Dave DeMers receives Distinguished Coach of the Year Award

SANDPOINT — Dave DeMers is the epitome of a legend.

For over 30 years, DeMers has impacted countless athletes in the community through coaching football, basketball and, most notably, track.

He’s helped bring plenty of accolades to Sandpoint over the years and he was recently recognized for those efforts.

The Idaho State Coaches Association (ISCA) presented DeMers with the 2021 Track and Field Distinguished Coach of the Year Award.

DeMers spent 27 years as the head coach of the Sandpoint High School track team before stepping down in 2015 to hand over the keys of the program to one of his former athletes, Matt Brass. DeMers has served as the jumps and hurdles coach ever since. This past spring at the 4A state track meet he was right by Braden Kappen’s side as he leaped to a state title in the boys long jump.

DeMers’ coaching was essential to Kappen’s success, but the award from the ISCA was not given to him as a result of that. In fact, the decision to give DeMers the honor was made prior to that historic achievement, Lake City High track and field coach Kelly Reed said.

Reed, a ISCA board member, said they hand out a Distinguished Coach of the Year Award annually to a coach in every sport. The award is given to someone who dedicates their life to impacting athletes in their respective sport and DeMers certainly checks that box.

“You can’t think about Sandpoint track and field without thinking of Dave,” he said.

Reed said he contacted Brass midway through last season about nominating DeMers for the award and the ISCA board voted to present him with it before the state track meet this past May.

DeMers received his award plaque in November and the 1978 Sandpoint grad stuck to his humble roots when he was asked about what earning the award meant to him.

“That’s a great honor and I’m shocked by it,” he said. “I don’t know why? Maybe I just outlived everybody else, I don’t know.”

The award is handed out yearly, but Brass sees it more as a lifetime achievement award for DeMers, and he’s sure the ISCA saw it the same way.

“He’s been a mentor and friend, and honestly he’s like family,” Brass said. “He was one of the top people in my life for decades and to see him get the award makes me really happy because it’s validation for the job that he’s done … He’s put in so much time, effort and love into the community and kids for decades.”

Brass said you won’t find a person more deserving of this award than DeMers because his commitment is unmatched.

“The program and the community mean so much to Dave,” he said, “and it’s not just from a pride standpoint. It’s from a genuine care of making sure they get the best experience. He is always a stickler on being good citizens and learning lessons, and just doing things right.”

This is just one of many accolades DeMers has received over the years. In 2018, he retired from the Lake Pend Oreille School District after 34 years as a teacher, coach and athletic director. That same year, the school board decided to rename the track at Sandpoint High the Dave DeMers Track and Field Complex in his honor.

DeMers, who spent 26 years as the Sandpoint Middle School AD, was awarded an honorary lifetime pass by the Idaho High School Activities Association in 2019 and honored as the Northwest District Athletic Director of the Year in 2005.

This past spring was truly special for DeMers. The boys track team finished fourth to grab their first trophy at state since 2004 and their highest finish since 2003 when the Bulldogs won their only state title in program history under DeMers.

And then DeMers got to coach Kappen to his state title. Reed, the head track coach at Lake City since 2003, was there at Rocky Mountain High to witness Kappen leap 23 feet, 1 inch on his final attempt to grab the long jump title. Reed said DeMers’ reaction to the moment was one of a kind.

“You don’t see Dave teary-eyed too often, but definitely about that he was,” he said.

Reed has known DeMers for quite some time — since 1987 to be exact. As an athlete at Coeur d’Alene High, Reed got to interact with DeMers at meets while he was the head track coach at SHS. They traded friendly jabs back then and still do to this day.

Reed, a 1988 Cd’A grad, said DeMers is extremely knowledgeable about the sport and as genuine as they come.

“He’s kind of like a gigantic little kid,” he said. “Dave is just a good guy.”

DeMers has also coached football and basketball at every level it seems like from seventh grade to varsity. But his heart lies in coaching track and field, and a couple of moments in his life helped steer him in that direction.

During his redshirt freshman season on the Boise State University football team, DeMers was named the Most Valuable Player scout team player, and at the time, the award had never been given to a freshman before.

The following year, DeMers tore up his knee and saw his career on the football field come to an end in 1979.

“I was going to be the future of the Broncos and my knees just didn’t hold up,” he said.

After that, he connected with legendary BSU track coach Ed Jacoby and went on to throw the javelin for the Broncos for several years, breaking the school record in the event during his first season with the team.

“I learned so much from [Jacoby],” DeMers said. “He was one of the foremost jump coaches in the world and I went to school with him as much as I could.”

After college, DeMers taught and coached football, basketball and track at Kuna High School. He was there one year before he got a call from Ken Beaudoin, the Sandpoint athletic director at the time. SHS had a position open, but DeMers told Beaudoin he was a day away from signing to stay at Kuna and waiting to hear if the state was going to approve funding to add an assistant track coach at BSU under Jacoby.

DeMers and his wife, Cindy, always knew they wanted to return to Sandpoint some day to raise their family, so ultimately he jumped at the opportunity to come back to his alma mater in 1985. About a week later, the state cleared the way for an assistant coach at BSU.

While it wasn’t easy to leave Kuna after just one year, DeMers said, it was one of the best decisions of his life.

“I can’t think of any better place to teach, coach and retire,” he said.

As devastating as it was to see his football career come to an abrupt end, it helped lead DeMers down the path of becoming a track coach — a sport he loves dearly because of the camaraderie shared between all the competitors and teams.

“In track there’s a community,” he said. “All the head track coaches and all the assistants know each other and we help each other’s kids.”

Over the past handful of months, DeMers has been contemplating his future coaching on the SHS track team. Regardless of what he decides to do, his legacy is already etched in stone.

“He’s left a lot of blood, sweat and tears as an athlete, a coach, a father and a mentor out [on that track],” Brass said.