-Eli Crogan and Watertown boys basketball

-Watertown reached state finals 1983 when Dave was in 5th grade

-Knew he wanted to get into coaching at an early age

-“The impact you have somebody’s future and their coaching career and path is huge.”

-Coached at a lot of summer camps during sophomore year in college connecting with other coaches

-Competed at UW-La Crosse in a tough and competitive WIAC

-Making the jump from high school to college

-The importance of youth coaches when running a high school program

-Developing people has always been a staple of his philosophy

-Helping his players gets recruited made him intrigued with possibility of working at college level

-His connections to Luke Reigel and getting hired at UW-Parkside

-Domino effect of coaching

-“All these little dominos can lead to you getting an opportunity without even realizing it.”

-Taking a pay cut to go work at UW-Parkside

-Getting head coaching job at UW-Superior and putting mark on program

-Identity. Work ethic. Recruiting the right people and in the right radius. People the local community can embrace. Hire enthusiastic people.

-Relentless recruiting mindset

-Depth and consistency of recruits locally

-Coaching mindset change in taking over Carroll from being at UW-Superior

-Seeing players through four years at Carroll

-Midwest Conference Tournament run using simple actions and not over complicating it

-The lesson of “celebrating too much”

-“The successes that turn into failures prior so you can avoid those. Also, understand the failures that turn into success.”

-NCAA Tournament defeating Transylvania on their home court with tornado warning in the area and not tipping off until 9:55pm

-“Less is more.”

-Transition to Division 1 and Drake University with director of basketball operations position

-The challenges of Division 1, the sour taste, international recruiting, etc

-What it was like being let go at Drake

-Always been about the relationships within the game

-“Always that next game, practice, film, recruit call to make.”

-Enjoyment of working for Northwestern Mutual

-The one thing he would do differently if he ever got back in