Legendary tough guy Butkus makes Montour debut

Lou Cerro called Dick Butkus' first practice as head football coach at Montour "probably one of the worst days" that he could remember.

But don't get the wrong idea -- everything is fine between Butkus and Cerro, who in his first season with Montour has essentially turned over operations to Butkus and camera crews filming a reality TV series for ESPN.

However, Cerro and Butkus agree that they would like to see more sun and humidity and less cooling rain when their Montour players return to the practice fields this morning.

Other than heavy rains that delayed Butkus' debut by almost an hour and likely kept away a larger crowd of onlookers and a sprinkler system that saw fit to go off towards the end of the morning practice, Monday provided nothing to suggest that Cerro and Butkus can't make this situation work.

In fact, Butkus spent the majority of his first practice standing back and letting Cerro and his staff run the roost -- as was his plan.

"I never met any of the kids before today, so I was just trying to look around and see," Butkus said. "I told one of the defensive coaches that I wanted to say a few things and he told me to go ahead and say it. But I didn't want to press too much on my first day.

"That being said, if I see that I can help somebody with something, I'm going to step forward and do it."

A specific that Butkus wanted changed before a second practice session last night was to have ball-carriers actually run with footballs during form-tackling drills.

When he heard of Butkus' request, Cerro immediately called for implementation of such action.

But other than that request, Butkus spent yesterday playing the part of astute observer of Cerro and his staff.

"He kind of reminds me of a coach on the college or professional level in that he trusts his assistants with a lot of responsibility and he kind of oversees everything," Butkus said of Cerro. "That's a good way to be."

Butkus, who has never before coached football despite his Hall of Fame credentials as a standout player with the Chicago Bears, insisted he will learn as much from Cerro as the Montour players do from him.

"I'll have to," Butkus joked. "He's done this before. (Coaching) is all new to me."

One situation that Butkus doesn't foresee becoming a problem is his Montour players holding him in such high regard that he cannot coach them.

"I don't think they know me, really, and I don't think it makes that much difference to them," Butkus offered. "If anything, they are probably thinking, 'Why him?'

"Maybe their fathers have heard of me... I don't know.

"Maybe these kids don't know who I am, but if they know anything about (football), they'll probably find out from somebody that I've been where they are before and maybe I'm telling them to do something right."

Provided, of course, that Butkus speaks up a bit more -- something about which Cerro isn't all too concerned.

Cerro also isn't too worried about Montour players becoming confused as to which coach is in charge.

"I don't think they are confused," Cerro said. "We've spoken before and the kids are responding to all of us.

"It'll definitely be a process during the season, but from what I've seen today, everybody is working together on this whole thing."