Former UW, NFL receiver Looker named interim football coach at Rogers in Puyallup
Trivia question: Who caught Tom Brady’s first NFL touchdown pass?
If you guessed Dane Looker, you’d be correct.
The 1995 Puyallup High School grad and former UW wide receiver, who went on to play in the NFL for eight years, caught the pass from Brady during a 2000 preseason game against the Carolina Panthers.
Looker has been the offensive coordinator for Rogers High School since 2015. Now he’s been named the interim head coach at Rogers, taking over for Gene Bowen, who stepped down after the 2021 spring season.
“The (Rogers administration) just decided they’d like to give it a full year to open that position up,” Looker said. “I wasn’t expecting to be in this situation. They asked me if I’d step in for a year. I think the plan right now is just to be an interim. They’ll open it up, try to find the best qualified candidate moving forward.”
Looker realizes being a head coach is an immense time commitment. He’s already busy helping manage Looker Asphalt alongside his two brothers. But he didn’t rule out being interested in potentially taking the job full-time, if both parties see things working well in year one.
“I don’t think I’d ever eliminate myself from the position,” Looker said.
That’s down the road. Right now, he’s focused on getting the school’s football program on the right track. The Rams went 0-5 during the covid-shortened spring season. Kids who grow up in the Rogers feeder schools have largely been opting to enroll in Puyallup High School instead and play for the Vikings.
“I want to try to build some energy and excitement about the program,” Looker said. “And primarily, try to keep our kids. Get the kids that are supposed to go to Rogers excited about coming here. We keep losing a lot of those guys to other schools.”
That’s created a significant depth issue in recent years. Last season, the team had to put one of their starting corners at right tackle, because they didn’t have enough offensive linemen.
“We haven’t had the horses,” Looker said. “We need to get the guys up front committed to Rogers. We’ve got to build a wall around our feeder junior highs.”
Looker still has the football that he caught from Brady in that preseason game. He didn’t think much of it at the time, as Brady was the team’s fourth-string quarterback coming out of college.
“That was my second touchdown of the game,” Looker said. “I was just thinking, ‘I’m on a roll right now.’”
He went on to play for the St. Louis Rams from 2001-08. When he took over as Rogers’ offensive coordinator in 2015, he tried to bring the NFL game with him. He realized quickly that was a bit overzealous.
“My first season, I came in with the (St. Louis) Rams playbook,” he said. “I learned from coach Bowen that sometimes simple is best. I just want to get guys proud to be a Rogers Ram, proud to be part of the program. High school marks the high-point for most of these kids’ football careers. I want it to be memorable for them and get us winning games.”
