Former NCAA Champions Create Ethos Wrestling Club in Homecoming

Lowell’s wrestling tradition has a new offseason outlet and it’s a pair of familiar faces who have come back home to build it. Former NCAA champions Max Dean and Gabe Dean have returned to Lowell and created Ethos Wrestling Club, with Max taking the lead while Gabe handles day-to-day operations at Great Lakes Land Holdings, where Max also works. Great Lakes Land Holdings operates storage facilities around the country, including My Storage Lowell, along with other ventures such as RV parks.

Ethos Wrestling Club will serve local youth wrestlers looking to develop their skills in a club setting outside of school, functioning in a similar way that Flat River, Bad Bass, and Ares Wrestling Club have operated in the Lowell area in the past. Based in Lowell, the club is focused on long-term growth and giving wrestlers the opportunity to improve their technique, build connections in the sport, and train in a competitive environment with high-level instruction.

For Max Dean, the launch is both a wrestling move and a homecoming. After graduating from Lowell, he followed Gabe to Cornell, where he spent four and a half years before transferring to Penn State following the Ivy League’s cancellation of athletics during the 2020-21 season (COVID Pandemic Related). At Penn State, Dean won an NCAA title and helped the Nittany Lions capture two team NCAA championships.

The Dean name already carries major weight in wrestling circles both locally and nationally. Gabe Dean was a two-time NCAA champion and one of the most accomplished wrestlers in Cornell history, while Max built his own impressive career at both Cornell and Penn State before continuing on with the Nittany Lions. Their cousins Kanon, Zeth, and Doak all wrestled at Harvard University. Of course, all five were elite wrestlers during their time at Lowell High School. Gabe and Max’s dad, Dave Dean, was a two-time All-American at Minnesota himself.

Max Dean said his return to Lowell was driven first by family. After college, he spent time training and also worked remotely with Gabe and others through Great Lakes Land Holdings before moving to Alabama for a larger role in the business. He said he and Gabe returned home after operations there became more established, allowing them to raise their children around family while also being closer to the company’s headquarters which is operated on the south side of town on Grand River Drive.

That return helped open the door for Ethos.

Dean said he wanted back into wrestling after being away from the sport during his time in Huntsville and felt he had something to offer young wrestlers and their families. He described the mission as bigger than simply running practices. Ethos, he said, is meant to help wrestlers improve over months and years while also connecting them to high-level coaching, clinicians, college wrestlers, and training opportunities outside the area.

“I feel that our wrestlers will genuinely see improvement in their careers over months and years. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time with them, but I also want to make a point to connect these kids and families with the broader wrestling world that I have access to. We will be bringing in many high level clinicians, the room will daily be filled with college wrestlers giving back to younger kids,and we will also take trips to train and compete with other clubs and coaches on the national stage. Our first trip like this is taking place this summer, where we will be taking our athletes out to Pennsylvania to train with at least two different clubs there who have some hammers,” Max told Red Arrow Preps.

One of those hammers is Mitchell Messenbrink, a wrestler out of Penn State who just won his second national championship in a row. Dean said he wants the room to be filled regularly with college wrestlers giving back to younger athletes while also creating opportunities for local wrestlers to see what high-level training looks like.

Dean also sees plenty of promise in Lowell’s youth wrestling scene. He said the area already has strong young wrestlers and a program that has been in good hands for a long time, and he hopes Ethos can help maintain those standards while assisting athletes from Lowell and beyond in reaching the next level.

The club’s name reflects the values Dean wants at its core. He said “ethos” speaks to reputation, character, and way of being, and that the goal is to teach lessons that apply not only to wrestling, but to life. Respect, gratitude, accountability, and leaving places better than you found them are all part of that vision.

Parents interested in signing their wrestlers up can register through EthosWrestling.com. Dean also said the club is opening a dedicated club room in Lowell and expects the facility to be ready in May.