In cutthroat age of winning, Wichita Heights football coach stands on character, integrity
Most of D.J. Dingle’s childhood revolved around the football teams his father coached.
He watched many intense games over the years from the sidelines. He was there on the practice fields for the most difficult practices. He was even sometimes in the locker room for some of his father’s most fiery speeches.
Now D.J. has four years of experience in high school playing for his father, Dominick, as the starting quarterback for Wichita Heights and he is still amazed by the same thing after all of these years.
“I’ve never heard him say one curse word my whole life,” D.J. Dingle said. “That’s still crazy to me. He makes me very proud of the way he is and the culture he is trying to build here at Heights every day.”
Dominick Dingle was raised with a strong Christian faith and modeled his coaching philosophy after his college coach, Jerry Moore, a Hall of Fame head coach at Appalachian State.
He has tried to instill the same values at Heights, where he has been a head coach since 2018. The best way he knows how to do that is to lead by example.
“I’m the same guy off the field as I am on the field and we try to preach that to our kids to be the same way,” Dominick Dingle said. “I’m a man of faith. I’m very positive and very optimistic and I want to give these kids the same thing that someone gave to me all those years ago.”
Dingle ‘doing it the right way’ at Heights
Dingle has started an “ABC” program, which stands for A Better Community. Before the start of every season, the coach chooses a theme for that season. This year it’s “service” with the goal to have the players perform community service on a regular basis.
That’s why a group of the high school football players at Heights volunteered their time to read to elementary and middle school students in Wichita Public Schools. The coach also encourages the football players to attend as many home events for other fall sports as possible with their schedules.
“It’s bigger than football,” Dominick Dingle said. “We want to give back and make Heights the best place and our community the best place it can possibly be. It seems like football players, all they do is take, take, take. They want the large crowds and all of the attention, but there’s not a great amount of service that is being given back. That’s why service is our focus this season and we want to make sure we leave this place a better place than how we found it.”
You won’t find Dingle scouting middle school football games or trying to convince players from other school districts to transfer to his program. He’s proud to say that every player on his roster lives in the Heights school district.
He’s probably sacrificed a few wins along the way — his 21-20 record in five seasons is far from the Hollywood Heights heyday — because of those decisions, but running a program of integrity is more important to him.
“We’ll go 0-8 every year, but we’ll do it the right way,” Dingle said. “I’m very proud of the men we have on our roster right now. We’re going to coach the kids that are in our building.
“I’m going to love them and try to help them become the best person, the best football player and the best husband and father that they can possibly be. That’s one thing that has caused some hiccups and we maybe haven’t been as good as we have been in the past, but we’ve done it the right way and we’ll continue to do it the right way.
The right way has the Falcons on a roll currently. After an 0-2 start to the season, Heights has won its last four games by a combined score of 185-13 entering Friday’s final home game against City League leader Bishop Carroll.
Heights athletic director Mike Church has watched in awe of the way Dingle has built the football program over the last five years.
“He could go .500 or win a state championship and I would be just as proud of him because I know he’s doing it the right way here,” Church said. “He’s living exactly how he wants his players to act. He’s not just coaching football players, he’s raising men of character and he’s not going to blemish his character just to win a few more games.
“I’m proud to call him my friend and he’s actually someone I look up to because he makes me want to be a better husband and a better father and have the character that he does. He’s an amazing human being and he’s going to go far in life.”
QB and coach, a father-son bond
Running back John Randle Jr., a current K-State recruiting target and 4-star prospect in the class of 2023, leads the team with 618 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in just four games of action. Junior Nate Campbell has anchored the defense with a team-high 49 tackles and 7.5 sacks.
After taking a hands-off approach in his son’s junior football career, Dominick has taken joy the last four years coaching his son, D.J., for the first time.
“I’m truly blessed to be able to watch how he’s grown from his freshman year all the way up until now,” Dominick Dingle said. “He’s done a good job of commanding the offense and leading our team and I’m very proud of him.”
“This is everything I’ve wanted,” D.J. Dingle said. “I’ve been waiting to play for him for a long time.”
D.J. admits when he was a kid, he used to idolize his father’s players and want to be like them when he grew up.
But now that he’s older, D.J., which stands for Dominick Jr., has realized the only role model is the man he was named after.
“I try to be like him every single day,” D.J. Dingle said. “I want to do the right thing on and off the field every day, just like him.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
.jpg)