Joe Cummings on Dean Conway

Earlier this year, my good friend and coaching mentor, Dean Conway, passed away. I was not alone in having the great fortune of Dean as a friend and a mentor along my coaching journey. And I’m not alone in feeling the sadness of not having him with us anymore. Many others, here in Massachusetts and well beyond, were touched by Dean and benefited from his incredible knowledge, wisdom, commitment to and respect for the beautiful game, dedication to education and youth development, and his unflinching kindness.

To honor Dean, and to help remind us all of the myriad contributions to coaching and to sport that he made, I’m talking with people who were close to him and knew him as a colleague and knew him as a friend. The first of these conversations is with Joe Cummings, a longtime leader in American soccer who knew and worked with Dean going back over 40 years.

Joe's career has spanned coaching, teaching, and executive leadership roles throughout the soccer community. He served as CEO of United Soccer Coaches from 2009 to 2015, was Technical Director at the New England Revolution, and worked as President and General Manager of the Boston Breakers. But before all of that, Joe was a 7th grade teacher who met Dean in the 1980s when they were both helping to build the foundation of coach education in Massachusetts. Their friendship and professional partnership would span decades. Joe brings a unique perspective on Dean's impact - having witnessed firsthand how Dean helped shape not just individual coaches, but the entire framework of youth soccer development in New England.

A huge thanks to Joe for sitting down with me for a conversation in remembering Dean. The stories he shared not just illuminate the person that Dean was, but also a great friendship and partnership between two coaches and educators who helped advance the youth game from the grassroots up to the professional levels. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

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