Maxx Woosley’s Award Winning Campbell Co Historical Society Essay

Dave began his working career after graduation from Brossart High School ’65, at Procter & Gamble. He was with them for one year and then was drafted into the United States Army. He was in the armed forces for two years. During that time he was primarily stationed on Okinawa, Japan. After he completed his military obligation, he returned to Procter & Gamble where he remained until 1994, when his Bar Soap Department was relocated to Iowa City. Rather than relocating, he took a buyout and retired after 30 years of service. He worked as Development Director at Campbell Lodge Boys Home for a year with responsibilities of fund-raising and appeal mailings. This is what would prepare him for future volunteer work. When he returned from the Army, one of his friends, Ed Martin, asked him for a favor. He wanted him to help coach Ed’s brother’s Knothole baseball team. Dave wasn’t sure he wanted to do this because at the time he said that he was not even sure he liked kids, but because friends help out friends, he said yes. Over time he became the Head of Umpires, and eventually President of District 23. After the baseball season was over most of the boys switched over to football, so Dave did too. He became a Director of Red Devils football serving as PA announcer and supervising pre-game weigh ins. Dave said that the Red Devils organization was one of the finest organizations that he had been a part of. Following football, he got to talking with Chuck Peters, who, at the time coached St. Joseph 7th and 8th Grade Boys Basketball in the KofC League. One of Chuck’s assistant coaches was seriously injured in a car accident and Chuck needed an assistant, so Dave stepped up. This led Dave to become a multi-year assistant at St. Joseph’s. Then Bill Hipple became the principal at Sts.Peter and Paul and asked Dave to coach the 7th and 8th Cardinals basketball team. At the time Sts. Peter and Paul only had one team and no gym. The gym they practiced at A.J. Jolly. While he was there, Dave would take the team on trips to places where they could go fishing and camping. Some of the places they went were to Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Canada. While at Sts. Peter and Paul he started 5th and 6th grade boys basketball, and 7th and 8th Grade Girls Basketball teams.

In the late 1970’s Dave became the Freshman Boys Basketball coach at Bishop Brossart and that is what has started his many hours of volunteer work with the Mustangs. In 1986 he became the Head Girls Varsity coach at Brossart. His teams were very talented and they had much success. In the 1988-89 season, and again in 1991-92 his teams were the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Class A Co-Champions and had a combined record in those two seasons of 40-19. (Campbell County Historical Association). Like all good things, they must come to an end. After that he coached varsity for five years when the KHSAA got tough on para-professional coaches because of violations at University Heights High School. As a result, Dave went back to coaching the Freshman Boys. In 1997 Willie Schlaman became the varsity coach for the boys basketball team and asked Dave to be his assistant. For the past 29 years Dave has helped the Bishop Brossart Boys Basketball programs coaches with fundraising, ordering uniforms, paperwork, golf outings, euchre tournaments, basketball camps, operating the BMustangs website, and the broadcasting of football and basketball games. Considering all of his volunteer work, Dave has been recognized by many people in Campbell County.

As a result of all of this volunteer work, he has been inducted into 6 Halls of Fame, received 2 volunteer awards, has written the Ken Shields life story – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else which sold over 1,000 copies, and writes short stories about himself, most recently, My Fishing Life. The 6 halls of fame he is in are: BBHS Alumni Hall of Fame, 10th Region Hall of Fame, Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, BBHS Sports Hall of fame, and Northern Kentucky Boys Basketball Association Court of Distinction. Dave is most proud of the 10th Region Hall of Fame honor because he was the first member from Bishop Brossart to receive this honor. The 3 Volunteer awards he has won are the Volunteer Award at Sts. Peter and Paul, being named a Kentucky Colonel in 1976, and the Tom Seither Community Service Award. Being named a Kentucky Colonel is the highest honor that the State of Kentucky can award you with. This is an award given to an individual that has made a contribution to their community, city, or state. He estimated he had over fifty thousand plus hours of volunteer work throughout his life. One year at the Bishop Brossart Gala, they were bidding on the rights to name the driveway in front to the Mustang Athletic Complex. Tom Munninghoff was interested in naming the road after Dave because of all that he has contributed to Bishop Brossart over the years. The night of the Gala came and Tom got into a bidding war with the Kellers who wanted to name the drive “Team Believe Blvd” (In memory of Brian Eviston). The bidding war got up to a total of twenty thousand dollars. As a result, at the next home football game they revealed Dave Schabell Drive, but there was a catch that Tom did not know. The naming rights were only for one year, so the next Gala rolled around and they got into another bidding war. This time it got to twenty-five thousand dollars and Dave said that is was not worth that much so Tom backed out. Now the drive will forever be named ‘Team Believe Boulevard” (Schabell). This goes to show how much Dave has been honored and appreciated by the people of the Bishop Brossart High School community.

As you can see, Dave’s life has had a big impact on Campbell County, between his early work, work at Bishop Brossart, and a legacy he has left behind. Without Dave, Sts. Peter and Paul would not have had 7 th and 8 th Grade Girls or Boys Basketball Teams as early as they did, Brossart would not have the BMustangs website, and the football and basketball games would not have a live broadcast for many to listen to, and we wouldn’t have one of the most altruistic-life styled people in Campbell County. For a guy who, when he started this journey back in 1968 said he was not sure he even liked kids, sure made a positive impact on many kids over the years and has made it possible for many kids to enjoy multiple sports. This is not too bad for someone who started out saying that he did not even like kids.