Columbus’ Dave Dunn is the Miami-Dade 4M-3M Football Coach of the Year
When Dave Dunn coached the Columbus football team the first time in the late 1990s, it was among the better teams in the state - something it had been for decades prior.
But in the five seasons since Dunn began his second stint with the Explorers, they have leveled up significantly.
This season, Columbus reached another milestone under Dunn’s leadership.
The Explorers repeated as state champions for the first time in school history following a dominant 38-19 win over Jacksonville Mandarin in the Class 4M final in Tallahassee last December.
It was the third state title all-time for Columbus, all of which have come since Dunn’s return to the sidelines.
And so for the fourth time in five years, Dunn is the Miami Herald’s Dade County 4M-3M Coach of the Year.
“We’ve only lost one playoff game in five years and that’s a pretty cool feeling,” Dunn said after the Explorers’ victory at state.
Columbus is 56-11 since Dunn took over in 2019 after multiple coaching stints at the college level following his departure from the school in 2000. The Explorers have advanced to at least the state semifinals each of his five seasons and won the South Florida Tri-County championship in 2020 when several schools withdrew from playing in the FHSAA series due to the shortened season.
The Explorers went 13-2 this season and persevered late in the season when their starting quarterback Alberto Mendoza was lost for two games with a broken finger.
Despite being the reigning Class 4M state champions, some considered Columbus an underdog going into the final as it faced a Mandarin squad loaded with FBS-level talent.
But Dunn and his staff evened the odds with a run-oriented approach keyed around Mendoza executing several run-pass-option plays, which allowed Columbus to control the game and never trail.
“We knew we could run the ball and most importantly with our quarterback and we knew we could cause problems with that,” Dunn said after that game.
Columbus also sported one of the top defenses in the state led by several FBS recruits including first team All-County selections Hector Chavez, Willis McGahee and Daylen Russell.
