By Tim Unruh
Driving by any ballpark, gridiron or arena musters special memories for Coach Dee Kolzow.
They’re where the 79-year-old honed skills as a competitor, grew into a man, and became a cherished leader of youngsters all over Kansas.
It’s also where Kolzow’s coaching tree added branches while inspiring hundreds as they grew into responsible adults.
As a family man, he and wife Janice, helped sons Ryan and Kerry Kolzow excel as athletes and flourish in countless endeavors. They shared many a hotdog meal together in the bleachers throughout the state and mid-America.
“I’ve been blessed,” Kolzow said while reminiscing a successful career.
He retired in May after 51 years as a coach, most recently running the baseball program at Salina Central High School.
At a ceremony Jan. 9 in Manhattan’s Bluemont Hotel, Coach Kolzow and four others will be inducted to the Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
“It’s just a great honor, means a heck of a lot,” he said.
They were nominated by fellow baseball coaches and chosen by the KABC Hall of Fame Committee.
“Dee is one of those guys you want to compete against on the field. You know you’re gonna get a tough-nosed team that is respectful of the game and the competition,” said Don Hess, head baseball coach at Manhattan High School and chairman of the KABC Hall of Fame. His association with Kolzow was born while they coached summer American Legion baseball.
“He’s a consummate professional, a really good guy and a really good coach,” Hess said.
The inductees were nominated by other coaches and KABC committee members. To make the hall, they must receive 75 percent of the votes.
“We look at wins, losses, championships, players who have gone on to play in college, the impact you have on Kansas high school baseball in general, and in sports as a whole,” Hess said. “Dee’s standards are high and he has an exceptional ability to connect with his athletes. His longevity is spectacular. He won a lot of games, coached a lot of games, and made a long term impact on baseball in Salina.”
The recognition is pasting smiles on the old skipper’s face these days, as he looks back on decades of good times.
Dee Kolzow went through grade school at Silver Lake, before the family moved to the Lost Springs area, where he graduated Centre High School in 1963.
“Teaching and coaching were kinda in my blood. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I graduated,” Kolzow said.
But after a boyhood spent under the tutelage of his father, the late Ted Kolzow — although he was never Dee’s official coach — and four years playing quarterback and tailback for legendary Coach Gene Bissell at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, a career in education and coaching became inevitable.
Kolzow launched his stint at Lakin High School in southwest Kansas, where he spent four years as the Broncs’ head football coach and taught physical education and driver’s education. His wife, Janice (Simpson, a Jetmore native), whom he met at KW, taught third grade.
The educators headed to mid-Kansas in 1977. Coach Kolzow led the Southeast of Saline football program, and started the baseball program in 1991. In those first 12 years, the Trojans qualified for the Class 3A state baseball tournament six times, placing second twice and third three times. Dee Kolzow taught math at SES.
His firstborn, Ryan, rose from the Trojans’ batboy to compete at Southeast in baseball, playing center field and pitcher. Brother Kerry Kolzow followed seven years later, covering first base and pitching. Most recently, Ryan’s son, Jaxon, played for Coach/Grandpa Kolzow at Salina Central.
“One of the great thrills for me was being able to coach both sons and my grandson in high school,” Dee Kolzow said.
Ryan played for his father, as an outfielder and pitcher and later coached both with him and against him. He was on Coach Hess’s staff in 1998 when Manhattan High School snared the Class 6A state championship.
“He was our coach, but when the game was over, he was Dad, and was always there for us,” Ryan Kolzow said. “The most nervous I’ve ever seen him as a coach was when Jaxon was a freshman (at Central) and started at shortstop, which was rare. During his very first at-bat, Jaxon got a hit. Dad turned and exhaled, and said ‘I really needed him to do that.’ ”
Baseball was a huge part of life for the Kolzows, said Kerry, from Little League through Legion ball and high school.
“So much of our summers were spent on the ballfields. Dad let us spend as much time as we wanted. We put up a batting cage in the back yard,” he said. “Dad taught me everything about baseball, and more important about life; working hard, and teamwork.”
Family summer vacations were spent — you guessed it — visiting Big League ballparks.
“Mom and Dad still do that. They’ve been to every Major League park,” Kerry said.
Janice Kolzow was, and still is, all in on the strong sports component of her family.
“I just enjoy the game, being able to go and watch, and help support them in any way I could,” she said.
Well aware of the politics of being a coach’s wife, she followed the advice of Lester Mouse, a high school principal in Lakin, to “always sit away from the crowd. They were always very kind and pretty conscious of who’s there, but sometimes they don’t always mean what they say. They just get really involved in the games.”
Most important for her is being there, watching the game unfold and support her family and friends. These days, a new flock of Kolzow kinfolk are performing.
A former cheerleader, Grandma is a fixture in the stands at Salina Central, to cheer for her granddaughter, junior Brixen Kolzow, who competes in volleyball, and Emma Dutton, an eighth grader, playing tennis at Maize South Middle School.
In 17 years of coaching baseball at Salina Central, Kolzow’s Mustangs went to the Class 5A state tournament three times, finishing fourth in 2010 and third in 2024.
Through his career, Coach Kolzow coached several sports for boys and girls, including cross country, basketball, and track, on the high school and junior high levels
“I loved being around the kids and the practice part of it,” Coach Kolzow said.
Coaching family members was not a major challenge, he said, because expectations were the same.
“I’m sure I was harder on my sons than my grandson. I did expect them to be leaders. I really tried my best to treat them the same as I did the other players,” Dee Kolzow said.
The goal is to build confidence in all players, one game at a time.
