DePaul Track Alum Dave Behof ('93-96) was honored as The Frank J. Amato Excellence in Coaching Award at Loyola Academy's annual Hall of Fame Banquet on October 23. The award is presented annually to the Loyola Academy coach whose outstanding performance on and off the field represents the highest traditions of Loyola Academy athletics as well as the core values and ideals of the school's Ignatian mission. The final selection from the list of nominees is made by the President, the Athletic Director, Coach Frank Amato,and benefactor Tim Haggerty '81.
Behof remains active in his support of DePaul Athletics serving on statistics crews, assisting with the game production for men's basketball games and managing the timing system for Blue Demon cross country events.
Below is the text from the program, recognizing Behof's efforts and achievement.
To the track and field and cross country teams of Loyola Academy, he is indispensable and irreplaceable.With an uncompromising commitment to getting the job done right and an unwavering dedication to the young people he serves, David A. Behof has been for fourteen years the quiet force behind the scenes, one whose tireless work on behalf of Loyola and its
To the track and field and cross country teams of Loyola Academy, he is indispensable and irreplaceable.With an uncompromising commitment to getting the job done right and an unwavering dedication to the young people he serves, David A. Behof has been for fourteen years the quiet force behind the scenes, one whose tireless work on behalf of Loyola and its
athletes has for too long gone unrecognized and unheralded.
Demanding and caring, Dave couples a comprehensive knowledge of the sport with an uncanny ability to connect with his athletes. Armed with a wealth of experience and expertise as well as a keen understanding of the high-school athlete, Dave has demonstrated again and again those qualities fundamental to coaching excellence.
Meticulous and thorough in his preparation for practice and meets and attentive to each athlete under his watch, he has proven himself a young master of the coaching arts. Simply put, his impact as an assistant coach for the cross country and track programs has been profound. In cross country, Dave has had a hand in twenty-three championship teams, including eight as the head coach of the freshman team. In track, he has helped guide Loyola to twenty-two team championships, and is responsible for coaching four Ramblers to individual conference titles and one to an All-State performance.
His work as a meet administrator has earned Dave a reputation for reliability and efficiency throughout the CCL, the GCAC, and the IHSA, where he is recognized for his painstaking professionalism in organizing, seeding, and scoring track and cross country meets. His expertise in using the FAT (Fully Automatic Timing) system has even brought calls from state track officials requesting his services at the state track meet. That the reputation of Loyola Academy has been burnished in the process has been a significant yet ancillary benefit. However, his primary motivation has always been to serve the needs of his athletes, and to give them the best athletic experience possible. In the end, the perfectionism that defines Dave's approach to meet organization is ultimately about the athletes themselves, about the obligation to provide the finest environment in which to compete. It is about giving his kids the competitive playing field that they deserve and that he feels responsible for providing as their coach.
Last winter, after a summer of painstaking research involving countless hours of sifting through fifty years of meet results, Dave delivered one of the most important off-the-field contributions ever made to Loyola track and field: a record book of the top fifty all-time performances in each event, indoor and outdoor, beautifully and carefully arranged. The motivating effect on the athletes was instantaneous-here it was in black and white, a history, a record of a tradition that they could aspire to be a part of. With his book, Dave has produced an historical record of athletic achievement that will have a lasting impact on Loyola's track athletes long after he is gone from the scene.
In his tenure at Loyola, Dave has left an indelible mark on the cross country and track programs of Loyola Academy, and the on the athletes with whom he has worked. With an unstinting dedication to his vocation and an abiding loyalty to Loyola and its athletes, he has coached with honor and integrity. Weariless in his devotion to his school, his athletes, his fellow coaches, and his sport, Dave has proven himself a worthy and fitting recipient of the Frank J. Amato Excellence in Coaching Award.
A 1992 graduate of Loyola, Dave returned to his alma mater to teach mathematics after earning his B.S. in mathematics from DePaul University in 1996, and his M.Ed. from DePaul in 2000. An elite miler at Loyola who went on to a fine running career at DePaul, he understands what it takes to compete at the highest level. Recently, Dave completed the Chicago Marathon in a personal record of 2 hours, 52 minutes.
