During his 30-year tenure, Coach Walton has coached 15 percent of Hawken's living alumni. That's a lot of people with a lot of memories. What's yours? Send in your favorite memories of Coach Walton to jburr@hawken.edu.

"I think it's safe to say that when past and current players discuss Coach Walton, the word Respect stands out above all others. Whether you're a lifer or an entering ninth grader, you learn very quickly what makes Coach Walton so special. You learn to adopt his approach in many areas whether it's in academics or a person's relationship with his family. He doesn't use profanity to get his message across. He constructively criticizes you one moment and congratulates you the next. Every play he calls or any word he speaks has a tremendous amount of meaning to it. Anytime he addresses the team whether it's at the end of practice or two minutes before the U.S. game is special. There are 30-40 sets of eyes staring up at him believing every word he says. There is no doubt in any player's mind that Coach Walton's words are the most anticipated ones of the week. Every week I remember a few of my buddies and I would try to predict whether Coach would give us the emotional pep talk in the wrestling room a few hours before the game or in the field house or locker room literally two minutes before the game. Either way, once you saw those jaw muscles start to twitch and his eyes start to get big, you knew it was gametime. The most important thing that I learned from Coach Walton was his famous quote, "EXPECT TO WIN." Being a few years removed from my days on the gridiron I now know that when Coach Walton would say, Expect To Win, he didn't necessarily always mean on the field. Expect To Win can be applied to one's family, academics, and even his or her job. The hard work and preparation that you put into anything gives you the expectation to be victorious. Nobody prepares all week for an exam, or a presentation and hopes to do well. THEY EXPECT TO DO WELL. The day I graduated from Hawken I thought about one of the more inspirational speeches Coach delivered to my teammates and me: "I know I can't do everything, but what I can do, I will do. And I'll do with all my heart." Every young man or woman that has the privilege to learn from Coach Walton is truly blessed."

Like most, I have so many memories that it would take an entire book to share them all. I think the two things that I reflect back on the most were Coach Walton's understanding of the game and his ability to put things into perspective for the team. No matter the opponent or how small our players might have been, Coach Walton believed that we were the better team. That confidence came from his dedication to us as players and the "EXPECTATION TO WIN" that he instilled in us each and every two a day, practice, pregame talk, halftime talk, or bus ride home. Whenever we took the field we were already winners in our minds. He never let us think otherwise. I can remember a tough game(happened to be a Friday Night Game) that we had against a very strong Perry team in 83'. At the half we were down 6 to nothing and had only generated about 45 yards of offense. The team was beaten up and you could feel the confidence level beginning to drop. During the half, Coach consulted with his staff as usual and then emerged with a pep talk that moved the team in a way that I can't put into words. Suffice it to say that our first offensive series covered 40 yards and resulted in a touchdown. We went on to win the game 16 to 6. Coach Walton has that type of impact on his players. You want to win for him. I have a son now and he plays football. Often, when talking to him about his games or practices I find myself telling him that he has to EXPECT TO WIN. It wasn't until recently when I began to reflect on my playing days at Hawken and all the things that Coach Walton preached to us, that I remembered were that EXPECT TO WIN speech originated. Looking over my high school and collegiate football career, I can easily say that Coach Walton is the best that I have seen. Given his level of accomplishment, Hawken has been extremely fortunate to retain such a talented and dedicated educator.

Here's a funny story about Coach Walton - the underlying message is also good though. Coach Walton always wanted us to demonstrate RESPECT for our opponents; hard for high school kids to always understand, but as we age we start to get it. Obviously this lesson is greater than the game of football - it's a life-long lesson that can and should be applied to anything you do. Here's the story. It was the last game of the 1984 season (my Junior). The 8-1 Hawks were traveling east to play a team from Ledgemont that was struggling. During the week Coach Walton and the other coaches did the best they could to keep us focused on the game, but on game day to say we were over confident would have be an understatement. Only one thing sticks out about the game itself - I remember watching Dave White ramble down the center of the field with the ball and a few Ledgemont players actually ran away from him not wanting to make the tackle. The memory I write about took place before the game. On the bus ride, a few guys decided to wipe a little eye black below their eyes because it was a sunny day. Jon Hardacre and I (and maybe a few others - Tim Brennan and Evan Lowe come to mind) took it a little further, we painted a few vertical black stripes and some red stripes on our faces as well. While others may have joined in the face painting party, Jon and I were the only ones that decided to rearrange the zonks on the back of our helmets. We felt that the regimented location of the zonks made very little sense; instead they should be more randomly placed like the buckeyes on Ohio State's helmets. It was late in the season, we had won 8 games, so we had plenty of zonks to work with. A few minutes later we had a nice random field of zonks covering our helmets. Off to the field for pre-game we went...not long after that Coach Walton called the team together and had a few words for the team. I recall being told that "anyone dressed for Halloween" would not be playing and also that the zonks on our helmets would have to put back or removed. Jon and I chose to quickly remove the "war paint" and get the random zonks off of our helmets (we threw them down on the field). As an aside I also remember Scott Hackenberg retrieving many additional zonks from the Ledgemont field that day before the game was ever player. We managed to pull out a victory that day and finished the season 9-1; unfortunately we were third in the computer rankings (back when on the top two went to the playoffs) and thus didn't make the playoffs again (same thing happened in 1983 and then again in 1985 - I was 3 for 3)!