“You have to learn to adjust to the material you have. You have to get the kids to believe in themselves,” he said. “In baseball, you’ve got to look forward and forget the past. If you get a hit three times out of 10, you’re a great hitter. You’ve got to have a short memory. Even the pitchers are gonna have some bad outings.”
Leadership comes in different forms. Some players are vocal and others lead by example, the older coach said, both on the field, the classroom and the hallway.
He praised parents who were positive and encouraged their kids.
“Parents are important. When their kids are struggling, don’t criticize them. Try to build them up and lead by example,” Coach Kolzow said. “When there is a bad call from an umpire, just drop it. I tell the kids you can only control what you can. Go on to the next pitch.”
He was staunch in setting the rules and sticking to them.
“You expect kids to follow those rules, and if they don’t, they have to suffer the consequences,” Kolzow said. “I think kids really want discipline. I’ve had to bench some kids. The good ones will come back and do a good job.”
He learned in a hurry that athletes come in all shapes, sizes and abilities, and some have mysterious challenges.
“I could go back to my first year of coaching football. At our first practice, we had a freshman kid who couldn’t run 20 yards without falling down,” Kolzow recalled. “Come to find out, since the time he was little, he had never worn anything but cowboy boots, and his ankles were not strong enough without that support. By his senior year, he was a unanimous all-league center.”
He urges young coaches to believe in their approach and scheme, but be willing to make small changes.
“When you go to a clinic, try to pick up something that will help, but don’t just jump the gun and change your whole system,” Kolzow said.
The coach may have had his share of stern moments, but there were fun moments mixed in, such as the case of a pilfered baseball glove at Southeast of Saline.
“We had a great group of seniors who were always pulling pranks on each other,” he said. “I walked out to practice one day, and one of my good seniors was walking around. I said ‘what are you doing?’ and he said ‘I’m looking for my glove. Somebody hid it on me.’ ”
After a lecture and threats of making the team run as a punishment, an all-out search ensued.
The senior went back to the school building, then realized the glove was stowed away in a leg of the sweat pants he was wearing.
“He came out and everybody just cracked up,” Coach Kolzow said.
During an annual alumni baseball game at SES, he heard someone in the alumni dugout using bad language.
“I said, ‘Hey, you know we don’t do that.’ One of the alums said ‘Sorry coach, and then he took off and ran a lap around the field, and said ‘That’s what I would’ve done if I was still in school.’ ”
Central Coach Michael Hall’s first experience with Dee Kolzow was in grade school playing summer baseball with the Sports Connection team. He grew up south of Gypsum.
Ryan Kolzow became his best friend. They played together through high school at Southeast of Salina.
“When we were young (Dee Kolzow) was pretty firm and we fed off of that, his attention to detail and effort. He always made you feel good when you performed well,” Hall said. “I was pretty fortunate at Southeast to have him as a coach, and Phil Katzenmeier as a football coach.”
Coach Dee Kolzow was not mean, said Jimmy White, 45, a pitcher and outfielder at Southeast of Saline, class of 1998.
“He was a good role model who set the example for how you were supposed to play,” White said. “He was never afraid to let you know when you were doing something you were not supposed to be doing. Ryan Kolzow served as an assistant coach for White in Legion ball.
“Another thing people don’t realize, (Dee Kolzow) did a lot of work behind the scenes,” Hall said. “He single handedly took care of the field out by the water tower (off Markley Road) to make sure it was playable,” Hall said. “He worked outside of his program so others could benefit from baseball — helping out, instructing — whatever he could do to help anybody become a better baseball player. he left his mark on thousands of kids.”
Dee Kolzow’s devotion to baseball continues in retirement.
“We’re gonna go down to spring training in Arizona and watch the Cubs and Royals. We’ve never been able to do that,” he said, and there will be more bus trips to major league stadiums.
FACTOID: One could say Michael Hall was a Dee Kolzow clone, considering what became of his career. Hall was an assistant football coach at Salina Central when the Mustangs won four state titles, and spent 12 years as head football coach. Today he teaches math, thanks in part to the inspiration in that subject from coaches Dee Kolzow and Phil Katzenmeier at Southeast of Saline.
“They made math fun and inspired me as a teacher as well,” Hall said.
As a football player, He played mostly defensive back and wide receiver and “a little bit at quarterback.” On the baseball diamond, he was a fixture at second base.
FACTOID: This year’s Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame inductees:
Dee Kolzow, Southeast of Saline and Salina Central
Ryan Schmidt, Shawnee Heights
Joe Auer, Wichita Heights
Lorne Parks, St. Thomas Aquinas
Bill Shaw, Wellington, Derby and El Dorado
The KABC Hall of Fame Committee consists of six current coaches: Don Hess, Manhattan; Joe Allison, Blue Valley West; Mike Watt, Pittsburg Colgan; Dan Hypes, Jeff West High School; Aaron Bucher, Arkansas City; and Zach Shipley, Dodge City. Also voting: KABC President Heath Gerstner, of McPherson, and Alan Cunningham, of Silver Lake, a current Hall of Fame member.
Kolzow is also in the Kansas Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame, inducted in 1986:
• “Dee was one of the most fabulous offensive performers at KWU. During his career he set a host of records in football: first career total offense (3,959), second career rushing (2,009), second season touchdowns (15), first career touchdowns (50) first and second season pass completions (51 & 44), first career pass completions (140), first season passing yardage (826), and first career passing yardage (1,950). Dee held the longest run from scrimmage of 98 yards from 1964 until 1986. He was both an All-District and All-KCAC first team choice,” according to kwucoyotes.com.
