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A mural outside Gateway High's new weight room honors an old coach, Dwayne Webb, who was instrumental in the Panther's strength training program — and athlete's overall lives. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON -
A mural outside Gateway High's new weight room honors an old coach, Dwayne Webb, who was instrumental in the Panther's strength training program — and athlete's overall lives. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON -
A plaque on the outside of Gateway High's new gym honors former coach Dwayne Webb, who passed away in 2021 after a battle with colon cancer. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
Coaches are mentors. They leave a legacy among those who pass through locker rooms, and in the case of longtime Osceola County Dwayne Webb, weight rooms.
Webb was the quintessential “that guy” at Gateway High School, and before that in stops at Osceola, St. Cloud, and then at Poinciana, where his son Charlie was an athlete, before coming to Gateway.
Webb, who passed away in November 2021 at age 60 following a brief battle with colon cancer, came to be regarded by students over the years as someone who “coached them up” for lives outside any sports setting, serving as a mentor to many younger teachers over the years, and a strong male role model for students.
Those who now attend Gateway who didn’t get to meet him will know of his legacy, after the school’s new weight room, part of a near total rebuild of the 40-year-old school, was dedicated Wednesday.
“Webb’s House” has a 40-foot long mural of a spider web on a wall just outside the new weight room — a place Webb would have undoubtedly been right at home in. Those working out can see it through windows along the long side of the room.
Webb’s House will signify a “web of influence” to inspire generations to come — the spider web supports and holds things together, much like how the members of a sports team must come together to succeed.
Family, friends and current and former GHS coaches — and, really, it’s all the same thing — came for Wednesday’s unveiling, and shared their best memories of Webb. It didn’t matter how long they knew him.
“This all makes me feel good, because that was the beautiful person I always got to see,” said Denise Webb, Dwayne’s widow, who attended with her daughter and two grandchildren at spent quite a bit of time admiring the spider web handiwork.
GHS Principal James Long has been at the school six years, and at the time acknowledged the school’s weight room was, “A glorified closet where we were lifting rust.”
“Coach really spearheaded Gateway’s strength and conditioning program,” he said. “He meant so much to a lot of people, after he passed we learned quick the impact he had here. This weight room … it’s Coach Webb. I’m sure this is what he always envisioned.”
Gateway Athletic Director and boys basketball coach Travis James said the school’s administration bought into the memorial idea right away to help make it happen.
“We knew were having a new facility built. What better way than to name this after Coach Webb,” he said.
While Webb coached at Gateway, the Panthers qualified for the playoffs for the first time in school history in 2015 (it opened in 1985), then again in 2017-18. GHS head football coach Marlin Roberts started coaching against Webb as far back as 2001, when he was an assistant and freshman basketball coach and Webb coached at St. Cloud.
“He was one of the first people I reached out to to see if he’d come here after Charlie graduated,” Roberts said. “He was Coach Webb to a lot of people, but to me he was a friend, a mentor. We talked about life, not just football. He is the guy kids need to be around, especially these days. I miss the heck out of him.”
Isaiah Wharton played football at Gateway, then at Rutgers University, then briefly in NFL training camps. He’s now back as a Panthers assistant coach.
“He taught me how to be a man and to carry myself off the field. It’s something many men take for granted," he said. "Having those mentors and role models is one of the purest form of brotherhood you’ll have.”
