All-State football: Gary Rose keeps Carl Albert winning

Former Carl Albert quarterback Realmuto led the Titans to the 2009 championship and is now a catcher in the Miami Marlins organization.

“It's unbelievable the impact that Coach Rose has had on me,” Realmuto said. “It says a lot about him how many amazing assistant coaches he has around him — guys like Tex Rollins and Mike Corley and others — that could be head coaches at a lot of schools but they stay to be a part of things at Carl Albert.”

Rose gives much of the credit — both inspirationally and on the field — to Corley, his longtime defensive coordinator, for this season's turnaround.

Corley was diagnosed with cancer early in the year and struggled through treatment during the early part of the season.

“During those six weeks we were losing, he was not very healthy,” Rose said. “And then we get to Week 11 and get the news that he's cancer-free the week of the Del City game. That was a real uplift and motivator for our kids.”

Corley's improvement also let him be more involved with the defense.

“He's an awesome coach,” Rose said. “He's one of the best defensive guys I've been around in my 39 years. Along with guys like Mike Goff, Tex Rollins, Shane Farley, Marc Morris and Dan Toney. Those guys are just phenomenal.”

This season certainly wasn't like anything Rose had ever experienced.

“This is radically different from the others,” Rose said. “I talked to our kids about how we all feel like giving up and times but how you feel and how you act are two different things and I think they learned from watching Mike Corley and also from the rest of our coaches' examples.”