Latest news with #DanKeeler
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Why do coaches coach? Commander of USS Abraham Lincoln gives reason
Dan Keeler, the new captain of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, called up his football coaches from his days at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High earlier this week, along with his English teacher, to give them a salute for the impact they made on a teenager now in charge of one of the Navy's most powerful ships. The speech by Keeler on Wednesday in Coronado at a changing of the command ceremony offered the real reason coaches coach and teachers teach — to make a difference in a student's life. Advertisement "I learned more about hard work, grit, determination and how to handle pain, honestly, from this group," he said. He recalled when Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney gave him a recommendation letter for the Naval Academy: "Coach Rooney, when you handed me the letter, you said, 'I think you're going to be good at this,' and you were right." Keeler added, "There were plenty of championships, but I don't think that's how these people measure success. I was a very mediocre backup quarterback and defensive back. If I was playing in a football game, we were winning by a lot. "Those metrics of winning and losing weren't the only things that mattered. They were important. These educators took all the time to get the best out of their students and I was one of them. They saw something in me and chose to make a positive impact, and I am forever grateful." Advertisement Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Why do coaches coach? Commander of USS Abraham Lincoln gives reason
Dan Keeler, the new captain of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, called up his football coaches from his days at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High earlier this week, along with his English teacher, to give them a salute for the impact they made on a teenager now in charge of one of the Navy's most powerful ships. The speech by Keeler on Wednesday in Coronado at a changing of the command ceremony offered the real reason coaches coach and teachers teach — to make a difference in a student's life. Advertisement "I learned more about hard work, grit, determination and how to handle pain, honestly, from this group," he said. He recalled when Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney gave him a recommendation letter for the Naval Academy: "Coach Rooney, when you handed me the letter, you said, 'I think you're going to be good at this,' and you were right." Keeler added, "There were plenty of championships, but I don't think that's how these people measure success. I was a very mediocre backup quarterback and defensive back. If I was playing in a football game, we were winning by a lot. "Those metrics of winning and losing weren't the only things that mattered. They were important. These educators took all the time to get the best out of their students and I was one of them. They saw something in me and chose to make a positive impact, and I am forever grateful." Advertisement Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Why do coaches coach? Commander of USS Abraham Lincoln gives reason
Dan Keeler, the new captain of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, called up his football coaches from his days at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High earlier this week, along with his English teacher, to give them a salute for the impact they made on a teenager now in charge of one of the Navy's most powerful ships. The speech by Keeler on Wednesday in Coronado at a changing of the command ceremony offered the real reason coaches coach and teachers teach — to make a difference in a student's life. 'I learned more about hard work, grit, determination and how to handle pain, honestly, from this group,' he said. He recalled when Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney gave him a recommendation letter for the Naval Academy: 'Coach Rooney, when you handed me the letter, you said, 'I think you're going to be good at this,' and you were right.' Keeler added, 'There were plenty of championships, but I don't think that's how these people measure success. I was a very mediocre backup quarterback and defensive back. If I was playing in a football game, we were winning by a lot. 'Those metrics of winning and losing weren't the only things that mattered. They were important. These educators took all the time to get the best out of their students and I was one of them. They saw something in me and chose to make a positive impact, and I am forever grateful.'
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Dan Keeler went from Notre Dame High to commander of USS Abraham Lincoln
For all the push-ups completed, for all the running drills endured and for all the yelling received during his days playing high school football at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High in the 1990s, Dan Keeler is getting the last laugh later this month when he takes command of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in Coronado. "Now I'm going to have to salute him," former Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney quipped. Keeler, who graduated from high school in 1994 and went on to the Naval Academy, is taking command of one of the Navy's most prominent ships. "It is incredible that he has earned this responsibility," Rooney said. Keeler was a defensive back and track athlete for the Knights and is one of five siblings who attended Notre Dame. Track coach Joe McNab, who just won his 11th Southern Section championship, was his defensive backs coach. "Good kid," McNab said. "He's a guy who fit all the boxes in terms of being a great kid and doing things right," Rooney said. Rooney, McNab and former football assistant Jeff Kraemer will make the trip to the San Diego area for the change-of-command ceremony. For some reason, Keeler invited his former high school coaches after all those days of sweat and tears in Sherman Oaks. "If I had known he was going to be so powerful, I wouldn't have made him run so much," Kraemer said. Keeler isn't the first Notre Dame graduate to rise in the Navy ranks. Retired Adm. Mike Mullen was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011 and graduated from Notre Dame in 1964. Mullen once came back to his alma mater to address the student body. Rooney, who retired in 2019 after 40 years as football coach, said his goal was always to "help kids become great people and do things right." Coaches know that the best day of all is when a graduate comes back to campus and tells them how they are doing and explains how lessons learned as teenagers really made a difference in their life. As summer begins and graduates move on with their lives and the class of 2029 arrives, it's a good reminder to everyone that it's not wins and losses that matter most in high school. It's teaching life lessons and preparing students to become adults, good people and good community members. To see a former Los Angeles-area high school football player take charge of an aircraft carrier is proof that all that running to gain stamina, all that preaching to work together as a team, all those lectures that practice makes perfect … it's true. You only need to listen, learn and dedicate yourself to reaching a goal. A salute to all the coaches and teachers who understand their real job is to create opportunities for their students to succeed through wisdom and inspiration. Capt. Keeler, Bravo Zulu and Anchors Aweigh. Be safe. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
