the champion and advocate for the New Century Scholars program in Jackson County, which gave full scholarships to deserving and underprivileged students to attend Southwestern Community College and eventually to Western Carolina University. For a short time, Coach Deitz applied his persuasive skills at Western Carolina University helping Development raise funds and build the Catamount Club and do a little recruiting too.
Former Swain County Quarterback and NFL Player, Heath Shuler is in the running to be western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional Representative a short time after Coach Deitz retired from coaching. After the November election, Heath is headed to Washington, D.C. from 2007 to 2013. Heading up his western North Carolina Congressional office is Boyce Deitz. Like a fish to water, Coach Deitz works with the local county and city governments to relay their needs and wants to Washington, D.C. to Representative Shuler. This placed Boyce Deitz on the political track and eventually he served until the fall of 2022 as Jackson County commissioner for the second district, which included his home community of Buff Creek.
Just Some Good Boyce Deitz Stories
The next few pages could be filled with tons of stories of Boyce’s adventures, enough to fill a book. We include a few football, farm, and leadership stories that tell of his grit, charm, and leadership…and bring a smile to those of you broken hearted as the majority of the community that is grieving his passing.
Can I Get You Some Gloves
The Swain County Maroon Devils are losing the game going into halftime against the Hayesville Yellow Jackets in 1992. Then Sophomore and eventual team leader, Ronald “Chumper” Walker recalls how the game was going. “It wasn’t that good. It was one of the coldest games and what made it worse was the steady downpour of rain. This year was a breakout season for the Neumann football glove and most of us on the team had them. But it didn’t matter. We (Swain County Maroon Devils) could not hold onto the ball, catch a pass, or stick our tackle or blocks,” Chumper says. When the halftime horn blew, the team raced into the locker room where Coach Deitz brought out a box of gloves. He told the team it’s cold and wet out there and wanted to know if they needed new dry gloves. Chumper says hands were raised all around the room and Coach Deitz tossed out little plastic bags of gloves. When the players opened them, they noticed they were fuzzy white gloves the band wore and made comment to Coach Deitz, he had given them the wrong gloves. “That’s when Coach Deitz lit into us! He yelled at us, ‘these are the right gloves because we are not playing football and ought to be playing in the band rather than being on the football field,’” Chumper explained. Needless to say, there was a change in performance in the second half.
No Homecoming for Coach Babe Howell
Getting Coach Deitz to make comment on radio was always an interesting adventure. I used to be the radio voice for Smoky Mountain High when Boyce came back to Sylva. His first request was for me not to broadcast the game live. I responded if he would quit coaching and playing the games, I would accommodate him. From that moment he decided he would have fun with radio and asked me to do a live Friday morning talk show so he could motivate the community for Friday night’s game. Usually, it was filed with talk of how big the other team is, do they run a 50 or 40 set defense, can Smoky Mountain defend a Delaware Wing-T formation and all of its misdirection? This week, Coach Charles Babe Howell was to bring the Avery County Vikings to Sylva for a football game. The whole town was talking about it, it being the first time since 1989 seeing Babe coach a game at Carr Hooper Stadium/Babe Howell Field. From the Coffee Shop to Ingles, you could hear people say, “It’s the Babe Howell Homecoming.” On our radio show, I asked Coach Deitz what he thought about taking on Coach Howell and the expected homecoming. “Well Brandon I don’t know what any of that means! I won’t be taking on Coach Howell. Our Mustang players will play his Viking players. However, I could take Coach Howell easy because he is a hundred years older than me and I could beat him,” Deitz announced. He also proceeded to tell me about the difference in Coach Howell coming back to Sylva to coach a team against Smoky Mountain and what a homecoming is. “You see homecomings are held a places like East Fork Baptist Church where they sing gospel hymns, cut pies, and baptize little kids. None of that will happen Friday night. There won’t be any pies cut, and Coach Howell and the Vikings will want to get back on the bus so fast after we whip their tails, they won’t have time to be baptized or sing a hymn. They will be singing sad songs on the way back to Newland,” Coach Deitz added. He was correct as Smoky Mountain soundly defeated Avery County that night. After that I gave up trying to be a strategic sportscaster with Boyce Deitz and just went with his cues.
