SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A leader of young men was the best way those who knew John Messinger could describe him.
The man who headed up the South Charleston High School football program for seven years died Tuesday night of an apparent heart attack.
“Mess,” as those who knew him best called him, was a character. The stories of his motivational speeches to his Black Eagle teams during the pregame were the stuff of legend.
He usually carried an old beat up lunch pain into the locker room to begin his much anticipated theatrics each Friday night. It was the same lunch pail he carried when he worked in the coal mines prior to his coaching days.
Players and assistant coaches all waited with bated breath.
“We’d break down film on Sunday and do all of the X’s and O’s and then we’d all start talking about what he might do,” said Donnie Mays, the current head coach at South Charleston who served as Messinger’s offensive coordinator.
Prior to a game against Bridgeport in the 2009 state semi-finals, Messinger who was a champion powerlifter, pulled a piece of steel rebar from the lunch box. The message was twofold: First, you never know what you can do until you put your mind to it. And second, even a team everybody thinks is unbendable can bend.
Messinger then proceeded to bend the steel in half.
“The kids went crazy, and it was unbelievable to see that. The kids were so fired up about that the only thing I could think was there is not way we’re losing this game,” said Mays.
In additional ways, Messinger was a motivator. Mays was an assistant coach at Herbert Hoover where he had once played, but Messinger convinced him to come work for him.
“It was hard to leave my alma mater, but he’s the reason I’m down here. He took an old Hoover boy and implanted him up there at South Charleston,” Mays said.
Just like he provided an opportunity for Mays, he provided opportunities for many of his players. Often they were chances to excel, which otherwise they may not have realized.
Numerous former players recognized Messinger’s contributions to their lives as the news spread on Tuesday, often crediting their former coach for their own accomplishments.
“Man, he bled orange and black and the kids loved him,” Mays added. “He talked about Ella, Jordan, and Jill all the time and he made that his number one priority all the time was family. He got out there on the football field and that’s how he treated the football team, just like they were all his kids.”
Former South Charleston Principal Mike Arbogast admired the relationship Messinger had with every student.
“John didn’t know a stranger, he was a fan of all kids and he had the type of personality that everybody wanted to be around him,” Arbogast explained.
“He would pick up a kid if they needed a ride. He would give them meal money if they needed it. He would buy shoes for a kid if they needed it. That’s what I’m going to remember about John Messinger.”
The best demonstration of the respect Messinger earned could be seen through interactions in the weight room after school, Arbogast recalled.
“He’d be in there chewing those guys’ rear ends to get stronger, get bigger, get faster, but at the end of every workout, every kid that left the weight room walked up and gave him a hug and say, ‘I love you coach.’ You just don’t see that very often,” Arbogast said.
Messinger was demanding, he expected the best out of his players.
After a narrow victory over Martinsburg in the 2009 semi-finals, the team locker room was quiet and dejected. Despite winning the game and advancing to the semi-finals, the Black Eagles had very nearly allowed the game to get away from them.
Messinger tried to explain the mood.
“We built a big of tradition here and we’ve turned this into a winning program and we hope that can continue into the future, but the thing is this, we want CONVINCING wins,” he said.
His team that year would win a second straight state championship, one of the two he would amass in his seven years at South Charleston.
Messinger stepped down with a record of 62 wins and 21 losses and two state championships in 2008 and 2009.