Southeast High's Howard Eberly the most popular coach no one knows

BRADENTON -- Howard Eberly calls his first visit to Southeast a blind date.

That date will finally come to an end after 35 years when he heads into retirement at the close of this school year.

The best way to sum up Eberly is that he the most popular unknown coach in Manatee County.

It's not a contradiction. Every athlete who played for Eberly at Southeast will remember him. Those outside the program might not know him because he did nearly all his work out of the limelight.

For the football program, Eberly has been an assistant on the varsity and a JV coach. He has also been JV coach for the boys and girls basketball teams.

In an unofficial tally, Eberly likely has sat on the bench or stood on the sidelines for more state championship games than any other coach in Manatee County history.

"I never really wanted to be a head coach. Coaching at Southeast in the football and basketball programs, it was like a step back if I went somewhere else," Eberly said. "I was very happy here. We had a good thing going, I enjoyed it and I stuck with it."

It's not that Eberly couldn't be a varsity head coach. He was offensive coordinator for Southeast from 1994 through '06 when the Seminoles gained statewide notoriety especially in his last three years with their wide-open explosive offense during the era of quarterback Adrian McPherson.

Paul Maechtle, Southeast's Hall of Fame Coach who retired after the 2013 season, said Eberly was an innovator and way ahead of his times.

"When he was our offensive coordinator, he was doing some of the spread offense stuff that wasn't out there yet," Maechtle said. "When Adrian was a senior, we had evolved into a team using a four-wide receiver set and were running the ball from the shotgun. Colleges were calling it the read option, but we started it under Howard before it became popular."

Maechtle and Eberly first met in 1980 near the Southeast football field.

"Coach Maechtle was mowing the grass and I thought he was a maintenance worker," Eberly said.

"When I first saw Howard, I thought he was in an incoming freshman," Maechtle recalled.

They roomed together in the beginning, spending their nights talking and watching football until they eventually formed their separate lives. But it is a friendship that has endured.

Maechtle had no qualms about throwing Eberly into the fire. He made him offensive coordinator prior to the '94 season, when Southeast was ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today and was coming off a state title after being the first team in state history to go 15-0.

The Noles had Peter Warrick and Dyral McMillan, one of the best running backs in school history, and expectations were soaring. Warrick was injured and missed the only game Southeast lost, but the Noles went on to capture another state title.

It happened in what Eberly, now 59, calls his fondest memory at Southeast; the 94 state title game.

"We had the lead and Ocala Vanguard had driven inside our 5 at the end of game," Eberly recalled. "They called time out to let the clock run down and then missed the field goal and we were state champs. I will never forget that."

Right up there for Eberly is Southeast's first victory over Manatee (1985) and the 57-yard punt Warrick returned for a touchdown in the final minute to beat Manatee and its legendary coach Joe Kinnan in 1993 before 10,000-plus fans at Hawkins Stadium.

"I am sure to this day Joe wished he never kicked the ball to Peter," Eberly said.

Eberly went back to coaching JV football in 2007 so he could coach his son on his PAL team. He coached freshman boys basketball for nearly 20 years and was on the bench for the Noles' three state final fours, including 1995 when Southeast won Manatee County's only state boys basketball championship.

He has been with the Southeast girls JV basketball coach for the last decade. He was on the bench for that program's last two final four appearances, including the state title team in 2014, while scouting for four other final fours.

"I loved coaching varsity football, especially as offensive coordinator, but it was very time-consuming," Eberly said. "I stayed up on everything and pretty much lived and breathed football. It kind of catches up to you. I needed to spend more time with my family, but still wanted to help the program."

Southeast girls basketball coach John Harder, who has been to six Final Fours and won three state titles, says Eberly played a role in all of those.

"Howard is as good a head coach as anybody in America. He could've been head coach anywhere, but he hung in there for the kids at Southeast," Harder said. "He has been a right arm for me. He scouts well and every girl he coached on the JV level for the last 10 years has come to me fundamentally sound."

People are joking that when Eberly retires he will join Maechtle as an assistant coach at Cardinal Mooney.

"That's a running joke, but it's not going to happen," said Eberly, who was born in Omaha, Neb., grew up in Michigan and was graduated from Ohio Wesleyan.

He spent all 35 of his professional life coaching and teaching at Southeast because that's the place he thought he should be.

"He is part of the family we have at Southeast," Harder said, "coaches sticking together because they want to be successful."

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Southeast High's Howard Eberly the most popular coach no one knows ."