Dave McCullough
Builder (2023)
Softball
Softball teams coached by Dave McCullough have won the provincial championship 27 times in the past 22 years. He makes it look as routine as catching a fly ball. But success takes practise. Doing what’s hard doesn’t come easy.
Be a tough out, McCullough said. Slide hard. Collect bruises. Get grass-stained and dirty.
The Saskatoon Selects cleaned up at the Canadian under-18 championship in Charlottetown in 2013. Dave was an assistant coach on the team. The Selects were the first midget girls club from Saskatoon to win the title, defeating the defending champion White Rock Renegades of B.C. 2-1 in the final. His daughter Brielle scored on a bases-loaded walk in the first inning and drove in the winning run with a triple in the sixth.
Brielle has played softball since she was four, catching pitches thrown by her big brothers Devon and Darren on a mound in the family’s backyard.
Devon is the oldest of the three. He was five years old when he started. That’s also when his father got into softball. Dave became a coach, coaching learn-to-play for novice, wee pee and squirt boys in the Montgomery community. Mother Barb became a manager.
Dave McCullough has coached boys and girls youth clubs in city, provincial, western and national championships. He was an assistant coach of the Saskatchewan women’s team that finished fourth in the 2017 Canada Games in Winnipeg and the head coach of the Saskatchewan men’s team that won bronze in the 2022 Canada Games in Niagara.
Saskatoon is a hot spot for softball. Teams from around the world come here. Championships are decided here. McCullough has been on the organizing committee for two Canadian Collegiate women’s championships, 17 Softball Canada championships and four international events.
“His career is not defined by the many medals his teams have won, but by the many friendships and positive impact he has had,” said Guy Jacobson, the executive director of Softball Saskatchewan.