Randy Dase has been a fixture at Towson High School for the better part of 40 years. He’s never wanted to be anywhere else.

As a Generals basketball player in the late 60s and early 70s, he always hoped to return to Towson to coach the boys basketball team. He did that right after graduating from college. He’s been there ever since. (Oh, and he’s a social studies teacher, too.)

He doesn’t plan to leave the school anytime soon, but Dase has decided to retire as boys basketball coach. He will stay on as head coach of the boys soccer team, which has won two state titles and was runner up twice during his 19 years.

In 1997, Dase gave up the head boys lacrosse job after 18 seasons and eight state championships. But leaving basketball was a little different.

"It was a very difficult decision," Dase told me on Tuesday. "To be truthful, in life there’s one thing I always wanted to do. I always wanted to go back to Towson High School and coach basketball. I remember the first time we took the court. I bawled like a baby, because it was the only thing I ever really wanted in terms of a position."

In 1977, he took the JV coaching position offered by head varsity coach Randy Walker, who had coached Dase at Towson. He took over the varsity when Walker retired in 1986.

In 1972, Dase was the point guard for the Generals when they won the Baltimore County championship and played in the final four at Cole Field House. He returned to Cole in 1987 and 1988 as the Generals' head coach. He is the only coach in Baltimore County to have gone to the final four at Cole as a player and as a coach.

Now, he will have more time for sons Austin, a sophomore at Gilman, and Hunter, 10. They both play sports and Dase often leaves his high school games to coach rec games.

As if that’s not enough to keep a guy busy, Dase also co-produces and appears on the television program, High School Sports Scene, which showcases Baltimore County public school athletics programs. He created the show 24 years ago and still works on one each month for The Education Channel.

Although Austin is a swimmer, Dase said he has been asked to be an assistant coach for Gilman’s varsity basketball team, which has a new head coach this season. He agreed.

"When you’re a head coach at a high school, you spend so much time on it, but this way, I can still keep my hands in the game, because I love the game, but I can cut down on the responsibility," said Dase, 54.

-- Katherine Dunn