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Photo courtesy of Jeff Leonard
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Dexter's Jaime Dudash is stepping down as boys' cross country coach after a stellar career. Behind Dudash the Dreadnaughts won five consecutive state championships.
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It all began 10 years ago.
At the time, back in 1998, Dexter's boys' cross country program was in shambles. The program was in dire straights. Participation was dwindling, enthusiasm was at an all-time low and championships were few and far between.
It was into this circumstance Jaime Dudash found himself entering in 1998. It was a circumstance that was soon to change - in a big way. In a way Dexter cross country and Dreadnaught athletics had never seen nor experienced before.
In 1998, the Jaime Dudash-era of Dexter boys' cross country began. Multiple Coach of the Year honors, seven Southeastern Conference championships and five state titles later, Dudash is hanging up his stopwatch and stepping down as Dreadnaught head coach.
Dudash said the decision to stop coaching was difficult.
"But one that I knew would also open new doors for me," he said. "With the addition of my son, Lucas, to our family, he is going to keep my wife Ambi and I more than busy. This is in fact a very natural place with which to make a life change. I've been coaching (since 1998) and now I have an opportunity to start a great new chapter in our lives.
"My goal at the beginning of coaching was to try and impact the Dexter cross country program with a sense of passion, excitement and desire to develop into a championship program. We have reached that pinnacle."
Indeed.
Dudash took that passion and desire and turned, what once was a perennial basement dweller in the SEC, into not only a state power, but also a nationally recognized cross country program.
Dexter Athletic Director John Robinson said Dudash would be missed.
"I would have to say Jaime Dudash is the kind of coach any AD would like to have on staff," he said. "He cares about the kids and there's not a detail left unturned. He did everything very well. The bar has been set so high."
For a while, the bar for Dexter boys' cross country was actually quite low.
"When I first started coaching in 1998, I started with 16 young men," said Dudash, who ran cross country at Hillsdale College. "We went to Portage Lake Campground in the summer and it was a real small team. But the boys were so excited to do a team camp. We all piled in three minivans and stayed two nights. It was a great group of guys. While we didn't have any team wins, that first year was a great development year."
Dudash, an American Studies, International Affairs and World History teacher at Dexter High School, said winning the program's first ever SEC title three years later in 2001 was a watershed moment for his program.
"The fellas realized they could develop into a really special team," he said. "Later in the season, the boys earned sixth at the state meet with the youngest team in the field. That experience really helped the athletes focus and realize that competing for a state title was a possibility."
A year later in 2002, Dexter won the first of what would be five consecutive state titles. In the Lower Peninsula, no school has ever won more than five straight state titles.
"There were so many amazing moments, but the general moment that sticks with me is the overall attitude that athletes began to internalize about what they were a part of," Dudash said. "Athlete after athlete these past six years has felt a strong commitment to the team — a commitment to something bigger than themselves. Athlete after athlete made huge sacrifices to see this team stay at the top."
One of those athletes was Lex Williams.
"I first got to know Coach Dudash as his student in eighth-grade," said Williams. "I was his teacher's assistant. I can remember a skit where I spilled an entire bottle of ketchup on his carpeted floor, freehand drawing a map of the world with labeled countries and capitals, his emphasis on showing up and being on time, and as his teacher's aide, stapling thousands of papers for all of his other classes."
For his efforts, Dudash presented Williams with a gift at the end of the class term. Little did Dudash know the effect his gift would have on Williams and on Dexter cross country in the future.
"As a reward for that job, he gave me a poster of Dathan Ritzenhein (former Rockford standout, now an Olympic hopeful), the best high school cross country runner in the nation at the time," Williams said. "The quote on the bottom read, "All you need to enter is the desire to race." It was an advertisement for the Footlocker Midwest regional meet, which allows an athlete to qualify for Footlocker Nationals, but I applied it to every race I ran."
The words on the poster became an inspiration to Williams.
"I read it every night before I went to sleep," he said. "It was in high school that I finally decided that running, and racing, was what I loved to do and what I would continue to do in college."
Williams went on to a successful prep career, helping lead Dexter to three state titles. A standout in cross country and track and field, Williams was named the state's Mr. Track and Field his senior year. Last November, Williams, a junior, led the University of Michigan men's cross country team to a 24th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. His individual time of 31:00 was the best on the Wolverine squad and earned him 66th place overall nationally.
Another Dreadnaught who Dudash inspired was Dan Jackson.
