Today, we here at Da Vinci are happy and honored to announce that Duane Faust has joined our staff as the Head Coach of Varsity Girls Basketball. We look forward to the tremendous sports and professional experience Duane brings to our schools as well as the Wiseburn Da Vinci Girls Basketball Team. As administrators, staff, players and parents, Duane has expressed a personal interest in bringing us all together to map out the “pursuit of excellence” for our children academically and athletically. I couldn’t think of a better coach to achieve both for us.
Coach Duane Faust was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts while being raised in Washington D.C. and the surrounding suburbs. Growing up his home life was centered on faith in God and family. Early on, it was evident that Duane developed two interests – basketball & business. He excelled in his high school basketball career by attending and graduating from DeMatha Catholic High School, the #1 nationally ranked basketball team in 1985. Duane’s DeMatha team featured NBA players such as Danny Ferry and Jerod Mustafa of the Washington Bullets and Phoenix Suns respectively. Although being on a star-studded #1 high school basketball team in America, Duane flourished and earned Maryland High School All Star credentials as a senior coupled with a four-year scholarship to attend the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in 1986. At UMBC Duane’s talent, skill and drive became more evident earning him top 50 college freshman honors and going on to become a one-thousand-point UMBC player. His shooting achievements still have him listed as the 19th all-time school scorer in UMBC history.
After an extensive basketball career, Duane decided to go into business and mortgages where he used his competitive drive to work for some of the biggest banks in the industry including Wells Fargo, Countrywide and Bank of America. Duane’s intimate knowledge of the mortgage industry ultimately led him to start his own mortgage company that grew to his overseeing 53 employees and managing 3 million in revenue annually.
While business was also a passion for Duane, in 2014, he decided to return to his first love of basketball seizing an opportunity to coach his daughter, Alana Faust, at her middle school, Wiseburn Middle School (formerly Dana Middle School). At Wisebrun, Duane achieved phenomenal success once again having winning seasons in all 7 years he coached as well as claiming the league championship in 2015. Even after his daughter Alana had left Wiseburn, Duane continued to coach the Wiseburn girls’ basketball team to success; instilling the principals of discipline, work ethic and character into his players the same way he did with his daughter Alana, who went on to become league Volleyball MVP here at Da Vinci and his other daughter, Maleah Faust, who plays for the Varsity Girls Volleyball team currently.
Therefore, please join me in welcoming Duane home to his roots where his own children have represented our school so well as he looks forward to doing the same as a part of our staff.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Davidson
and
Kevin Kohigashi