RELEASE THE STRESS
Coaching youth basketball ‘an honor’ for Mesa County coroner Havlik
As the Mesa County coroner overseeing high-profile, often newsworthy cases, or even in his work as a general pathologist, Dean Havlik’s job is stressful.
So it’s nice to be able to coach basketball. It’s an escape for Havlik, whether it’s coaching the AAU Grand Junction Monarchs or the GJ Blackout club team.
Although a passion for basketball is what ultimately drove him to coaching, molding young women into better, tougher basketball players provides fulfillment.
“That’s one of the things I feel it does for me,” Havlik said. “After a hard day I can get out there and forget about something. It’s fun and, really, it’s an honor to coach those girls. I find it stress relieving.”
Mesa County coroner Dean Havlik said coaching youth basketball is a good way to relieve the stress of his career. He coaches the Grand Junction Monarchs, a girls AAU team, and the GJ Blackout, a girls club team.
There’s a degree of analysis in what Havlik does as a coroner, a pathologist and a basketball coach.
But what really drives him is a love of basketball and a commitment to providing consistent club basketball to Grand Junction.
Havlik started coaching boys teams, then coaching his daughters, Elizabeth and Erin.
When his daughters moved on to high school basketball, he continued coaching middle school girls club teams.
Now 46 years old, Havlik has been doing that for nearly 15 years.
“I got started at a young age and played into high school and played recreationally after that,” Havlik said. “After that, I had two girls and coached them all the way up.
“After that, I just kinda kept doing it to see if I still liked it, and I wanted to continue doing a program. I’ve seen lots of club teams come and go in this area. Clubs will pop up every few years, and some will only last for a year. I wanted ours to last.”
Last it has, and GJ Blackout is hosting a sixth-grade tryout at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday at West Middle School.
His players learn quickly he values defense first on the court.
It’s hard to convince a middle-school-aged basketball player, particularly a young girl, to take a charge. So, Dean Havlik had to get creative.
The Mesa County coroner and general pathologist at Community Hospital, who coaches the GJ Blackout club basketball team, started an incentive program for physical defensive play.
Years ago, Havlik offered his players a bottle of Gatorade per charge taken.
“I’ve always been a defensive-minded guy,” Havlik said. “A lot of times, at that age, and particularly with girls, it can be hard to get them to take a charge. The extra incentive seemed to help.”
It’s one of a few things Tori Catlett, now a standout senior forward for the Grand Junction High School girls basketball team, can remember about playing for Havlik.
She remembers getting Gatorade for taking charges, but she said she appreciates his support even after she finished playing for him.
“He was one of the most supportive coaches I’ve ever had, and throughout the years he still comes to our games and cheers us on,” Catlett said. “He cared about our wellbeing above everything else.”
Havlik understands players because he was a player himself.
Havlik’s basketball career started in Phoenix, where large club programs are the norm.
Havlik, who is 6-foot-4, described himself as something between a guard and a forward, but he “didn’t have the ball handling to dribble inside” against shorter guards.
Still, Havlik was a solid player who had aspirations of walking on at Arizona State University.
“I knew I could probably play at a smaller college, but I also knew I probably wasn’t going to make the NBA,” Havlik said. “I tried to walk on at ASU, and that didn’t quite work out, so I decided to focus on advancing my academic career.”
His career took him to Pennsylvania and New Mexico, but his love for basketball returned when he settled in Grand Junction.
Havlik coaches AAU games in the fall and winter, and GJ Blackout is a club team that travels to tournaments playing in the spring.
Pat Schmalz, who coaches with Havlik, said Havlik pulled him in. Schmalz was watching his daughter, Madi, who now plays for the Grand Junction High School girls basketball varsity team. One day Havlik asked Schmalz, a former wrestler, if he’d like to help.
“I’m probably the wrong person to ask about his knowledge of the game, because I was a wrestler and (Havlik) helped me pick it up as I was going along,” Schmalz said.
Regardless of his background, Schmalz recognizes universally good coaching traits, such as game management and strong leadership, and he said those are among Havlik’s strongest suits.
“He’s very passionate, and the girls love to be around him,” Schmalz added. “He’s just an uplifting kind of guy.”
