Dave Collins recently took some time to add up how many all-conference meetings he’s attended over the years – the total exceeded 400.
That may not be surprising since Collins, 72, has been the face of the Marinette & Oconto Conference as the commissioner for the past 37 years. Add Collins’ 13 years of teaching and coaching at Suring High School prior to becoming the commissioner and he has spent a half century as a leader in the M&O.
The funny thing is, Collins, who will retire June 30, didn’t even intend on being the conference commissioner.
“It came about strictly by accident,” Collins said.
The Marinette & Oconto Conference had separate commissioners in the mid-1970s for boys and girls sports. Both commissioners resigned when their positions were going to be consolidated into one. At the time, Collins was the Suring athletic director and boys basketball coach. He was also part of the committee to find the conference’s next commissioner. The committee did not have any luck finding someone to take over.
“So the principals just asked me if I would just do it for the one year and we would find somebody, and you know how that goes,” Collins said.
At the last conference meeting of every year Collins would be asked if he’ll come back as commissioner, and he would gladly say yes. It’s an unconventional method to run the conference, but it worked well for all those years.
“I kind of get a kick out of it because when I go to commissioner meetings (around Wisconsin) and so forth they always tell you to bring your contract and to bring your job description. They don’t believe me I don’t think, but I tell them I’ve never had a contract and I’ve never had a job description,” Collins said. “I’d like to say it was a shake their hand deal, but it wasn’t that either because I never shook anybody’s hand.”
Collins retired in 1999 from Suring following 35 years as a social studies teacher. He also coached boys basketball from 1967-1980, was athletic director for about 25 years and was the assistant football coach for 15 years.
Collins, who still has an office at Suring High School, felt now was the right time to step down as commissioner mainly due to three things. First and foremost, Collins suffers from Meniere’s disease, causing him to be totally deaf in his right ear since 1980, and he has had significant hearing problems in his left ear since 2004.
“It was getting frustrating going to meetings and other people take the minutes because I couldn’t really hear what people were saying,” Collins said. “It was OK and everybody was so patient with it. Secondly, I am not computer literate and in the last five years, that’s about all you do.”
The third factor that helped make Collins’ decision to retire easier was the WIAA’s conference realignment that was passed in January. The addition of Oneida Nation puts the Marinette & Oconto Conference at 10 schools. Having an even number of teams in the conference is going to add a lot of extra work, Collins said.
“Like volleyball, we have triangulars with nine schools, so on and so forth, and that’s out the window,” he said. “We’re going to have to change all scheduling, all awards, certificates, medals. I just didn’t care to go through that again.”
Being the conference commissioner for so many years was important to Collins.
“I don’t hunt and fish and things of that nature, so it was very meaningful in the sense that it occupied the free time that I had,” Collins said. “But I think what the main thing was that it meant an association with the people we have in the M&O Conference. I can’t believe there’s another (conference) out there that has the camaraderie where the principals and athletic directors and coaches get along.”
Collins said it was always a team effort over the years in implementing new ideas into the conference. He stressed he couldn’t have done his job for so many years without all the support of his colleagues.
“I don’t know if I need any legacy,” said Collins, who will hand over the commissioner reins to Oconto Falls High School guidance counselor Lee Kornaus. “I just always felt that it was a commissioner’s role to do what can be done to keep everything as fair as possible and try to treat each of the schools equally and just try to keep the balance where it belongs.”
Collins has a lot of fond memories over the years of big events and moments in conference history. He was always proud when a team or individual advanced to state because it reflected highly on the M&O. Collins was also around to see Coleman capture 10 state wrestling titles, and in the mid-1990s, the conference had the two top scorers in state boys and girls basketball history.
Although Collins doesn’t have any big hobbies, he has some ideas on what he will do in retirement. He plans to spend more time with his three children and six grandchildren as well as dabble in M&O Conference stuff. Collins has all the statistics over the years from girls sports and all the boys dating back to 1964, including every box score from the games he coached. He’s always wanted to compile booklets on the history of the conference.
Collins’ time might be up as commissioner, but he’ll never stop working.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s been a great run.”
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