After 60 seasons, Asher nears end of successful run
by Godwin Kelly
Article posted on 10/10/2009

Bud Asher has devoted a big chunk of his life to coaching football at every level of the game.

His turf journey started in 1950 as the coach, general manager, quarterback and kicker for a semi-pro team called the Georgia All-Stars, and will end this season as the kicking coach at Mainland High School.

The 84-year-old Asher, who has also enjoyed careers in law, politics and hospitality, will retire as a coach after this season.

"I feel unbelievable blessed to have 60 years in this game," Asher said before a Buccaneers midweek practice. "It's been an unbelievable ride with the success we've had. It's hard to get old when football keeps you young."

Asher will be honored during halftime of tonight's Spruce Creek-Mainland game at Municipal Stadium. After the game, there's a social planned.

The sendoff was the idea of Mainland head coach John Maronto, who has worked with Asher for 19 consecutive years on the high school and college levels.

"He's been a great coach in every sense of the word," Maronto said. "He's always had a passion for the game and teaching young men the value of what football offers."

Many of his former players are expected to attend, such as Steve Xynidis, who was coached by Asher at Seabreeze and later at the semi-pro level.

"He has been a big influence on my life," said Xynidis, a successful area businessman.

THE MOVE HERE

Asher grew up in the Atlanta area, and it was boxing, not football, that was his sport of choice in high school.

"It was big back then, now it's outlawed," he said.

Asher got into football in earnest at the age of 25, first coaching and playing for the Georgia All-Stars -- a semi-pro team comprised mostly of ex-University of Georgia players who had run out of eligibility -- then coaching service teams at military bases in the Atlanta area.

Asher moved here in 1954 after buying a small beachside motel. Yes, there's a football story behind it.

"I was on my way to Miami for the North-South game that they played on Christmas night," Asher said. "Wally Butts, the coach at Georgia, was coaching the South team. He called me up and asked me to join the team down there."

Asher stopped here en route to Miami and bought the motel at a bargain price from quarrelling co-owners.

"I built the Safari Motel three years later, then I owned the Summit on A1A and (International Speedway Boulevard)," he said. "I was in the (motel) business for 38 years, but I never gave up the coaching."

He worked with the legendary Fred Hogan at Seabreeze in 1954, and from there had various assignments from the high school to pro football levels.

Asher was head coach at Father Lopez twice, and did a stint at New Smyrna Beach High School when Wes Chandler was one of the top prep players in the country.

Chandler went on to earn All-America honors at Florida, then enjoyed a long career in the NFL as a wide receiver.

"I've had some great athletes over the years and I can't say who was the best of all of them, but I think the most complete player I ever coached was Wes," Asher said.

"He did it all. He played offense, defense, kicked and returned kicks. He did everything but sell tickets at the box office."

GOING PRO

On the pro level Asher coached the Daytona Beach Thunderbirds, a semi-pro team in the Southern Professional Football League, and the Jacksonville Sharks of the World Football League.

In a four-year span, Asher's Thunderbird teams piled up a 52-4 record, two undefeated seasons and a pair of championships.

There was that one special victory over Atlanta in 1962, when the coach called on his third-team quarterback to run the offense.

"That was me," Asher said with a laugh. "I think I went through six tanks of oxygen that night. I promised my wife I would never play again, but I did throw seven touchdown passes and ran for another. Good way to go out as a player."

Along the way, Asher has been a municipal judge, the mayor of Daytona Beach and an emcee at spring break pool deck parties at the Safari.

Now that his coaching career is coming to an end, he'll tell you what it takes to have a successful football program.

"I always said a great athlete could do more for a mediocre coach than a mediocre athlete could do for a great coach," he said. "I've been blessed almost my entire life with great athletes.

"You get lucky to get one or two of them in your lifetime, and I had several of them that made people believe I could coach."

READY THE CART

Maronto knows better than that. He has worked by Asher's side for nearly two decades.

"He's a student of the game, which is why he's been able to change with the game," Maronto said. "He enjoys the fellowship of working with other coaches and with the kids. The kids love him."

If Asher gets the bug to blow a practice-field whistle, Maronto will be ready.

"We'll always have a position for Bud," he said. "We'll always have a golf cart ready for him or assign him a detail."

Six decades in the sport is now a blur for the local football icon.

"The time has gone so fast," he said. "I feel so blessed to be there so long and be a part of the game that long.

"It's been great people. You don't grow old when you are winning football games like we've managed to do over the years."

 

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