Powers Catholic High School

Dave Wolbert honored as Coach of the year At the annual Track and Cross Country Coaches banquet Dave Wolbert was honored as Coach of the year for Division 2 men’s cross country. This is a well deserved honor for the long serving coach who is the face of Powers Cross Country. A coaching career that began in the fall of 1996 when Dave Wolbert accepted then Head Coach Mike Gould’s invitation to join his staff. It was a tough pitch for Coach Gould as the prior season the men's cross country team finished 9th in the big 9 conference. Working in Midland at the time Coach Wolbert would be hard pressed to make it back to Flint in time for practice. Coach Gould wasn’t deterred. ‘No problem, you can leave work at 3 and we will practice at 4.” As practice was held at St. John Vianney Church which was literally across the street from Coach Wolbert’s house he could not say no. This began a 3 decade run that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The Coach Gould and Coach Wolbert duo was an excellent combination as the Powers men went from an afterthought to a team that dominated the Big 9 conference for over a decade. Coach Wolbert succeeded as head Coach in the fall of 2010 after Coach Gould retired. Over his career Powers men’s teams have won 11 Greater Flint Titles, 11 conference Championships, 12 regionals titles and have qualified for the state finals 22 times. This included a dozen top ten finishes highlighted by state titles in 1999 and 2025 along with a runner up finish in 2002. The move to the Saginaw Valley Conference brought a much higher level of competition and despite being the smallest school in the conference over the past 10 years the Chargers men have annually been in the hunt for a conference title and have been the most consistent team over the past decade. 14 of Coach Wolbert’s athletes earned all state honors including individual State Champions Luke Walker and Justin Perez each of whom broke school records enroute to their state titles. An amazing 38 of Coach Wolbert’s former runners have gone on to compete in college. Including 11 who competed at Division one universities. The 2003 team alone featured 4 runners who would go on to compete at the Division One level. One of the greatest gifts that Coach Wolbert left his former athletes with is a lifelong love of running. If you hang out in the ‘flat lot’ following the Crim festival of races you are guaranteed to see Coach Wolbert talking to dozens of his former runners at the post race party. No Coach does it alone and Coach Wolbert has been ably assisted by hall of fame coach Kenn Domerese who has brought his nearly 50 years of experience and has been invaluable to Coach Wolbert and the Chargers. Coach Craig Hatton is the unsung hero of the Coaching staff and literally drives the bus for the Chargers. Congratulations to Coach Wolbert, his staff and his team on earning coach of the year! We are looking forward to many more years of success.