Football notes: Remembering Bob Lee; Speckman leaves UC Davis; Lamson sidelined at Syracuse
He grew up in a town in which he dreamed of playing for and coaching. Nothing delighted Bob Lee more than working with teenagers, be it in his Elk Grove High School history class or on the football field or baseball diamond, where the burly, bearded and bespectacled mentor was a fixture.
Lee was the offensive line coach for Elk Grove’s first Sac-Joaquin Section championship football team in 1984, the offensive coordinator for the 1989 Herd team that led the state in scoring and the play-caller for the 13-1 section title team of 1991. He was quick with a play or a one-liner, a friend and mentor to many. Lee died recently at 66 after an illness.
“He taught for decades at Elk Grove and was a great teacher with an unbelievable wit,” said Steve DaPrato, Elk Grove’s head football coach in the mid 1980s. “A great friend who will be missed.”
Lee also coached at McClatchy and Delta High in Clarksburg, where his wife Carol was a school counselor. Lee coached small-school Delta for eight seasons, leading six playoff teams. His 2004 Delta team won a Northern Section championship and his 2010 group went 10-1. The only season that soured Lee was his lone campaign as Elk Grove’s head coach in 2002, his dream gig. The Thundering Herd went 6-3 and missed the playoffs for the first time in 17 seasons..
Fans blamed the coach. Lee was harassed by a fan at the grocery store over play-calling, and then again by another at his home. One fan even tried to set his front door on fire. Lee coached from the press box and some fans would spit on him while he walked down the bleachers at the half or after games. He resigned after that 2002 season, telling The Bee years later, “The most heartbreaking season of my life. Almost drove me completely out of coaching.”
“Bob didn’t deserve any of that,” DaPrato said. “I felt for him. Any coach or friend would.”
Speckman on the move: Mark Speckman has left UC Davis’ football season as assistant head coach for five seasons to be the offensive coordinator at Division II Clarion University in Pennsylvania, where he will be closer to family.
Speckman is a well-known coach and a nationally known motivational speaker, insightful and hilarious in his talks as a man who grew up without hands and went on to earn small-college All-American honors at linebacker at Azusa Pacific in the 1970s. In 2009, Speckman wrote a book, “Figure It Out: How I learned to live in a digital world without digits.”
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Speckman coached for years at different schools with Dan Hawkins, including at UCD, where Hawkins is head coach. Said Hawkins, “In addition to so many other things, it was great to see the humanity that (Speckman) brought to the table. We’ll miss him, for sure.”
Lamson out: Sacramento Bee 2019 Player of the Year Justin Lamson of Oak Ridge High School will miss this season at Syracuse due to a knee injury suffered from a noncontact drill. Lamson impressed in spring drills.
Lamson starred his junior season at Oak Ridge despite competing with a partial knee ligament tear, unbeknownst to him. He powered Oak Ridge to the Division I championship, the first for the El Dorado Hills school.