His younger brother Nick played four years at Wright State tennis and was the MVP of the team.
Their sister Renu teamed with Jamie Plummer at Northmont to win the Ohio High School Athletic Association doubles title in 1980. Renu went on to become a three-time, All-Mid-American Conference player at Toledo and, four years ago after coaching a decade and a half in Ohio and India, she was enshrined in the Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
The three kids’ accomplishments, though,were dwarfed by those of their late dad — Amrit Dewan — who was the national badminton champion of India in 1951 and 45 years later won the U.S. Senior doubles championship, masters division.
Their mom, the late Dr. Gopi Dewan, was a prominent physician in Mumbai, India, before gaining similar stature here and becoming one of the original founders of the Hindu Temple of Dayton.
Although they were a family of accomplishments, the Dewans didn’t forget the paths that led them to success.
“Mom and dad always made sure they set money aside for Wright State or other philanthropic areas,” Dewan said. “They often geared it to sports and education. As you get older in life and are able to do some things, you want to give back to your community that was really helpful in building a foundation for you.”
And so, some years back, when the Dewans heard that Wright State wanted to upgrade its tennis program, the family donated a substantial amount of money for that purpose.
But due to a “series of headwinds,” as WSU athletics director Bob Grant put it, the tennis courts were not built and then came the COVID pandemic which left much of college sports shut down and reeling.
In June of 2020, WSU announced it was eliminating men’s and women’s tennis, as well as softball.
“Suddenly Sudan’s sport was no longer in existence,” Grant said. “And that left me with a tough phone call to make. I told him, “Man, we don’t have a team anymore. What do you want to do?’
“He’s got a heart of gold, though, and he said, ‘Hey, Bob, we’re still behind you all. I’m willing to keep the donation in place if you can come up with something that helps all athletes.’”
Dewan said the more he and his siblings thought about it, the more they focused on athletes’ health:
“My mom and brother are both physicians and we thought, ‘OK, let’s do something mixed with nutrition.’”
Those thoughts gave birth to the new Dewan Family Fueling Center that was dedicated late Friday afternoon at the Strength and Conditioning Center in the Setzer Pavilion / Mills Morgan Center.
Dewan, who now lives in Dallas where he is the Chief Financial Officer of OX Engineering Products, was back in town this weekend with his wife Rachna for his high school reunion.
They were joined at the WSU dedication by Renu, who lives in the area and has a family of her own, and several members of the WSU athletic staff, including Grant; the Director of Sports Performance, Cole Pittsford; and basketball coaches Scott Nagy and Kari Hoffman.
The Fueling Center — at the front of a room filled with 11 weight-training machines and, on most days, several sweating, straining athletes working out — was stocked with everything from oranges, apples and bananas to protein bars, Gatorade on tap and a cooler full of energy drinks. It also the place where protein shakes are made.
“It’s a real upgrade to our nutrition station,” Pittsford said. “Before this, we just had a small cart with some containers of snacks for our athletes.
“This gift not only renovated the space, but it will provide additional funding to restock the food.
“It allows us to provide better nutrition for our athletes. Before they leave here and head straight to their practice or a class, they’ll at least get something in their system that allows them to recover faster. They’ll be able to leave with a piece of fruit and a protein shake, but not a ton of calories.”
Grant noted that the new fueling center not only aids current WSU athlete, but could help in recruiting:
“When you get a recruit on campus for 24 or 48 hours, this will show them another commitment, another way we’re trying to make them better. This just enforces our concern for the overall person.”
Dewan said he never thought of pulling the donation once tennis was disbanded:
“It’s about something bigger than that. My brother and I both got a good education here and all the small lessons of life we learned through sports here have helped us later on.
“You learn discipline and determination and teamwork — and there’s the camaraderie you build with each other — all that translates into what we do now. And we’re thankful.”
So is Grant:
“There are so many layers of goodness in this effort — from what it does for our athletes to what it shows about Sudan and his family.”
The sport they loved and starred in at the school may be gone, but the Dewans have never been bigger champions at WSU.
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