SSUSA STAFF HIGHLIGHT: DAVE DOWELL

Aug. 1, 2016

Dave Dowell, Senior Softball USA national director/scheduling, began working with SSUSA in the late 1990s as the company’s independent accountant. Dave is also the husband of Fran Dowell, executive director of SSUSA and National Senior Softball Hall of Fame member.

Dave got his start working as a field director in 2001, following the tragic events of September 11th. With the Worlds in Las Vegas that year and numerous flights cancelled, Dave and Fran drove to Las Vegas from Sacramento. Due to the limited directors in attendance, Dave got his first taste of tournament directing as a fill-in.

Starting in 2003, Dave would begin writing tournament schedules for SSUSA, with the help and guidance from Rick Seifman, currently the SSUSA vice president/umpires. Dave had a background in scheduling, having worked for various sports leagues and organizations at the youth and middle school levels. He later developed a scheduling software system that is still in use today.

As the scheduler for all of SSUSA’s major tournaments, as well as smaller qualifiers, Dave has one of the more scrutinized jobs at SSUSA. Scheduling begins well in advance of the start of tournaments, with field inventory and restrictions that go along with those fields. Once the entry deadlines have passed and teams are confirmed, Dave can begin his scheduling duties. “It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle fitting teams in the proper bracket structure,” said Dave.

Dave, a 1974 graduate of Santa Clara University, is a retired CPA by trade. He worked for a number of years in Phoenix and Denver in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before being recruited back to Sacramento by the Sacramento Sports Association, the holding company of the then newly acquired Sacramento Kings, as a project director and controller overseeing the construction of Arco Arena. He later opened his own financial consulting firm.

Dave and Fran have been happily married for 40 years and have three children and six grandchildren.