TOM HARRIS
Dave Wilber showed up at the football field one day, and, like the man who came to dinner, he never left.
However, even after being around the Ashtabula and now Lakeside football programs for 30 years or so, no one is dropping hints or trying to politely show Wilber the door.
“Dave is kind of all-everything for the sports programs at Lakeside,” Dragons football coach Bill Lipps said. “I can tell you, we would operate a lot more chaotically without him.”
A detailed description of all that Wilber does would run for pages and pages, but it can be condensed to three words: whatever needs done. At a junior-varsity game with Geneva, Lipps happened to be talking with former Lakeside coach Jay Corlew, who is now an assistant at Geneva.
“Jay says to me as Dave is walking by, ‘You have no idea how much I miss that guy,’” Lipps said. “And (another former Lakeside coach) Tom Bruney called Dave the director of football operations.”
On the sideline
The list of Ashtabula and Lakeside coaches who have had the benefit of Wilber’s efforts is lengthy. Wilber’s involvement started when his older son, Tyler, a 1993 Ashtabula graduate, played for coach Tom Smith.
“Our sons are four years apart,” Wilber said. “After Tyler graduated, Todd (a 1997 Ashtabula graduate) was playing. We had a kid playing football for eight years. And after Todd graduated, I just stayed around.”
When Wilber first went down to Guarnieri Field to see if he could help, he had skills to offer Coach Smith. Wilber was a paramedic and the director of the South Central Ambulance District. So Wilber kept busy tending to the Panthers’ first aid and related concerns.
First aid is still a big part of Wilber’s role. He works with Jeff Brodsky, the Dragons’ team doctor, and trainer Randy Schiff. All three are directly involved with the football team. Wilber and Schiff work with different Lakeside teams during the winter and fall seasons.
Lipps is amazed at all that Wilber does, and grateful that he does them.
“On hot days, Dave makes sure the players and coaches have plenty of water. It’s the coldest water I’ve ever had,” Lipps said. “And he is always taking precautions for the safety of the players. He makes sure they stay hydrated, and he measures their helmets to make sure they fit.”
And that’s only the beginning. Wilber is everywhere, taking care of the little things, dealing with the loose ends.
“When the laundry comes back from the cleaners, Dave takes care of that,” Lipps said. “I couldn’t tell you what’s in the training room; Dave takes care of all that.”
When the Dragons are playing at home, Wilber gets the Lakeside Stadium field set up, putting out the pylons and flags, getting the yard markers out and setting up the field phones. When Lakeside goes on the road, Wilber makes sure all the equipment is ready to go.
He wasn’t asked to do most of things he does, nor were the various tasks he tends to dumped on him. They simply needed done.
“I just started doing different things,” he said. “Somebody has to do it. Most of it is stuff that other people were doing. But when someone left, I’d just pick up the things he was doing.”
“I could not begin to tell you everything Dave does,” Lipps said. “And I can’t imagine how hectic life would be around here without him.”
Wilber isn’t quite the all-purpose man during the winter and spring. But he is there.
“I just do the medical and first aid things in the winter and spring,” Wilber said. “I think of myself as being like a cut man in boxing. I stay in the corner, and if a player has a problem, I patch him up and send him back in."
Wilber is 63 and says he’s “the old man on the block.” But he retired nine years ago from his job as director of the South Central Ambulance District, so he’s got some hours to fill.
“Well, I like being around the kids,” Wilber said. “And I have plenty of time. It gives me something to do.”
“He goes above and beyond for us,” Lipps said. “Whatever it is, he just does it. He does so much, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all he does.”
For Wilber, it’s an opportunity to give the coaches more time to coach.
“The coaches have enough to do,” Wilber said. “If something isn’t getting done, the coaches have to do it. This takes some things off their shoulders and lets them concentrate on coaching. And we’ve had some great coaches at Ashtabula and Lakeside.”
Wilber has seen a lot of high school football over the last 30 years. Of course, he’s missed a lot, too.
“How much of the game you actually see depends on a lot of things,” he said. “Sometimes, I’m so busy I hardly see any of the game. Other times, I’m able to watch quite a bit. I probably get to see about half the game most of the time."
Wilber has also been able to observe young people over the course of three decades. They were good kids then, and they are good kids now.
“Sometimes kids get into trouble,” he said. “But we got into trouble when we were their age. It was just different trouble.
“The great thing is, I’ll be walking in the mall or some place, and a kid who played five, six, seven years ago will come up and want to talk. It makes you feel good when you hear about what they’re doing. They’re all good kids.”
The biggest change he’s noticed over the years is the football playing surface. The artificial turf that many schools now have is a far cry from the fields teams once played on.
“I can remember a couple games against Jefferson when the field was just a quagmire,” Wilber said. “The mud would just suck you in. And when you went out on the field, you had to worry about losing your shoes.”
Family man
Wilber, a 1964 Ashtabula graduate, played football for the Panthers.
“Mostly, I guarded the bench,” he said.
After graduation, he served in the military, attended Kent State and went through the first paramedic class in Conneaut. Then he worked for the Ashtabula County Sheriff for a few years.
“I ran the ambulances for the Sheriff’s Department, and when they started the South Central Ambulance District, I went down there,” he said.
He and Marie Wilber, who taught at Washington Elementary, have been married for 41 years. Dave Wilber keeps a pretty busy schedule during the school year, especially during the football season. But that’s nothing new for the Wilbers.
“Well, it’s the same type of life we had when I was working,” he said. “I was gone a lot for ambulance calls and different things with the sheriff. I was gone quite a bit.
“But Marie is a wonderful woman, and she accepts what I do. I couldn’t live without her.”
Wilber has plenty to keep him busy at home, too. There’s a house, a lawn, a hobby and three grandchildren.
“We’ve got five or six acres, so I spend a lot of time mowing,” he said. “There are some woods, and Marie and I enjoy walking in them. We just really enjoy our home.”
Wilber also collects cars and shows them at the cruise-ins at Lake Shore Park, Saybrook and other places. He has a 1937 Pontiac and a 1978 Corvette.
“That’s what we enjoy doing,” he said.
As for the upcoming holidays, Wilber said, “Oh, they’re going to be great this year.”
Dave and Marie recently became grandparents for the third time. Landon, the son of Tyler and Jamie Wilber, is 4 months old. His sister, Taylo,r is 4. Tyler teaches history at Lakeside and coached freshmen football in 2008. During the recently concluded 2009 campaign, he did the statistics for the Dragons and worked with the film and getting the videos on DVD.
Todd and Aimee Wilber live in the Columbus area and have a 2-year-old son, Andrew.
The good life
How much longer will Dave Wilber be a fixture at Lakeside football games? It’s a question he’d rather not answer.
“I was asked that question once before, and I said I’d probably die on the field,” Wilber said. “It wasn’t long after that, back in 2001, that I had a heart attack on the field.
“I ran out on the field to look at a player and I started getting pains in my chest. They took me out in an ambulance. I was in the hospital here for about week. Then I went up to Cleveland, and they put a stent in. I’ve been fine ever since.”
Wilber has also been a diabetic for about 40 years.
“A lot of people tell me I shouldn’t be doing all the things I do. But I still do them.”
So, don’t expect Wilber to slow down any time soon. He’s involved and he’s having a good time.
“It’s a good life,” he said. “You only go around once, so you might as well enjoy it.”
Harris is a freelance writer from Ashtabula Township.
