11/6 football: Student assistant Cox has helped Houston, QB Sires

By TODD SOMMERFELDT | tsommerfeldt@lacrossetribune.com

HOUSTON, Minn. — He formulates game plans during the weekend and shouts out formations to be used during a Houston High School football team practice.

Before each game, Steve Cox makes his way around the locker room. He stops to chat with every player and talks about what has to be done to win that night.

If he sees them in the hall at school, he asks how they are doing in class. Cox knows they can’t play football if their grades aren’t up to par, and he needs his players on that field. When quarterback Andy Sires throws an incomplete pass or if a defender misses a tackle, Cox is there to help them figure out what went wrong.

This week has been no different with an MSHSL 9-Man state quarterfinal game scheduled against second-ranked Verndale (10-0) tonight.

The Hurricanes (11-0) are ranked third and making their second straight state appearance.

“We’ve been improving the last three years since I got here,” Cox said. “We were 6-4 my sophomore year, and since then I’ve just been improving these guys.”

While Cox sounds like the Hurricanes’ coach, he’s not.

“He does managerial things, but we call him a student coach,” actual Houston head coach Jason Freed said of the senior. “Sometimes, I feel like he’s taking my job.

“He really soaks in what’s going on in front of him. He watches something, and, bang, he’s got it. He’s an intelligent kid.”

That can be emphasized by the fact that Cox never even attended a Houston football game until his sophomore year.

That’s when Sires decided that Cox, who is autistic, needed to get involved.

“We would see him at school and then not see him again until the next day,” Sires said. “Or school would be out, and we wouldn’t see him all summer.

“We wanted to see our friend more often and thought he would like this.”

After one game, Cox was hooked. His football education, which he takes very seriously, began immediately.

He started devising weekly two- to three-page game plans for Freed, who receives them each Monday and posts them for players.

“It’s everything from what we need to do on offense and defense to what he needs to do to get us ready,” Freed said. “He wants everyone to be ready to go.”

While Cox’s main job is making sure players get water during the game, his eyes rarely veer from the action.

“I watch to make sure the ‘D’ is tackling, the offense is moving down the field and all that good stuff,” Cox said.

If that isn’t happening, he has one stock piece of advise.

“Get ‘em next time,” he said.

Sires said that kind of attitude makes it tough to be down about anything when Cox is around.

“People don’t realize how important he is to the team with his enthusiasm,” Sires said. “He has such a love for the game and for Hurricane sports in general.”

Cox, who spent his 18th birthday with Sires, Brett Benson and Pete Kildahl at his first Minnesota Twins baseball game, is at practice whenever his schedule permits. He also has work to do on the family farm after school, so he balances the two obligations.

His involvement with football and other school activities have made Cox a face, of sorts, for both the school and the community.

He receives as many pats on the back as anyone before and after a hard-fought victory.

Cox was even voted Homecoming King in what Freed, who counted the votes, called a landslide.

“Yeah, I was,” Cox said shyly with a smile after Sires revealed Cox’s royal accomplishment. “That was huge.”

Cox’s contribution to a program that has won 22 of its last 23 games has been huge, too.

Even though he doesn’t suit up in full gear, Cox is as much a part of the team as anyone who does, and he loves every minute of that.

His presence has only had a positive effect on those around him.

“I think guys kind of see him as a mentor,” Sires said. “He’s been a mentor to me, that’s for sure.”