Longtime Ringgold teacher and coach retires

Over the past six months, Loyal "Butch" Dean retired from teaching and coaching with the same quiet and classy demeanor that aptly described his many years as an educator and athletic leader.

At the end of October, Dean informed Ringgold High School athletic director Steve Campos of his decision to step down as the Lady Rams' head softball coach after a successful 21-year career during two different time periods. Last July, Dean retired from teaching in the Ringgold school district after 35 distinguished years of service.

"To be honest it was a tougher decision for me to step down from coaching than teaching," Dean said. "I have very good memories and feel I was very lucky. I had lots of dedicated players, and excellent assistant coaches, and cooperative parents who drove their kids to and from conditioning programs and traveled to all their games. Those type of things kept me going for a lot of years."

Like many successful coaches, Dean's commitment to his program went far beyond the two to three month season. He would run "Fall Ball" in September and October with weekly Sunday double-headers, followed by conditioning at the school in November and December. Team meetings to attract players and more conditioning two or three days a week consumed the months of January and February leading into the beginning of practice in March.

"We really had nine months of conditioning and everything I did from September through February I did because I liked it and wanted us to have as good a team as possible," said Dean, who was not paid for his off-season efforts. "I just felt in order to continue having a quality program that it was time to step down and it would not be fair to the kids. It was a very tough decision to make."

Also a standout soccer player and coach, Dean is from Roscoe and a 1964 graduate of California Area High School. There was no scholastic varsity soccer at that time but he starred with the Dunlevy Redbirds and continued his academic and soccer careers at West Virginia University.

After two years as a starting back, torn ligament and cartilage injuries to his knees ended Dean's playing career but not his determination to make use of a college education. He earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from WVU and started teaching at Ringgold in August of 1970.

Dean began teaching health and physical education at the Monongahela building until the new building was constructed in the late 1970s. He taught at Ringgold High School for 15 years before teaching one year at Gaston/Ginger Hill and then his last 19 years in education were at Finley middle School. During his early teaching days, Dean commuted back to West Virginia University at nights to earn his master's degree in safety management.

While teaching and pursuing his graduate degree, Dean also got involved in coaching soccer and served as Ringgold High School's assistant soccer coach under Jim Beadling for a couple of seasons and then was the head coach for several seasons.

"The youth programs were really not there or anything at all like what is now, so each fall you kind of have had to start over and go back to the basics," Dean said.

Dean became Ringgold's head girl's softball coach in 1979 and guided the Lady Rams until moving on to the collegiate level in 1986. He served under California University of Pennsylvania men's soccer head coach Dennis Laskey, of Dunlevy, from 1986 through 1988. Dean then followed Laskey to Upper Saint Clair, and the local coaching duo guided the Lady Panthers to consecutive WPIAL Class AAA championships in 1989 and 1990.

"He was great and basically a head coach with an assistant coach's title," said the venerable Laskey who still plays actively and coaches California University of Pennsylvania's men's team today. "Butch helped me do everything. He was a couple years older than me and had been a head coach before and taught me a lot of things. He had a lot to do with the success we had at both schools, and working with Butch was a good mix."

When Laskey returned to California University to coach both soccer teams there for 10 years, Dean returned to Ringgold softball. He guided the Lady Rams to five sectional titles, many postseason appearances and a PIAA state tournament appearance in 1995.

"I always wanted to get back to the state playoffs because the first time was a real learning experience," said Dean. "We practiced everyday between the WPIAL playoffs and PIAA tournament, and I realized that we should have taken some time off and always wanted another chance, but that's how things go."

Despite the noticeable differences between soccer and softball, Dean enjoyed coaching both sports.

"Naturally you would approach them a little different, but for the most part I always tried to coach both sports the same way mentally and physically," Dean explained. "Obviously, soccer is a little more physically demanding, but you prepared your team for games a certain way and the same with conditioning. In soccer I trained the goalies, kicked at them, put them through drills and even scrimmaged. In softball I threw batting practice and hit balls to the fielders. My knees gave out more in my later years, so softball was certainly easier for me to coach."

Unlike during his childhood days, Dean said, youth soccer in the Monongahela Valley and throughout the country has grown at an amazing rate.

"Soccer at the youth level has really grown, and I believe there are more kids out for soccer than football now which for whatever reason is quite a transition," said Dean. "There are a lot of dedicated people involved with youth soccer and it's really a luxury for high school coaches to get these experienced kids who have played on Olympic Development teams and things like that. There's no question it is a big advantage and has enhanced the quality of this area's high school teams."

A licensed softball and volleyball official, Dean may be done coaching but will still be a recognizable figure at area sporting events. Over the summer, he umpired three softball tournaments and hopes to umpire some games this spring. He officiated some high school volleyball matches this fall.

"Just because I am not coaching anymore does not mean I am not interested," he said. "I watch Dennis' games and will continue to watch my old team when I am not umpiring. I enjoy watching sports."

Also an avid hunter, Dean recently returned from a weeklong hunting trip, a recreational activity previously limited due to his teaching and coaching responsibilities.

"A good friend and I went to the woods and hunted from daylight to dark for a week," Dean said. "We would have dinner, hang out and tell lies about it and do the same thing the next day."

While some coaches are consumed by or obsessed with their records and achievements, Dean just enjoyed his coaching ride and has moved on.

"Teaching and coaching have always been a passion of mine," said Dean. "I wasn't the kind of guy to keep track of my records but we were fortunate to win more than we lost and made the playoffs quite a bit. Every year was a new challenge with good people. That is what mattered to me."