Dave Curtin embraces then-senior Jamal Koontz after the Cougars defeated Dickinson in the 2008 season finale to snap a 45-game losing streak.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Former Columbia High School head football coach Dave Curtin, who died at age 58 in August 2016 after a courageous battle with cancer, was one of several inductees into this year’s Essex County Coaches Football Association hall of fame. The inductees were honored at halftime during the Paul Robeson All-Star Football Classic on Thursday, June 9, at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange.
Curtin served as both the CHS athletic director and head football coach. He became the athletic director in 2003. He became the head football coach in 2007, taking over a program that had endured a long losing streak.
After the team went winless in his first two seasons, Columbia broke the 45-game losing streak in the 2008 season finale. The Cougars then enjoyed great success in the next two seasons. They started 7-0 before finishing 8-2 in 2009, making the state playoffs for the first time since 1982 and winning the Super Essex Conference–Liberty Division title.
Columbia finished 9-1 in 2010 and repeated as division champions, with the lone loss in the state playoffs.
Curtin took a hiatus in 2011 due to health issues but returned to the sidelines in 2012 while stepping down as athletic director. His final year of coaching the Cougars was in 2013.
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