Deer Park Wrestling Coach Steps Aside To Pin Time For Family
After two decades of watching other people’s children wrestle, Dean Largent said the time has come to watch his own.
Deer Park’s quietly successful wrestling coach has resigned.
“It’s that time,” said the personable and soft-spoken Largent. “Twenty years is just a nice round number to end it on.”
Under his guidance the Stags have been highly visible at the state level in both AA and A-B classifications.
Often a top 10 finisher, the Stags were second in the A-B state tournament in 1990.
Largent coached 13 individual champions among 52 state placers, divided among two attendance classifications.
His first was Lonnie Rickey, the current coach of Springdale, in 1978. Another, Gonzaga Prep coach Phil McLean, won three successive titles between 1983 and 1985.
Other AA titlists were Dale Blad in 1985 and Scott Littrell in 1988.
A-B champions of the 1990s included brothers Ray (‘90), Carl (‘93) and Alex Schulz (‘94 and ‘95), Joe Wallingford in ‘90, Tim Brown in ‘91 and Brandon Clark in ‘93.
Largent’s teams won Northeast A League championships his first year as coach and two more in the 1990s. Deer Park also won the Frontier League championship in 1985 and shared the title in 1986.
“Mostly it is a matter of just wanting to see my own kids wrestle,” said Largent of his decision to step down.
He didn’t get to watch two of his sons, North Central graduates Sam and Brian, wrestle much.
“It hit home this year,” he said. “We were at the A-B district tournament in Ritzville, and Brian was in the AAA semifinals at Mead. I found I was in one place and my heart was in another.”
He has five other sons, including two stepchildren, to follow.
Sophomore Matt is a wrestler at Gonzaga Prep and sons Dan, a seventh-grader, and Andy, in fourth grade, attend Assumption School.
Two other seventh-graders, twins Jason and Zack Nees, are sons of his wife of a year, Wendy. They will attend Lakeside High School, one of Deer Park’s biggest wrestling rivals.
Largent will remain a teacher at Deer Park High and Arcadia School and will assist new girls soccer coach Lisa Collins in the fall.
“I will keep coaching something one way or another,” he said.
“I have coached my kids in youth soccer for 16 years. And I will stay involved in wrestling, helping with tournaments.”
But he wants to devote more of his winter time to his family, something school Principal Jean Chandler understands.
“He’s been thinking about this for some time,” she said. “This is a time in their lives you can’t replace.”
The district has teaching openings, said Chandler, and will begin interviewing coaching candidates.
“If there are no coaches per se, we will leave it open and find someone who will do a quality job,” she said.
Replacing Largent won’t be easy.
“He went out when he was on top,” said Chandler. “We can’t expect to find anybody to fill his shoes but will try to find the best person we can.”
Storm sweeps through Richland
The Spokane Storm compiled a perfect 6-0 record to win the Desert Fun 18-Under Girls Fastpitch Tournament in Richland.
The team won during pool play on Saturday and then beat the Columbia Whitecaps 3-0, La Grande Smoke 3-2 and Northwest Classics 12-8 in elimination play.
Megan O’Dea led the Storm in hitting with a .444 average, followed by Jennie Cey at .375.
Holly Vanwert drove in 7 runs, with Denise Devereaux and Kristin Fuller at 6 RBIs apiece.
Vanwert won four games and Devereaux the other two, compiling respective 1.08 and 0.88 earned run averages.
, DataTimes