Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
Dave Dean says that he has a lot of great memories from the past nine years of leading the Lowell High School wrestling team.
The best memory being all the young men he molded to not only to be great wrestlers, but to also be great people in society.
Dean steps down after this year to become the Olympic Development Coordinator at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He will begin his new job after this school year.
“It was bittersweet [after the season ended after the MHSAA Individual Finals],” Dean said. “I have such great friends and acquaintances from coaching here. I got to know a lot of great coaches and friends in wrestling. I felt a little sad, and still do. I know I’m going to miss it.”
He leaves behind is a program that won two team state titles and finished runner-up three times. It also produced a total of nine individual champions, including three this year in Lucas Hall, Josh Colegrove, and his son Max Dean.
Another one of those nine champions is his other son Gabe Dean, who is currently a freshman wrestler at Cornell.
This year, the Red Arrows won their second team title under Coach Dean.
“It was a pretty special year,” Dave Dean said. “I have two nephews and a son on the team, and with the other boys on the team, it’s been special.
“It’s been nine years, and some of these boys I have been with for nine years. Bailey Jack, Derek Krajewski, and Garett Stehley. Time has gone by so fast. It seems like I just got here, and now I’m leaving.”
It was a decade ago when Dean arrived at Lowell after 20 years as a coach at Michigan State University.
“I have had a few remarkable moments in my nine years here,” he said “My first one was my first day driving into work. I traded in my cushy office job at MSU and 30 kids [I coached] to come to a school of 1,200 high school kids.”
That meant new challenges.
“When I got to Lowell, it was awesome,” he said..”Some of the best professional years in my life. It was awesome to be a part of so many kids’ lives. I loved that part, the ability to have an impact in kids’ lives. All the years I spent in college wrestling, it was remarkable to drop down into the high school level.
“I spent so many years at the college level, 20 years, that when got to high school I wondered if high school moments would be just as special, and they are. There is nothing like a kid that meets a goal, that lofty moment.”
Many Red Arrows did just that.