Chapel Hill ISD superintendent Lamond Dean shows customized football to Mandy Riordan, wife of Chapel Hill High School’s head football coach, and daughter Kendyl, before honoring him with gifts for his 100th football career win.

Chapel Hill head football coach Jeff Riordan walked out of the weight room with the football team on Monday like any other day. Little did he know, his family, administrators and superintendent Lamond Dean were on the football field ready to honor him with a set of gifts to showcase the district’s appreciation for his work and recent accomplishments.

Riordan led his Bulldogs to secure a spot in the state semifinals this week after Friday’s win over Kilgore. The game was also Riordan’s 100th career win — a milestone for the local coach.

Following a speech of appreciation, Dean handed Riordan two frames, one emphasizing his career as a head football coach in Chapel Hill and his previous team, Crosby, where he also led the team to state semifinals, six playoff appearances, and four district championships. The other frame included a photo of Riordan and two family pictures, showcasing a tradition among the family where they take a family portrait after each win.

The frames were a vision of Dean’s made possible with the help of district communications team member and print shop director Matthew Cates. Along with the images, Riordan was also gifted a customized football painted by Chapel Hill High School art teacher Kimberly Taylor, showcasing his 100th win.

Dean said the special presents were gifted out of love. According to him the images showcase Riordan’s past, present and future throughout his wins and also recognize his family.

“There’s only one group of people that have been with him all 100 wins and that’s his lovely wife and two children, so we wanted to make sure to celebrate that,” he said.

According to Dean, the district’s appreciation and gratitude toward Riordan is strong, especially due to his efforts to revitalize the football program in the past four years and lead the team to the state semifinals for the second time.

“Outside of the 100 wins, he is a wonderful leader and wonderful mentor for his other coaches as well as the children — young men — that he has. Speaking outside of football, he’s a great athletic director. All of our programs in our district have flourished under his leadership the last four years. It’s just a small snippet on how we feel and adore Coach Riordan,” Dean said.

He also said Riordan commits to the team and the community on an everyday basis and treats the district students as his own family.

“His values are impeccable. He is a family team man, he really preaches that and walks on that daily,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure he understood how much we sincerely appreciate the work that he has done for our programs, our community and for our young men…”

Riordan received the gifts in front of the football team, and emphasized that his 100th win was not done alone.

“It’s a family atmosphere here. Ohana is our word, means family and it’s from the top down. From Mr. Dean to Mr. Strode, to the athletic director, coaches, and players, it’s a big family here and we celebrate as a family. This is not an accomplishment I’ve done on my own, there’s a lot of good coaches and good players, a lot of good admins that support you and community support. All those things accumulate to 100 wins, not just anything I’ve done,” Riordan said.

Striving for more wins, Dean also mentioned that Riordan’s birthday falls on Friday’s state semifinals game against Boerne at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Riordan said the best birthday present would be for the team to get a win and make its way to the state championship.

“We lost last year’s state semifinal game in the final nine seconds of the game,” he said. “We had the led to all the way until that point, still had a chance to tie with a field goal we missed but our hashtag all off-season was nine seconds. Trying to find those nine seconds to get to the state championship game plus one; get one more game was another one … We felt like we left some unfinished business for last season that we’re trying to accomplish this year.”

The district will not have classes on the day of the game, Friday, and Dean encourages the community to go out and support.

“We encourage everybody to take that trip down 1-35, put on your blue and gold and throw up that CH and represent our district. Not all the time, not too often do we have an opportunity to go out and celebrate part of something so special,” he said. “Don’t let this game be the game you miss.”