Burnham has new title, old approach

CAMBRIDGE — Rob Burnham’s title has changed, not his approach.

“I’m competitive to a fault maybe,” Burnham said. “I will lose sleep to prepare for a game. I will stress and wake up at three in the morning and go draw stuff on the board; paper, pad at the computer. Watch film and do all those things.

“But I did all those things before I was a head coach,” Burnham continued. “So that’s not new for me. The only thing that’s new for me is there’s a fancy title in front of my name.”

That title is head football coach at Cambridge-South Dorchester High.

“Super excited,” said Burnham, who was announced as the Vikings’ new head coach earlier this month. “It’s been a long time coming. Excited for the opportunity to be head coach for sure.

“I just like working with kids,” the 45-year-old Burnham added. “I like taking a kid and giving him an opportunity to make himself better through athletics.”

Though he was a head wrestling coach for two years at William Fleming High in Roanoke, Virginia, this is Burnham’s first head coaching job in football.

He succeeds Toby Peer, who coached Cambridge-SD the past three seasons, compiling an 18-14 record, which included reaching last year’s Class 1A state semifinals, where the Vikings lost to eventual state champion Fort Hill.

Burnham said Peer has retired from education and is now working for Altec Industries selling trucks.

“I didn’t think he’d step away early. But that’s what he decided to do,” Burnham said of Peer.

Burnham, who has coached high school football for 25 seasons, began working with Peer at William Fleming. When Peer accepted the head coaching job at South Hagerstown he brought Burnham with him as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. Together they helped the Rebels go 57-25 during Peer’s eight years as head coach, and watched running back Isiaha Smith set the state single-season rushing record with 2,918 yards in 2013.

Peer stepped away as head coach at South Hagerstown when he became the school’s athletic director. But he returned to the coaching ranks in 2021, when he took over at Cambridge-SD. Again, he brought his offensive line coach and OC with him.

A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan who played left tackle in high school before heading off to Western Michigan University, Burnham will continue handling the offensive and defensive lines despite his new title. He said he isn’t sure if he will be offensive coordinator, but knows for certain he wants to run the football.

“We want guys to get out and attack downfield and run the football effectively at every turn,” the 45-year-old Burnham said. “As an offensive line guy, if I can run the ball every single play and win I’m good with that. Nobody wants to come and watch that, but I’m over it already. If we win the game we win the game. I throw it three times and we win, I’m good with it. I throw it 50 times and we lose I’m not good with it.”

Burnham taught eighth grade math for two years at Mace’s Lane in Cambridge before accepting a special education position at Cambridge-SD last year.

“Most of the kids in this building I know,” Burnham said. “I either had them in class or they knew who I was from being over at Mace’s Lane.”

The Vikings lost only five players from last year’s 10-3 team, including starting quarterback Blake LaBelle, now at Frostburg State University. The fact that the bulk of last year’s Class 1A East championship team is back should help, especially on the defensive side, where Burnham plans to change little.

“Defensively, we’re probably going to be almost identical because I think our kids played well to the 3-4 scheme with the two high safeties,” Burnham said. “Our kids run fast enough to keep everything in front of us. And it’s not a bend-but-don’t-break philosophy, but it’s more of a we’re going to give you a little bit and then take away what you try to get, if that makes sense. We run well enough at every position defensively that we’re going to be OK.”

Cambridge-SD lost four coaches from last year’s staff, but Burnham thinks he can handle that transition as well.

“I feel confident in my ability to assemble a staff that can put kids in a place to be successful in most situations,” Burnham said. “There’s a virtual guarantee that I’ll encounter a situation that I haven’t encountered before. But I have a number of people that I can call and talk to and get sound advice, people to bounce ideas off of if there’s a situation I don’t like.”

At the top of Burnham’s don’t-like list is losing.

“I’m a bad loser. My wife said it’s not one of my great qualities,” Burnham said. “But I’m going to do things very, very similar to the way I’ve always done before.”