First and Ten Bulldogs
There is not a single season when you go through Bryson City and the Friday night game between Swain County and Murphy approaches and some says, “I hate that PA announcer in Murphy.” That public address announcer is J.R. Carroll in case you don’t know. He has been on the PA microphone for a number of decades and has an annoying delivery of announcing when the Murphy Bulldogs have achieved a first down. Usually it is “FIRST AND TEN BULLDOGS!” During the 1990’s J.R. went to work with me at WRGC in Sylva. Still dedicated to the Bulldogs, he would drive to Murphy and announce the home games.
One of the gathering spots for armchair quarterbacks and sports enthusiasts in Sylva is PJ’s Fast Food Mart convenience store. One morning just after the most recent Murphy versus Swain games, Coach Deitz ran into J.R. at PJ’s. Coach Deitz told J.R., “You know all that yelling about FIRST AND TEN BULLDOGS doesn’t hurt my team at all. In fact, you can announce it louder and it just gets my kids fired up all to pieces.” J.R. looked at Coach Deitz and retorted, “You might be reminded that we’ve made a first down on Swain County. It’s not how loud I say it, it’s how often. Last Friday I said it about every other time I opened the microphone, which tells me Swain is suffering.” It’s one of the few times you could see a speechless Boyce Deitz.
Peace in the Valley Please
One philosophy Boyce Deitz wanted all people to have is compassion for each other and be diplomatic. One night in a Jackson County Commissioner meeting before he was elected, there was a dispute between then Jackson County Tax Collector Joyce Lovin and developer Wayne Smith. Smith had built a trailer park near Joyce’s house and the park was not the neatest place you’ve ever seen. For weeks Smith and Lovin argued in the newspaper through the editorial and eventually into a public commissioner meeting. Boyce came from out of nowhere to voice his concerns. I can remember how he defended Wayne Smith developing a business from nothing and how he was a “pick myself up by the bootstrap” kid from Swain County. He gave Wayne a light slap on the hands for not building something a little more eye appealing and something the community could be proud. He turned to the commissioners and said its time for them to get into the game and develop a mobile home ordinance to keep unsightly and unsafe trailer parks from developing because Coach was sure Wayne would build more. In time, the commissioners did exactly that and passed an ordinance a few months later. It was the peaceful and powerfully influencing speech given by Boyce Deitz that calmed two residents and made positive policy change for the county.
A Bunch of Bull Impairs Deitz
Long-time voice of the Maroon Devils Gary Ayers was headed home from a game he had finished broadcasting at Western Carolina University. Boyce Deitz had some cows and a bull in a field across from the current Food Lion location. The bull had broken out of the fence. It was standing in the middle of the road, when Gary drove up. Gary is not a slow driver, I know this from riding to games with him. Without any time to break, Gary took out the bull and totaled his car. This doesn’t sound like there was any humor in it at all. Asheville Citizen-Times Sports Editor Doug Mead wrote the whole story up and ran it in the paper with a headline that read “Shoulder Injury to Deitz Impairs the Devils.” Doug drew the relationship Gary and Boyce had with one another and built a very dramatic depiction of the incident and how the shoulder injury to the bull impaired Gary’s car and how it would knock off the radio broadcasts at Swain County High.
On the Naked Edge
Back in the day, the coaches worked together to go to coaching clinics. Coach Boyce Deitz went to a coaching clinic with Coach Charles Babe Howell and Coach David Greene in the early 1970’s. Sylva-Webster didn’t have money to fully fund the coaches to go to clinics and they had to share a hotel room. After a full day of being together, the coaches went back to the room and broke down what they learned from the day. When all was said and done, Coach Howell announced to the room, which he shared with Coach Deitz and David Green that he was going to bed. He striped down to nakedness and climbed in a bed. Coach Deitz readied himself to get into bed with Coach Greene. David also dropped his clothes down to the nude and climbed into the second bed. Coach Deitz said, “I reluctantly crawled into the bed with Coach Greene. Let me tell you, I slept on the edge of the bed, not sleeping well because I was about to fall into the floor.”
To all members of the Boyce Deitz Family, his many friends who are like brothers and sisters, we offer our condolences and are heartbroken about the passing of a legend. We are comforted his pain the illness is no longer. We can only imagine he is making a request to build a football field and a talented team somewhere in the great beyond.
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