PUBLISHER’S VIEWPOINT: Ski community will honor late DCD coach with Costigan Invitational
INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP — Dan Costigan always had phrases to deliver to his skiers at Birmingham Detroit Country Day.
His favorite was always “win with what you have or don’t win at all.”
Country Day had its fair share of quality teams and individuals at Country Day under the veteran Costigan, where he coached the high school ski teams for 26 years and was the school’s facilities manager for nearly three decades.
The 2009-10 high school ski season was, sadly, his last.
Costigan passed away on Aug. 20, 2010, after brief illness from a skin and blood disorder. Those who knew him around the prep skiing community in Southeastern Michigan don’t want to let his name be forgotten.
Current DCD assistant coach Thom Halsey, a veteran in the coaching fraternity at Pine Knob for nearly two decades, along with several of his colleagues, will host the inaugural Costigan Invitational at Pine Knob Wednesday. The 12 noon event will feature a wide variety of high school teams and individuals not only from Pine Knob, but from various ski hills across the state.
There will be nine boys teams and nine girls teams, plus over 20 individuals from a variety of schools, at the event.
The boys teams at the event will be Clarkston, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingwood, Detroit Country Day, Lake Orion, Rochester Adams, Grand Blanc, Charlevoix-East Jordan Unified, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Unified and Portage Unified. The girls field will feature Clarkston, Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills Andover, Country Day, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Grand Blanc, Charlevoix, Forest Hills and Portage.
The coaches hope to host the event in an annual format sometime during the championship season in mid-February.
“This will be an invitational (in memory) of a great guy and one that should be a lot of fun,” said Halsey. “We will have some competitions (besides the meet), music, and yet it will be another championship-style meet to help prepare kids for the state meet.”
Costigan’s passing was a surprise to all of those who knew him. He was a very well-liked liked and respective coach in the Southeastern Michigan Ski League and beyond, earning Coach of the Year honors several times in his career, including his last state coaching honor in 2006.
Costigan’s departure was unexpected.
“Dan had some kind of skin problem (during his last season coaching), but then he got really sick that summer,” noted Halsey. “I remember they took him to U-M (hospital) and his wife went home to get his cell phone because he thought he needed it. He was having a hard time breathing. Dan passed away that night. They never fully understood what was wrong with him.”
“Everybody liked Dan Costigan,” reminded Mike Foyteck, Clarkston’s current head coach who coached alongside Costigan in the tight-knit Pine Knob Ski League for several years. “I think it’s really neat that they are putting on this meet in honor of him. I think it’s a great concept, another championship-style meet at the end of the season in memory of (one of our own).”
Dan Costigan will never again roam the ski hills at Pine Knob, but his name will live on there forever.
Dan Costigan. Gone, but never forgotten.
(Dan Stickradt is senior editor and publisher of the AdaVan Media Group’s digital daily publication www.northoaklandsports.com, senior editor of the Stickradt Media Group Public Relations, and a veteran journalist of 19 years in Michigan. He can be reached at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com or raton1972@comcast.net. Follow on Twitter @LocalSportsFans.)
Category: Clarkston, Editor's Column, Featured Articles, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Most Recently Updated Stories, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Prep Wraps, Publishers Viewpoint, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Rochester Stoney Creek, Top Stories, Uncategorized
