Earlier in the season, players for The Colony baseball team were aware that head coach Martin Dean was closing in on his 300th career win. But Dean remained modest about the approaching accomplishment.
"Some of the kids had kind of been joking about, 'We've got to get to 300,'” he said. “I kind of downplayed it. I said, 'Guys, it's all great. But if we go out and take care of things, good things will come.’”
Dean came into The Colony’s March 9 home game against Denton Ryan stuck on 299 wins. But inclement weather forced the doubleheader to be rescheduled the next day. It was worth the wait.
Players brought gold balloons spelling out “300” and a plaque to honor Dean, but they kept those items hidden from their head coach. They wanted to keep a potential celebration a surprise. Once the game was over, and The Colony shut out Ryan, 2-0, players posed for pictures with Martin in the field.
“I had no idea that they were going to do anything,” he said. “They brought the plaque and balloons. It was really nice. It was a good feeling for me.”
The Colony received a dominant pitching performance and couple of timely hits. Juniors Wesley Peck and JD Clarke combined on a two-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Senior Alex Elam drove in the first run on an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth. Two innings later, Josiah Rosas added an RBI single.
Dean earned career win No. 301 later that day after The Colony squeezed out a 2-1 victory, also against Ryan.
Former players contacted Dean about the accomplishment, including his son, Matt, who became the first baseball player to be inducted into The Colony High School Hall of Honor last May, as well as select baseball coach Cody Cramer.
Dean said that winning 300 career games “means that you’ve been doing something for a long time.”
Dean has been The Colony’s head baseball coach since 2006. Prior to his arrival, he landed his first job as a head coach at Kemp before spending five seasons at Lawton Eisenhower (Okla.). While at Eisenhower, Dean led the Eagles to the OSSAA state tournament in his fourth season.
But for as much success as he had while at Eisenhower, he saw more career opportunities for his family in the Dallas area.
"It was kind of a family deal where we had the chance to come down here as there were a lot more opportunities here in the DFW area,” he said. “The salary was better. My wife's family lived down here. It was really a family situation. After getting into The Colony, I loved it there. I've been there 18 years now. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else to coach. There are great parents, great kids."
The Colony was a Class 5A school when Dean took over as head coach. The Cougars played against much larger schools, including Flower Mound, Marcus and Plano, though a lot of the games that The Colony played were 3-1 and 3-2 scores. But he knew The Colony was moving down to 4A the following season.
Dean continued to install his vision of the program, which was to have a team that that is fundamentally sound, hard-nosed and is going to compete.
The Colony has made the playoffs six times during Dean’s tenure, the most recent coming in 2021. That year, the Cougars won the district title and advanced to the regional quarterfinals.
"That has got to be one of the highlights,” he said. “I remember that we started our third tournament. We were 7-7, about .500. As a coaching staff, we were a little worried. We had a pretty good district.
“We thought that it was going to be tough. They just went on a run from there and played hard. We went 12-2 in district. When we went 6-1 to finish the first round of district, we thought that we had a pretty good team. When it was all said and down in the third round, we could have very easily won that round. We won a 2-0 game, lost a 1-0 game. It was a really good team."
The Colony won just two district games last season, but the Cougars are turning things around in a big way this season.
After recording an 8-0 victory against Creekview on Tuesday, The Colony improved to 9-7 and, more importantly, 1-0 in District 9-5A. Junior Wesley Peck tossed a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts.
“We've been pitching well and we're throwing a lot of strikes,” Dean said. “We've cut down on the amount of walks from last season. Our hitting is starting to come around. We have a team that is ready to go to work. We've got a little bit of depth, but there is some pretty good competition going on at a lot of positions."
Of course, one of the best moments for Dean was getting the chance to coach his son, Matt. Matt was a four-year starter at shortstop and also pitched for the Cougars before he graduated in 2011.
“It was a neat thing to be able to coach him,” coach Dean said. “We went to the playoffs for the first time in school history when he was playing. We enjoyed all of that together.”
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