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The fall high school sports season kicked off Monday with nearly every fall team hitting the gym, court, pool or field to start practices and get ready for the season. Student athletes have been anticipating this week, but so have coaches — especially first-year coaches who are just trying to feel their way through the process for the first time.
Year-in and year-out, there are usually more than a few changes in coaching positions as coaches retire or just move on, but this year things are relatively quiet in that department, with less than a handful of changes at our local high schools.
In Cloquet the Lumberjacks hired a new coach for cross-country running and for boys soccer, as longtime coaches Mike Bushey and Archie Clark decided to retire from the coaching ranks.
Chandra Allen is the new head coach for cross-country.
“Mike will be tough to replace, since he has been with the program for so long,” said Cloquet athletic director Paul Riess. “But Chandra has a background in running. She is also a teacher in the business department at the high school. She understands working with kids and will do an excellent job with the cross-country program.”
Allen, who has been teaching in the district since 2013, is a former competitive runner, and has previous coaching experience from her work with the Floodwood school district. Allen has worked with the Lumberjack program as a parent of a runner as well.
Sliding into the head boys soccer position will be Dave Bergan, who takes over for Clark.
“Dave will replace Archie Clark who had also been here for many years,” Riess said. “Dave has a soccer background with a lot of experience coaching many levels of soccer. He is also a counselor at the high school, so he understands working with kids and knows how to build relationships with them in order to make them successful.”
A check with other local schools finds things fairly quiet on the coaching front, with the lone exception being Wrenshall, where they have hired a new volleyball coach, John Peterson.
“John has coached junior high volleyball and over the summer,” said Wrens athletic director Jeremy Zywicki. “This will be his first varsity season.”
Wrenshall will combine with Carlton in cross-country again and, for the first time, football.
Eric Holter, Wrenshall’s cross-country coach for the past four seasons, will be the head coach for the combined Carlton-Wrenshall cross-country program.
In a collaborative effort, Zywicki of Wrenshall and Jason Crane of Carlton will serve as co-head coaches of the newly formed Raptors, who will don the colors of both high schools when they hit the football field this fall.
“I’m very excited about the fall season. I think with our combined programs, we will put very competitive teams on the field and the courses,” said Zywicki. “I’m also looking forward to watching our volleyball team grow under the new leadership this season. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I’m proud of what we are putting together between the two districts of Carlton and Wrenshall.”
A check with athletic directors in Barnum, Esko, South Ridge and Cromwell showed no other coaching changes in the area this fall.
In fact, in Cromwell, the reverse is true, with three coaches having served more than 20 years as head coaches. Football coach Jeff Gronner has been patrolling the sidelines for 22 years, while cross-country coach Pete Koenig and volleyball coach Amy Granholm have been coaching there for 20 years.
Perhaps the longest-tenured coach in the area is Carlton volleyball coach Barb Soukkala, who enters her 26th season at the helm of the Bulldogs.
And whether it is a new coach or an old coach, the seasons will all kick off in grand style with games starting within the next two weeks.