"Coach Dudash has truly been a blessing for me," said Jackson. "I first met him when I was a scrawny, little seventh-grader. My favorite sport at the time was golf and I had little to no interest in pursuing running in high school. Coach Dudash actively recruited me throughout middle school. He made me feel wanted and important and by the time the fall of my freshman year rolled around, I tried out for the cross country team. I gradually lost interest in golf. Without Coach Dudash, I doubt that I would have ever pursued running with the passion and drive that I have for it now."
Jackson said Dudash inspired him through his energy and work ethic, but mostly by his words.
"To give you an example, before the state cross country meet every year, while riding on the bus toward Michigan International Speedway, Coach Dudash would give each one of the runners competing in the race a sealed envelope with a letter inside," he said. "Coach Dudash would write a personal note to each one of us which said how much he had enjoyed seeing us run throughout the year and how we were ready to win another state title and represent ourselves and Dexter cross country with pride.
"I still have all four of the letters that Coach Dudash wrote me during my tenure on the Dexter cross country team. I still enjoy getting them out and reading them from time to time. They mean a whole lot to me and bring back some great memories."
Jackson, that "scrawny, little seventh-grader" Dudash saw potential in all those years ago, last season was named the state's Mr. Cross Country. Behind Jackson, the Dreadnaughts also captured a state track and field championship last year. Now running cross country at Notre Dame, Jackson, a freshman, competed in the NCAA Championships last November helping the Fighting Irish finish 21st overall in the nation.
"I owe a great deal to Coach Dudash," Jackson said.
Former Dexter runner Tony Nalli, now a junior running cross country for Michigan, said Dudash has helped him become the athlete he is today.
"He was the one that convinced me to run in high school," he said. "Looking back, I can't imagine my high school career without running. He has a great personality, plus an outgoing and energetic style, which made for a great coach while I was in high school. He really cared about all of his runners, and I think it helped all of us perform the way we did under his guidance."
Nalli, who won three team state titles while a Dreadnaught and finished as state runner-up his junior season, said he would always look up to his former coach.
"I think Dexter will really miss him as a head coach," he said. "Even in the last three years since high school, I've received e-mails and letters from him occasionally. It just shows that he's still interested in what I'm up to and how I'm doing even after having a whole new group of kids to coach and train."
Nalli said he'd remember Dudash's pre- and post-race talks.
"He always found a way to pump everyone up for each race," he said. "I'm so glad he convinced me to run cross country instead of playing soccer. I can't picture my life without running at this point."
Ryan Neely, a former Dexter runner now competing on Harvard's men's cross country team, said Dudash instilled confidence in his athletes.
"I think it's safe to say that everyone who was a part of this team walked away with a better sense of their own ability to improve themselves and achieve their goals," he said. "There are plenty of talented runners to be found throughout the country, but the quality and quantity of successful athletes that have come through the program in the past few years is a testament to the infrastructure that Coach Dudash created and his contagious energy for cross country."
Neely said he'd never forget Dudash's "fireside chats" toward the end of each season.
"And the sense of unity and being part of a bigger whole that he left us with as we prepared ourselves to bring our season to a close in traditional Dexter fashion," he said.
Andrew Martin, a member of four state championship squads while at Dexter, who's now a freshman at Calvin College, said Dudash was a special coach.
"His coaching abilities speak for themselves through his numerous awards and the overwhelming success of the team," he said. "Yet he truly shined in his commitment to the program and to the students. He had a level of involvement that was hard to match."
Martin said what he felt separated Dudash from other coaches was his love of the team concept.
"I will never forget when he brought us brooms after we swept Pinckney at the (Ann Arbor) Gabriel Richard Invitational," he said. "Or the individualized snack bags we received on the bus to the state meet each year containing personal letters from "State Championship Lane."
"We were very blessed to have the talent we did come through the program while I was involved, yet talent never won us anything. Coach Dudash was able to motivate us to put in the work to achieve everything that we were able to do. His commitment and abilities will be missed sorely, but his successes and impact on lives will be remembered fondly."
Dudash said he's accomplished more than he ever imagined when he began in 1998.
"I was excited to have one runner in the 16s (16:00 mark)," he said. "I never imagined that by 2006, I'd have five (runners) under 16 minutes. From the beginning my goal was to help make the Dexter cross country team (now over 40 runners strong) become not just a team, but a program. I think we have met that standard."
Dudash said he remembered being nervous about taking over the cross country program in 1998. He said if he could've talked to himself back when he first started, he would have told that excited young coach to remain calm.
"I would have said be patient, keep your focus on the task at hand, encourage these young men and find every different way to unlock their personal potential," he said.
Apparently that young coach listened.
Five consecutive state titles.
End of an era.
What a run.
Sports Editor Don Richter can be reached at 475-1371 or at drichter@heritage.com.
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