BEDFORD – Football coach Dino Garr has been a mainstay on the Rye sidelines for 50 years. Now, he’s a fixture atop the New York high school football record books.
The Garnets’ 35-7 win Friday at Fox Lane was No. 364 in Garr’s storied career. The victory pulls him into a tie with late Bethpage coach Howie Vogts, who has held the state’s all-time mark since 2000.
Garr’s first chance to surpass Vogt’s career wins total comes on his home turf, when the 3-0 Garnets host 3-0 Clarkstown North at 7 p.m. next Friday.
If the historic implications added any pressure against Fox Lane, Garr’s team didn’t show it. The Garnets scored all 35 of their points in the first half, beginning with a six-yard touchdown by senior running back Charlie Garnett on Rye’s seventh offensive play.
It took just four plays for Rye to get the ball back, and on the second play of that possession, senior quarterback Carson Miller promptly hurled a 50-yard touchdown pass to senior Henry Shoemaker, who’s scored in every game this season.
Garnett and Shoemaker both scored again in the first half, along with senior Nigel Strazzini, who caught his first career touchdown on a post fade pass from Miller toward the end of the second quarter.
After an offensively hectic first half, neither team found the end zone after halftime. Rye’s second-string defense made their mark, highlighted by breakout performances from juniors Izu Udeagha and Ryan Hess. Udeagha recorded a career-high six tackles, including back-to-back tackles for loss on a third-quarter drive. Hess also had six tackles, along with a fourth-quarter interception.
Rye has now outscored opponents 115-34, their highest point differential (+81) through their first three games since 2016 (+87). The team has climbed to fifth in the unofficial New York state polls, their highest rank since the end of 2008, when the Garnets went undefeated and captured one of Garr’s four state championships.
There have been no shortage of accomplishments in Garr’s 50-year tenure as Rye’s head coach. The latest milestone is a testament to both his longevity and consistency. Garr is now in elite company alongside Vogts, a former Michigan State assistant who coached for over five decades and won 35 high school conference titles.
The record Vogts held for 25 years could be Garr’s for decades to come. The only active coach within 100 wins of him is Farmingdale’s Buddy Krumenacker, who, like Garr, is 77 and entered this season with 272 victories.
While the record is a well-deserved celebration of Garr’s legacy, the coach’s focus is not on the past but on the five games remaining on this year’s schedule and maximizing his team’s chances at a fifth state championship.
Next up is Clarkstown North, a team that’s scored 35 points in each of its games to start 3-0 for the first time since 2017. Rye has won all three of its meetings with the Rams, including a 43-6 victory a season ago, but will be facing arguably their best roster in nearly a decade.
