Pitman’s Curtiss looks forward to new role as athletic director
When it was announced that Pitman’s longtime athletic director Dave Walls was stepping down, Dustin Curtiss didn’t know what that would mean for his future.
Curtiss, who was serving as the girls basketball coach at the time, didn’t assume he’d get the job but submitted his application anyway. It seemed like the next step in his lifelong sports journey.
He’s been around sports since he was a young waterboy for the football teams his dad coached. Curtiss’s dad, Don Curtiss, spent 42 years as a coach before recently retiring about two years ago. He had different stints as head coach and offensive coordinator for varsity programs at Denair and Pitman and the Pitman junior varsity football team.
Dustin Curtiss has been coaching for 17 years. He started as freshman boys basketball coach at Denair, then has spent the last 14 years at Pitman. He’s coached freshman and JV boys basketball, been assistant football coach, JV head football coach, assistant and head JV baseball coach and assistant water polo coach and has served the past 10 seasons as the varsity girls basketball coach. He will also enter his 13th year as math teacher.
After spending the majority of his athletic life on the sidelines, Curtiss will take on a role behind the scenes as Pitman High’s new athletic director.
“My dad never got into that, he just did the coaching aspect of it, but this has been something that interests me,” Curtiss said. “When I started coaching, I really was just interested in coaching. But after about 15 years of being on the sidelines, this kind of seems like a cool thing to do.”
Walls stepped down after 15 years and set an example for how Curtiss wants to do things. Walls had a relationship with coaches that made them feel heard, and he was well known and well liked on campus.
“He did such an amazing job connecting with the kids, being present, he was always there,” said Curtiss. “He was always involved. Everybody on campus knew who our athletic director was.
“You can see the impact that it had on our campus and on our athletes in particular. It’s definitely something that I want to continue. It’s gonna be tough to do it at the level that he did, but I’m going to try my best.”
When Curtiss got the job with about a month left in the school year, Walls sat with him at the end of the day seven or eight times for an hour, showing him what needed to be done.
“We just went over things,” Curtiss said. “I called him a couple times already in the summer about certain things. He told me,’If you have any questions, you have my number.’ So he’s done a great job with trying to make the transition as smooth as possible, and helped me get used to this new position.”
Said Walls: “Dustin is a really good guy, which I think is as important as anything else. He has a lot of leadership skills that he’s demonstrated just on campus with different committees. ... He has a great intuitive spirit for athletics and for kids both in the classroom and on the on the athletic field, whether it’s on the court or in the pool, or on the field.
“He’s young and he’s energetic and I know he’s going to do a great job and lead the program over the time that he’s there.”
Curtiss’ run as a coach has to end. He announced in May that he would resign as girls basketball coach to accept the role as athletic director.
Former junior varsity coach Parmine Randhawa was promoted to varsity head coach and the freshman coach moved up to JV. Curtiss and Pitman are in the process of hiring a new freshman coach. Randhawa played at Pitman and served as the JV coach for the past seven years.
While he has coached a number of different sports, Curtiss says he hasn’t seen them all, which is something he is excited about experiencing about being the new AD.
“I can’t tell you the last time I went to a track meet or a tennis match,” Curtiss said. “So it’s going to be really exciting for me to see how all the other sports work and not necessarily just the three or four that I was involved in on a regular basis.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2022 at 12:19 PM.
