Coaching Changes - 2017-18

BP · Post by BP » Mon Mar 13, 2017 8:41 am

So, it begins. I will keep a running list below. If people have updates, feel free to post.

1. Minnetonka (Brian Urick) - Sean Goldsworthy
2. Mound-Westonka (Doug Runke) - Jake Hinderman
3. Mounds View (Scott Brokaw) - Adam Schmidt
4. Totino-Grace (Mark Loahr) - Brian Murphy
5. Tartan (Steve Romanchuk and Ray Sierakowski) - Cole Leitch
6. Albert Lea (Roy Nystrom) - Jason Fornwald
7. Holy Angels (Trent Palm) - Pat Griswold
8. LaCrescent (JP Piche) - Adam Kimball
9. Minnehaha Academy (Pat Griswold) - Josh Hoekstra
10. Farmington (Lee Goren) - John Marsh
11. Legacy Christian Academy (Steve Larson) -
12. East Ridge (Wes Walz) - Dustin Vogelsang
13. Bemidji (Wade Chiodo) - Eric Monsrud
14. Rochester Lourdes (Josh Spaniol) - Joe Knoepke/Bryan Frischmann
15. Hermantown (Bruce Plante) - Patrick Andrews
16. Irondale (Adam Schmidt) - Jerry Hayes
17. Breck (Les Larson) - Glen Lang
18. Chanhassen (Chris Wilson) - Jesse Willis
19. Redwood Valley (Joe Stremcha) - Blair Wassengeso
20. Cloquet (Dave Esse) - Kevin Smalley
21. Grand Rapids (Trent Klatt) - Chris Marinucci
22. Duluth Denfeld (Kevin Smalley) - Dale Jago
23. Princeton (Jeff Hanson) - Trent Frederick
24. Southwest Christian - Erik Westrum
25. Rosemount (Brad Stepan) - Ricky Saintey

BP · Post by BP » Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:17 am

Mound Westonka added.

BP · Post by BP » Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:05 pm

Mounds View added to the list......

BP · Post by BP » Wed Mar 15, 2017 8:28 am

Totino-Grace added to the list.......

elliott70 · Post by **elliott70** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 8:37 am

Droppin' like flies...

mgrockswayzata · Post by **mgrockswayzata** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:35 am

Brokaw doesn't surprise me.
The guy is a real beauty.
My son played for him at Providence Academy and he
was a knucklehead. If he was mad at a player on the other team,
he would tell specific players to go target him and put the hurt to him.
I hope no other high school will be dumb enough to hire him.

GoldyGopher · Post by **GoldyGopher** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:43 am

mgrockswayzata wrote:Brokaw doesn't surprise me.
The guy is a real beauty.
My son played for him at Providence Academy and he
was a knucklehead. If he was mad at a player on the other team,
he would tell specific players to go target him and put the hurt to him.
I hope no other high school will be dumb enough to hire him.

Maybe he read the coaching for dummies written by Gregg Williams

Whiner33 · Post by **Whiner33** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:23 pm

mgrockswayzata wrote:Brokaw doesn't surprise me.
The guy is a real beauty.
My son played for him at Providence Academy and he
was a knucklehead. If he was mad at a player on the other team,
he would tell specific players to go target him and put the hurt to him.
I hope no other high school will be dumb enough to hire him.

Another pay to play parent thinking he's real brilliant!

berditzman · Post by **berditzman** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:23 pm

mgrockswayzata wrote:Brokaw doesn't surprise me.
The guy is a real beauty.
My son played for him at Providence Academy and he
was a knucklehead. If he was mad at a player on the other team,
he would tell specific players to go target him and put the hurt to him.
I hope no other high school will be dumb enough to hire him.

I would suggest, with a charge like that, putting your name out here so Mr. Brokaw has the opportunity to answer that accordingly.

forreal · Post by **forreal** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:43 pm

berditzman wrote:
mgrockswayzata wrote:Brokaw doesn't surprise me.
The guy is a real beauty.
My son played for him at Providence Academy and he
was a knucklehead. If he was mad at a player on the other team,
he would tell specific players to go target him and put the hurt to him.
I hope no other high school will be dumb enough to hire him.

I would suggest, with a charge like that, putting your name out here so Mr. Brokaw has the opportunity to answer that accordingly.

would seem reasonable, but wouldn't hold your breath!

forreal · Post by **forreal** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:16 pm

mgrockswayzata wrote:Brokaw doesn't surprise me.
The guy is a real beauty.
My son played for him at Providence Academy and he
was a knucklehead. If he was mad at a player on the other team,
he would tell specific players to go target him and put the hurt to him.
I hope no other high school will be dumb enough to hire him.

That is quite a charge to throw out as an anonymous guy behind a keyboard! The fact is if you look at mgrockswayzata previous 16 posts they cover him bashing O'Leary for "losing his team" they bash the former Wayzata assistant and suggest that Tyler nanne was undeserving of teams he made. He even speaks to being at St. Cloud for 104 festival for the 96' birth year players. Now he's attacking brokaw. Not sure what his motive is but he is clearly lying. No player from providence, or sibling, made it to St. Cloud that year.
Looks like another guy who's kid "was cheated" by Wayzata, the hp program, and somehow brokaw too. Hopefully as jr. Grew he was graded on his merit and not these awful coaches that held him back

Suppose he must be playing college puck now.
As a parent who has had 2 of my children on the bench with coach Brokaw, I know this is a lie. In getting to know him over the years I have great respect for him and how he approaches the game and works with many players. To suggest that he sends guys after "kids he doesn't like" just seems weird. Could be wrong but do you really see the coach as a guy who picks kids out he "Doesn't Like" and targets them to get injured?
I hope he comes back and coaches if that's what he wants. Not enough good invested coaches out there and in my experience he is a very good one! Maybe the reason he's not back is dealing with the parents like this that seem to make coaches head for the exits.

