(Anita) Dean Downer had a very successful run as head football coach at Cumberland-Massena and CAM. The vibrant leader joins this week’s “Why I Coach” podcast.
Downer grew up watching his dad coaching and idolized those that oversaw his high school program. “There’s just something in the back of my mind that I can remember as a little kid watching these coaches motivate these kids and telling them it is important to do you very best in everything. Not just football, but in everything. I would say that’s really what pushed me to become a football coach at the high school level. I did have the opportunity when I left Bemidji state to go on to Eastern Oregon State and become the defensive line coach, but Kathy was from Iowa and I saw big alligator tears in her eyes that it was a long way from home. So we got into the high school level and I started out at Newell which is Newell-Fonda now, but we were just Newell back then.”
Downer was asked about his coaching style. “I probably swore too much” he jokes. “I swore out of anger, but I think I was a motivator and defense was always my strength.
He’s not afraid to admit that during football season his players became his first family and notes he was fortunate his wife and kids were so supportive and understanding of that. “I had the greatest wife in the world she was so supportive and my kids were supportive. They understood when you coach your team is your first family, it really is.”
Downer is so proud of the way his former players refer to him. “The greatest compliment you can have is when your ballplayers still see you and still call you coach. To me that’s the greatest honor you can have. They don’t have to call me Mr. Downer. They can call me Dean if they want to, but they still call me coach.”
Downer speaks about the early days of CAM football and the challenges that came with it. For instance, phone calls between the two schools were long distance and thus the only time he got to talk to the rest of the staff was when they were together at practice.
Previous Coaches
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
