Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
LOWELL, MI – Dave Dean acknowledges this was one of the toughest decisions he has had to make, but believes he will be leaving his program in good hands.
After nine successful seasons of leading the Lowell wrestling team, Dean will be leaving the program and the state of Michigan after this school year to take a job at Cornell University and its wrestling program.
Dean will be joining the Cornell program as its new coach in charge of its Olympic Developmental Program.
“This was a very difficult decision,” Dean said. “I have so many friends here at Lowell that have been a great influence on me. Lowell is an outstanding and exceptional place.”
Dean and his family, which includes son Max, who is a sophomore on Lowell’s wrestling team, and daughter Cassie, who is in eighth grade, will be moving to Ithaca, N.Y. This summer to start his new position.
They will be joining the Dean’s oldest son, Gabe Dean, who is a freshman on the Cornell wrestling team.
Dave Dean doesn’t have the final say on who will be his replacement, but is giving a vote of confidence that assistant R. J. Boudro take his place after he leaves.
“I don’t want to speak for our athletic director, but I think R.J. Would be a great transition. He is great with the parents, a great organizer and has great respect from the kids.”
Boudro, who wrestled at Armada High School, then at the University of Michigan, before transferring to Michigan State where Dave Dean was an assistant coach before coming to Lowell, said he would be honored to take over the Red Arrows for his head coach.
Boudro has been on Dave Dean’s staff for the past six years.
“First of all, Dave was a big deal when I went to (MSU),” Boudro said. “He and (fellow MSU assistant) Roger Chandler had a lot to do with me going to MSU. He then brought me to Lowell
“When I came from Michigan, he helped me be captain my first year there,” he added. “We hit off right away, and then he was big in bringing me here at Lowell. I can’t put into words what he has done for me in being a coach. Him and (Lowell football coach and Dave Dean brother Noel Dean), have both helped me become the coach I am, because I also coached football for five years here.”
If he gets the job, what Boudro will get to coach is a Lowell program that won the Division 2 state title in 2009 and has been runner-up three times, including the past two years.
Dave Dean took a traditionally strong Lowell program and made it stronger, from top at the varsity level, to bottom at the youth level.
“The way Dave treats the sport, dealing with the kids and treating it like a business, it’s huge,” Boudro said. “He is in to every kid he coaches, from the kid that had never wrestled before that wants to give it a try, to a national caliber wrestler like Jackson Morse (who currently wrestles at the University of Illinois). I think he puts more time and effort into the newer kids, which is cool.”
Now it could be Boudro’s time on the edge of the mat.
“I’m pretty intimidated and nervous, but that’s the way I am,” Boudro said. “It’s like getting ready for a big match, I always have those nerves going.
“Dave always told me to get prepared when Max is done, but this is a little earlier than expected,” he added. “Dave has been giving me more of the responsibilities of a head coach. He has been there to help me, that I feel I am prepared.”