Seiji Wood
Sports Editor
It’s 95 degrees in Trabuco Hills, California. The sun’s out and skies are blue. It’s a beautiful day, perfect track conditions. Runners are on their mark, they get set in their blocks, the starter pistol is raised, and a shot is fired. The sprinters only get a few strides in before a second shot is fired, indicating that there has been a false start.
Michael Dean hopes that he isn’t the guilty party. To his relief, someone else in his race gets disqualified. The runners reset.
“I got back in my blocks, and I was way more relaxed after that kid false started.” Dean said.
The runners are set again, and the starter pistol fires, no second shot to stop them this time.
Dean races the 100 meters down the track. His drive, perfect. Getting up on his run, the cycle, the turnover — everything is perfect.
“Everything in that race felt perfect,” Dean said. “I crossed the line and it felt like a great run … I ended up running 10.73 seconds.”
Michael Dean always knew he was decently fast. He’d race kids when he was in middle school for fun, but that moment during his senior year in high school at a track invitational in Trabuco Hills is when he realized he had something special.
Dean is currently a junior at Idaho State majoring in sports management and is part of ISU’s track and field team. Not only does he sprint for track, but he also plays football during the fall semester.
“It’s fun, but it’s definitely challenging,” said Dean about being a student-athlete in two different sports. “I’m balancing my football lifts with my track workouts. It’s just knowing how to balance school, football and track.”
Dean has made noise in both sports. In football, he ties for the record for most touchdowns in a game by a receiver with four. In the 2018 season, he had 49 receptions for 863 yards. On top of that, he added 10 touchdowns, which led the team for wide receivers.
Early in January, for his first year in collegiate track and field, he broke the 60 meter dash record at the Stacy Dragila Open with a time of 6.78 seconds. The previous record was held by ISU runner Peter Amartefio back in 1976.
“I had the same exact feeling here as I did back in that race my senior year,” Dean said about his recent experience breaking the record. “I wasn’t expecting to run that fast. I just remembered how it felt to do that.”
Dean has been successful so far in both sports for ISU, and his speed is a key element to his performance.
Dean was raised in Southern California. Growing up, he was into extreme action sports and would race motorcycles and bicycles. Along with his extreme sports, he worked into baseball and football. He played those sports at age seven through nine. When he turned ten, he started on gymnastics.
He competed in gymnastics for two years all over California until he could no longer continue.
“Being a gymnast is really expensive,” Dean said. “But that’s where I got a lot of background on how to use my body for track and football. It gave me a good base.”
Dean went on to continue with baseball and football in high school. Up until then, he had never participated in track and field.
During his freshman year, the track head coach at his high school wanted him to pole vault, because he knew Dean had a gymnastics background.
“The first time I ever pole vaulted I think I hit 9 feet,” Dean said. “I was just in jeans and a shirt.”
That experience urged Dean to get started with track. In his sophomore year, he decided to quit baseball and continued with track to help him get faster for football.
“I knew that track would help me more with football,” Dean said. “And football grew into my passion.”
Even though Dean is on ISU’s team for track, he was originally recruited by ISU to play football.
Dean had multiple colleges reach out to him to play football, but after they would visit him, they’d lose contact.
“For football, I’d have coaches come to my high school every single day, they would talk to me, they would see me in person, and I wouldn’t pass the eye test,” Dean said.
Dean is 5 feet 6 inches tall, and for football, that played a factor in his recruitment process. However, Roger Cooper, defensive coordinator for ISU’s football team, saw Dean’s potential and brought him here to Idaho State.
“Coach Cooper was the first coach who actually stayed and talked to me,” Dean said. “He offered me that day.”
Dean isn’t bothered what others might think about his size. He lets his performance on the football field and track do the talking.
“I’ve heard it so many times. It just doesn’t bug me anymore,” Dean said. “When you’re younger and immature, that type of stuff can mess with you. Now that I’m older and mature, I’ve realized that I can’t really do anything about it. I can only do other stuff to help work on my speed and strength. I can control those factors.”
So far, the decision by both ISU and Dean has brought forth outstanding results. Dean has seen record-breaking success and still has his senior year remaining.
Once Dean graduates, he plans to continue with his athletics.
“I plan on taking up the opportunity for the NFL or CFL,” Dean said. “If everything falls through, I do have an extra year of track eligibility. I plan on getting my masters no matter what, so I’d use that year while taking my masters.”
With the way that things are going with Dean here at ISU, he may just hit his drive, get up on his run, the cycle, the turnover, and everything will be perfect.
