St. Marys coach begins 25th year at the helm
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ST. MARYS - The piece of paper he keeps in his possession 24/7 is a reminder of where it all started.
Goals - both team and personal - which he stands by even 25 years later.
The 2026 high school football season marks an anniversary of sorts for St.Marys coach Jodi Mote. He enters his 25th season needing only five wins to reach the 200 plateau.
"This has never been about me," Mote said. "It's been about being an educator. I love teaching. I love teaching students with disabilities. I have a strong desire to teach students with autism or individuals with autism.
"Obviously, you get to coach the sport of football and be around young men. I've been around a lot of guys who have graduated, come back and become managers of some sort."
Mote's arrival as a head coach followed quite an unusual path. He was turned down when he first applied for the upcoming 1999 season.
The St. Marys grad continued to teach at Pleasants County Middle School and the football position became available three years later. Four days prior to the start of the 2002 season, he was hired at the age of 28.
He eventually wrote on a piece of paper three goals for the team: Team work, winning season and playoffs. The program had not experienced a winning season since 1994.
"I knew when I was a water boy for my dad who was head football coach at St.Marys in 1979, coaching was an interest," Mote said. "Basically, this is where I always lived, so I knew. My ambition was to turn the program around."
St. Marys won three games leading into Mote's tenure. He relied on his three faith-based personal goals (be a Christian; serve God, family and everyone; and work hard) to pull off a 5-5 record in his debut.
"I had players who bought into what we were trying to do - and it just kind of continued with them," Mote said.
Once Mote and the Blue Devils entered the playoff conversation, beginning in 2005, the program's success took off. In his tenure, St. Marys has qualified for the postseason on 16 occasions, including last year's 8-3 finish.
In their first state championship game appearance under Mote, St.Marys and Williamstown met in Wheeling in 2014 in a game for the ages. The Blue Devils lost 33-32 in triple overtime, then reached the pinnacle of high school football two years later by defeating East Hardy 23-8 for the state title.
St. Marys was also recognized as state champions in the 2020 COVID season.
"Obviously the credit goes to people through the years - from your student-athletes to your staff and other adults," Mote said. "I just felt like the pieces were there. I just had to put them together."
During the 2014 season, his immediate family and the community of St. Marys received a scare when Mote suffered a stroke. He still remembers how that day played out.
"That was September 30, 2014," Mote recalls. "It started in the school building then I was going home to put the trash out. I had an athletic director's meeting in New Martinsville. The stupid side of me drove up there.
"But you know, I was 39 years old, so I wasn't thinking stroke," Mote said. "Obviously, I should not have done that. Dr. Heather Straight and my assistsant Jay Powell were instrumental. The doctors who treated me, I just thank God."
Mote missed one game but two weeks later was right back on the sidelines
"No one knows when (it is their time)," Mote said. "It could be tomorrow. You could have cancer. I don't know where I'll be when it happens."
Mote, who turns 53 in November, does not have a timetable for stepping down from coaching at St.Marys. In fact, if he could continue working with young men on the football field for eternity he might just accept the challenge.
"Thank God I am feeling OK," Mote said. "If there is anything I struggle with is name recognition. I learn different ways to remember. Everybody has their struggles. Thank God I can do what I am doing."
Jodi and his wife Mindy have two sons. Altogether, they have five children. With a daughter giving birth to twin boys last year, there are a total of three grandsons.
"My wife (Mindy) has been my rock, the glue as far as being able to help through the years," Jodi said.
Perhaps Mote's family tree explains why he has such a positive outlook on life while working with young men on the football field. He is proud to recognize his parents Gail and Sandy Mote, his grandmothers Marie Pugh Cooper and Evelyn Mote, along with his uncle Charles Pugh III and cousin Chip Pugh as individuals who made him the person he is.
Cooper has owned Vienna Florist and Bridal Boutique for 50-plus years. Evelyn Mote lives in Gainesville, Texas, where Jodi was born. Charles Pugh III is a minister, while Chip Pugh was an all-state lineman at Parkersburg High School who is now the Director of Team Development and Chaplain for the Tennessee Titans.
"My grandmothers were very religious people who just drove me," Mote said. "My parents and my uncle did the same."
The list of influential people in Mote's life continues. From football, they include Joe Crislip, Bill Hanlin, Rich Williams, Paul 'Bud' Billiard, Frank Marcinko, Mike Hayden. Williams, who played for Moter's father in the West Virginia North-South game, hired Jodi as an assistant football coach in 1997. That's where the connection with Crislip began. To this very day, Mote wears a wristband given by Crislip reading 'WWJD.'
Billiard coached at Brooke, Marcinko was an assistant at Parkersburg High School, while Hayden was the head coach at South.
Through the years, the message remains the same - written on a piece of paper that begins its 25th year representing the core values for coaching the Purple and Gold.
Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com