Some good coaches moving on and hopefully some movement will help the programs and coaches involved! Oh the off season...

Hockeylogger · Post by **Hockeylogger** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:11 am

Why is Loahr out?

Very well respected, must have 25+ years.

I remember seeing he hit 500 wins in his career a few years ago.

Did he just decide to step down after many years on the job?

WarmUpTheBus · Post by **WarmUpTheBus** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:20 am

Hockeylogger wrote:Why is Loahr out?

Very well respected, must have 25+ years.

I remember seeing he hit 500 wins in his career a few years ago.

Did he just decide to step down after many years on the job?

Agree. I have only seen Totino in person a few times but he seemed like a class act.

chester1991 · Post by **chester1991** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:20 pm

Add Tartan to the list!

warmskin · Post by **warmskin** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:31 pm

What coaches should call it a career?

GoldenBear69 · Post by **GoldenBear69** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:34 pm

Speaking of guys that should call it a career ... Whatever happened with Tony Sarsland at Brainerd?

TheMNhockey1 · Post by **TheMNhockey1** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 12:16 am

chester1991 wrote:Add Tartan to the list!

I heard rumors and happy it turned out to be true. Everyone who follows Tartan hockey has been waiting for this for a few years

chester1991 · Post by **chester1991** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 7:32 am

I thought they did a good job with what they had to work with. They beat White Bear Lake 1-0 in the section quarterfinals this year. They have had some good teams over the last few years. It will be interesting to see who Tartan hires.

BP · Post by BP » Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:18 am

Tartan added to the list.....

mulefarm · Post by **mulefarm** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 10:46 am

TheMNhockey1 wrote:
chester1991 wrote:Add Tartan to the list!
I heard rumors and happy it turned out to be true. Everyone who follows Tartan hockey has been waiting for this for a few years

Sounds like you should be the first applicant? You can put Tartan on the map!

blueblood · Post by **blueblood** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:49 pm

lots of brilliant armchair coaches sitting behind a keyboard . #beauties

greenwayraider · Post by **greenwayraider** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:37 am

Coaching in this day and age is unbelievably difficult. Dealing with parents, the public and the kids themselves is not an easy task. Take a look at Grand Rapids. They had two good coaches leave and even Klatt resigned albeit for a short period. The better the program the more difficult the job. I really admire and respect anyone who is willing to coach high school athletics. They work long hours and probably earn no more than an hourly minimum wage. Some coaches need to be let go for various legitimate reasons but there are just as many that either get fed up with all the expert coaches in the stands, the parents who have an unrealistic view of their kid or an administration that doesn't support them. Some communities need to realize that making the state tournament may not be a realistic goal or will only happen once in 10 years. This is what I admire about Coach Clafton at Greenway. He is teaching the kids more than just hockey. He has them volunteering in the community and keeps a close eye on how they are doing in school. Greenway will probably not make it to State as long as Hermantown is in 7A but that doesn't mean he's not a good coach. The kids are learning a lot more than how to play hockey from him.

TTpuckster · Post by **TTpuckster** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:59 am

greenwayraider wrote:Coaching in this day and age is unbelievably difficult. Dealing with parents, the public and the kids themselves is not an easy task. Take a look at Grand Rapids. They had two good coaches leave and even Klatt resigned albeit for a short period. The better the program the more difficult the job. I really admire and respect anyone who is willing to coach high school athletics. They work long hours and probably earn no more than an hourly minimum wage. Some coaches need to be let go for various legitimate reasons but there are just as many that either get fed up with all the expert coaches in the stands, the parents who have an unrealistic view of their kid or an administration that doesn't support them. Some communities need to realize that making the state tournament may not be a realistic goal or will only happen once in 10 years. This is what I admire about Coach Clafton at Greenway. He is teaching the kids more than just hockey. He has them volunteering in the community and keeps a close eye on how they are doing in school. Greenway will probably not make it to State as long as Hermantown is in 7A but that doesn't mean he's not a good coach. The kids are learning a lot more than how to play hockey from him.

Very well put. And kudos to Greenway.

Hockeylogger · Post by **Hockeylogger** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:47 am

Very well said.

There are some coaches who have no business coaching and should be let go. But I would say that the majority of coaches that are fired or quit do a great job and put in countless hours for not enough pay. The biggest problem with high school sports and even coaching at the younger levels is the parents.

Every parent thinks their kid should be on the first line or power play and when it doesn't happen it is the coaches fault. Never mind the fact that the kid has a bad attitude, doesn't work hard, or just doesn't have the skill.

Every great team has it's superstars and role players. The kids and parents that can accept this fact and work for the common goal of team success are the ones I believe are the ones who succeed.

What I see happening more and more is that eventually these irrational parents either convince the right person to get rid of the coach or make it so miserable for the coaches that they decide it isn't worth it anymore.

The tenure of coaches seems to be getting shorter and the turnover rate higher. I don't have the solution but I only see it getting worse as we go.

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:47 pm

Hockeylogger wrote:The biggest problem with high school sports and even coaching at the younger levels is the parents.

And hockey's probably the worst because parents have to put so much of their money into it.