JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Charron Dorsey Sr., a mountain of a football player who starred at Matthew Gilbert, Bolles, Florida State and made it to the NFL before segueing into coaching to impact the youth in his hometown, died on Monday night.
Dorsey had complications stemming from a recent medical episode. He was 46 years old.
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Posts filled Facebook Tuesday morning with tributes to Dorsey, from former Gilbert and Bolles teammates to parents of players who Dorsey coached.
Dorsey played under coaching legends during his playing career, including Corky Rogers at Bolles, Bobby Bowden at Florida State and Jimmy Johnson with the Cowboys. He was 6-7 and 315 pounds during his senior year at Bolles, a multisport star in football and basketball and an athletic freak. Off the field, Dorsey, who friends called, “Big Red,” was a gentle soul. His size was imposing, but Dorsey was far from that. He was always a teacher. If Dorsey needed to speak up and get loud, he would. But his coaching and teaching style was infused with humility and life lessons. For such a big person, he was truly soft spoken.
“Just at a loss for words thinking about my brother. We’ve been doing this for a very long time until now. We see kids that we’ve coached now are coaching or have kids themselves,” said Parker coach Mike Holloway. “We built a legacy on hard work and doing it ourselves, letting kids know through hard work and dedication you can make it and be successful.
He started his career in Tallahassee on defense and then made the move to tackle and earned first team All-ACC honors as a senior. Dorsey parlayed that standout college career into a seventh-round draft spot with Dallas. He made three starts across two seasons with the Cowboys and Texans,
When he stopped playing professionally, Dorsey returned to Jacksonville and began his post-playing days career and started coaching. He made a name for himself at his alma mater, Gilbert. He built one of the top middle school programs in the state, going 87-5 over 10 seasons and winning three championships. Dorsey tried his hand at high school coaching with his first stint at Jackson in 2011-12 and went 6-13.
But Dorsey’s most success came at Parker.
The Braves hired Dorsey in 2018 and he took the Braves from irrelevance to a district championship in his second season in 2019. Parker started 0-2 and then ripped off a stellar finish that drew alumni back out to fill Joe Hodge Stadium. It beat Westside 26-21 for the District 3-5A title, with electricity in the air that night that had been missing from the program for nearly two decades.
“He was a great person and idol to the community,” said Braves quarterback Will Wyche. “Always made sure you were doing the right thing and wanted every player/kid he came across to know that it’s bigger than football and really wanted us to be great young men.
“That 2019 year we won district, was by far the best team I have been apart of, not just because of us winning but because it was more of a family than just a ball club and that is one thing Coach Dorsey always wanted with his teams. To be together and to be a family.”
Parker had last won a district title in 2000 when it beat Wolfson. Before Dorsey’s arrival, the Braves’ last winning season was in 2008. Brad Bernard, Parker’s athletic director at the time Dorsey was there, said he was so successful because he could relate to what kids were going through. Bernard said Dorsey undoubtedly saved lives of players during his time, giving them plenty of reasons to focus on schoolwork and sports and to not get caught up in mischief.
“He cared for the kids. The kids were his main priority. He fought for them tooth and nail. He was a great example as a man. He could relate to the kids,” Bernard said. “No kid could come to him and tell him something that he didn’t understand. He could relate to them. I think he saved some kids. … If a kid came up to him and said they were going through hard times, he encouraged them to fight through it because he went through it.”
At Parker, Dorsey coached his son, Charron Dorsey Jr., one of the area’s top two-way players during his time in high school. He stepped down after spring practice last year, turning the reins over to his longtime friend and assistant Holloway.
In a 1996 Florida Times-Union story, Rogers said that “people look at the big size and don’t realize what kind of athlete he is.” Dorsey was a selection on the News4JAX All-25 team that recognized the best players of the last 25 years. He was so athletic that he played a bit of tight end at Bolles, too. Dorsey was on the Florida State team that won the national championship in 1999 and played right tackle during Chris Weinke’s Heisman Trophy season.