Skipjacks’ Dennis retiring as men’s soccer coach

WYE MILLS –  Mark Dennis, who has spent two decades coaching at various soccer levels, is retiring after four years as Chesapeake College’s head men’s soccer coach.

Dennis, who was previously head boys’ soccer coach at Cambridge-South Dorchester High, cited both health reasons and a desire to help his son, Brad, "through the college recruitment process." Brad, a senior at C-SD, has been the Vikings’ football kicker the past three seasons and was an all-state kicker this past season.

"I’m getting older and have some health issues to take care of," said Mark Dennis. "It was just time to step down. It was not an easy decision. I’m certainly not going to be coaching anywhere else."

Chesapeake College Athletic Director Frank Szymanski praised the leadership and soccer knowledge Dennis brought to the program.

"Mark was great for this program because he enjoyed teaching soccer, which was important since we had a lot of inexperienced players," said Szymanski. "And he provided mature leadership, holding our players to high standards. He will be very tough to replace."

Dennis said one of the biggest surprises he found in coaching at the collegiate level was how much he enjoyed the recruitment process.

"I hadn’t given it any thought beforehand," said Dennis. "It would appear to most people as a necessary evil. I know sometimes you’ll hear coaches say they don’t like that part of the job. I found out I enjoyed talking to the student athletes and their families – talking about the future, their plans.

"And everybody at the college is so supportive," added Dennis. "Any time I had anyone on campus it always looked nice; the staff was so friendly; it was an easy place to sell. If you’re there for the education and the people, it’s a great place."Another surprise, according to Dennis, was the high skill level of teams in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference, including very experienced foreign-born players who grew up playing soccer as their primary sport."I wasn’t expecting that in the first year," said Dennis. "When I went out for the first practice that first year, I was so excited to see the talent that we had. We had a lot of the better players from the North Bayside Conference. I wasn’t expecting the number of experienced, highly skilled foreign players we would go up against."

Dennis said another challenge was the tendency for the players he was recruiting to make late decisions on whether to attend Chesapeake – often as preseason practice was starting.

"That was one of the challenges," he acknowledged. "You can see high school games, and scout players, but some are not going to college and many are planning to go to four-year schools. So many of the students don’t make up their mind about whether or not they are coming until pretty late. Every year the question was, ‘Are we going to have enough players?’ "

While the Skipjacks didn’t post a winning record in any of his four seasons, Dennis felt his teams accomplished what their skill level allowed.

"I did feel that over four years we won the games we should have won," said Dennis. "It was very seldom that we did not win a game that was a winnable game for us.

"Yes, we were often overmatched," he added. "I always felt like we got the most out of the talent we had. One season we had five players who had never played high school soccer. The great thing about that was we had no factions on our team – our more experienced players understood that we needed the inexperienced players in order to have a team. And our more experienced players really encouraged and worked with our less experienced players."

Dennis was especially pleased with the level of sportsmanship showed by his players.

"I always stress sportsmanship with the players, doing the best we can and playing it the right way," said Dennis. "It’s difficult when you’re overmatched and may be losing bad. As a player, you’re giving it your all and getting beat down. It’s a tough situation, but I felt our guys generally played with composure and respect.

"Our guys also stayed together," continued Dennis. "Frank told me historically a lot of times when you start a season poorly you have guys quitting the team. We never had to forfeit games because the guys stuck it out. We were able to keep morale up."

Dennis said the best memory of his Chesapeake coaching career actually came at a Roy Rogers Restaurant in Frederick after a game against Frederick Community College.

"We were eating in the restaurant and a married couple came up to me," said Dennis. "The wife asked, ‘Are you the coach of this team?’ and when I said I was, she said, ‘We see a lot of teams in here and this is the best-behaved team we’ve ever seen.’ Things like that are more important to me than wins and losses.