Dan Coombs
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Classes Taught
Science & Music Appreciation
Coaching & Org Affiliations
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Message from Dan Coombs
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"Hey Ramblers. What I remember the most about teaching and coaching at Loyola is the sense of family. In the all too short seven years I spent there I remember feeling that all the students, all the parents, all of my colleagues truly appreciated what we were doing. There was a sense of 'Loyola as a unified mission'. It wasn't the students, the coaches and the science teachers and the everybody else all doing their own thing. It was all about everyone being determined to be the best school we could be. I became both a better science teacher and a better coach in my years at LA because of this unified approach. I have many fond memories and many friendships to this day because of this. I loved my Ramblers and I'll always remember those days with fondness.
What I remember the second most vividly is actually getting red carded and tossed out of a game at Lake Forest. To this day I'm not sure what I did - I was always so quiet - but I was able to coach the rest of the game from one of the dad's cars and by using some early iteration of a mobile phone as I recall. But that's just a brief moment which I'm sure my guys will always cherish!" Dan Coombs
Science & Music Appreciation Teacher and Sophomore Soccer Coach 1987-1994 |
Special thanks to Dan for writing up & sharing this wonderful message!
Here's an excellent article describing what Dan did after he left Loyola and moved to Arizona:
East Valley Tribune - May 17, 2015 - Link
Since Desert Ridge High School opened in 2002, it has known only one man sitting behind the principal’s desk.
That, though, is about to change as Desert Ridge principal Dan Coombs is stepping away at the end of the school year.
After moving to Arizona from Chicago in 1994, Coombs had his start in administration in Arizona at Chaparral High School in 1996. But the long commute was a factor. Wanting to reduce his drive time to work and be closer to his kids who were attending Gilbert schools, he applied to be the new principal at Desert Ridge.
“I thought, ‘Why not?’” Coombs said. “I could put in (my application) and see what happens with that, so lo and behold, I got that job. Honestly, this was another case of me looking to have a brand new experience, and it was also a little bit closer to home.
“I had a very good time in Scottsdale, but this looked to me like a really exciting opportunity. I’d never opened a school before, that’s for darn sure … so here I am.”
However, opening a new school came with its share of challenges. Mainly, having worked in outside of the Gilbert district, he had to build new relationships with everyone from faculty to students to parents.
After building those relationships, the next step was getting the programs in place and, with roughly 700 kids in the school’s first year, that was a challenge.
“One of the other challenges was it took a few years for our programs to be of size and quality as the student population grew to what we wanted,” Coombs said. “For a few years there we were kind of the little campus in the district where a lot of our programs were trying to get an identity.”
Over time, however, that has changed. As the school grew, guided by Coombs, programs in athletics, science and the arts grew and became successful.
One of the people who has been mentored by Coombs’ leadership is Gilbert High School principal Chris Stroud, who was a dean of students and assistant principal at Desert Ridge for eight years beginning in 2004.
“He has consistently and always put everybody before him,” Stroud said. “His students have always come first, his faculty and staff come next, parents come after that and then any of his needs are well to the back of all of those other duties.”
As much as Coombs has loved his time at Desert Ridge’s principal, though, there has still been a calling for him, a calling to get back in the classroom.
He noticed it when he would drop in on teachers teaching their classes and would want to jump in and help a struggling student.
That is why Coombs plans to teach for a few more years at Chandler’s San Tan Junior High before calling it a career.
Coombs plans to teach seventh-grade science, the exact class he was teaching when he first started teaching.
“I’ve missed the instructional part and the cognitive coaching part and helping kids individually with the things that matter to them,” Coombs said. “I thought that would be a cool way to wrap it up is to go back to doing that.”
That, though, is about to change as Desert Ridge principal Dan Coombs is stepping away at the end of the school year.
After moving to Arizona from Chicago in 1994, Coombs had his start in administration in Arizona at Chaparral High School in 1996. But the long commute was a factor. Wanting to reduce his drive time to work and be closer to his kids who were attending Gilbert schools, he applied to be the new principal at Desert Ridge.
“I thought, ‘Why not?’” Coombs said. “I could put in (my application) and see what happens with that, so lo and behold, I got that job. Honestly, this was another case of me looking to have a brand new experience, and it was also a little bit closer to home.
“I had a very good time in Scottsdale, but this looked to me like a really exciting opportunity. I’d never opened a school before, that’s for darn sure … so here I am.”
However, opening a new school came with its share of challenges. Mainly, having worked in outside of the Gilbert district, he had to build new relationships with everyone from faculty to students to parents.
After building those relationships, the next step was getting the programs in place and, with roughly 700 kids in the school’s first year, that was a challenge.
“One of the other challenges was it took a few years for our programs to be of size and quality as the student population grew to what we wanted,” Coombs said. “For a few years there we were kind of the little campus in the district where a lot of our programs were trying to get an identity.”
Over time, however, that has changed. As the school grew, guided by Coombs, programs in athletics, science and the arts grew and became successful.
One of the people who has been mentored by Coombs’ leadership is Gilbert High School principal Chris Stroud, who was a dean of students and assistant principal at Desert Ridge for eight years beginning in 2004.
“He has consistently and always put everybody before him,” Stroud said. “His students have always come first, his faculty and staff come next, parents come after that and then any of his needs are well to the back of all of those other duties.”
As much as Coombs has loved his time at Desert Ridge’s principal, though, there has still been a calling for him, a calling to get back in the classroom.
He noticed it when he would drop in on teachers teaching their classes and would want to jump in and help a struggling student.
That is why Coombs plans to teach for a few more years at Chandler’s San Tan Junior High before calling it a career.
Coombs plans to teach seventh-grade science, the exact class he was teaching when he first started teaching.
“I’ve missed the instructional part and the cognitive coaching part and helping kids individually with the things that matter to them,” Coombs said. “I thought that would be a cool way to wrap it up is to go back to doing that.”