Back by Popular Demand: 25 Top Coaches
So, we're adding to the list. We're naming some more names. That is, 8 or 9 Summer Coach of the Year (if that's not an oxymoron) candidates in another article. Watch for it. I thought that, along with those 8…
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Continue ReadingSo, we're adding to the list. We're naming some more names. That is, 8 or 9 Summer Coach of the Year (if that's not an oxymoron) candidates in another article. Watch for it. I thought that, along with those 8 or 9, some of them new, some of them old, some of them borrowed, some of them blue, it might be fun to revisit our 25 plus ties (33, actually) top coaches from an article first posted last fall. Thanks to some of you for mentioning it at the Meltdown. Here's the original post.
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Okay, here’s the toughest list ever, which is all the more reason to try to put it together. Let’s put it this way. If I had a daughter of a certain age (which I don’t, but if I did) and she wanted to be as good of a basketball player as she was capable of being, then who would I suggest she might want to play for?
And, just by way of example, if my child was a son and not a daughter, well, I haven’t paid as much attention to boys basketball the past 5 years or so as I did for the previous 50, but I think there’s 2 ways to go. You can play for Kenny Novak or you can play for Dave Thoreson. Sure, they both get a little bit demonstrative for my taste. I’m not really sure I want a middle-aged man kissin’ up to my son. And the other one can get a little peevish at times. But, hey, we can deal with that. So, those are your guys.
But, again, assuming that you’ve got a daughter, well, I’m better versed on the girls coaches nowadays, so here are at least 20 ways you can go totally right on that.
1. Ruth Sinn, Fury (and St. Thomas University)
Ruth isn’t exactly the master, so I guess that makes her more of the mistress of girls and women’s basketball in Minnesota today. If it’s Xs and Os you want, if it’s motivation, if it’s preparation and strategy, if it’s in-game tactics and adjustments, she is the whole package. And she can adjust her style and focus plenty well enough to coach college women on Saturday and 5th graders on Sunday. The best. In my perfect world either Cheryl Reeve or Ruth Sinn (or maybe someday Lindsay Whalen) would be coaching my personal favorite basketball team, which is the Minnesota Gopher women.
2. Melissa Guebert, North Tartan (and formerly Eastview)
If there were no Ruth Sinn and if life had dealt its cards a little differently, Melissa Guebert could just as easily be coaching St. Thomas University today as being retired now from coaching Eastview High for such a short time. I mean in terms of her obvious skills and temperament; she may even exceed Ruth Sinn at the mental game—motivating and instilling confidence in her girls. I have never, ever seen a team with a more positive attitude regardless of any adversity. Be happy that she is coaching in the summer, and if and when she comes back in a school setting then you can be even happier.
3 (tie). Dan Westby, Marshall
3 (tie). Dave Smart, Ada-Borup
A matched pair in terms of their ability to drill their kids to playing more like a machine than anybody, and I mean that in the most positive way—a machine like, say, the Minnesota Lynx. Every player always right where she is supposed to be, ready to do what she is supposed to do, rarely a girl or even a hair out of place. And, in Marshall, Dan Westby also gets them to play with passion—think Sarah Buysse—while in Ada it’s more a matter of playing with supreme confidence. Not that it doesn’t sometimes take time. I remember coach Smart saying that he had to remind Miki Lee for 3 years to shoot the ball. But with the state title on the line and in Lee’s senior year, sure enough, she took the shot, she made the shot and Ada won it all at 32-0. He wasn’t sure it was his best team, but you can’t do better than undefeated, he said. Well, you especially can’t do better than 32-0 with not even your best team.
4 (tie). Brian Cosgriff, Hopkins
4 (tie). Matt Nilsen, Edina and Stars
Here it’s not so much that they’re alike in the way that Smart and Westby seem to be alike. Here it’s just that they’re in the same conference and have to beat their heads up against each other at least twice a year. Cos has certainly got the best of it over the years, but of course he’s had better talent. But what they also have in common is getting everything out of their kids—both in terms of developing their skills and abilities, and in that these are 2 teams that leave nothing out on the court. They give their all.
As to Cos in particular, sure there’s all that talent. But kids aren’t stupid. Great ballplayers want to play for a great coach. So all that talent isn’t just dumb luck, it’s a skill. And, secondly, it’s not a slam dunk that all that talent can and will gel and play together as a team. By hook and by crook, Cos gets ‘em to do that. So underestimate Cos at your peril.
5 (tie). Gerard Coury, North Tartan (and formerly Stillwater)
5 (tie). John Herbrechtsmeyer, North Tartan (and Bethel University)
A third matched pair who coach for North Tartan, but they’re different in every other respect. Coury’s the shouter, the drill sergeant, the motivator. Herbie’s the Xs and Os guy. But both are especially solid on the defensive end. Some might say Herbie undercommunicates sometimes and Coury, well, just the opposite. Bottom line—results.
Nobody has a more compelling personal story tell than Herbie, and how the way he coaches the game revolves around that story and who he is. It all fits together.
And Coury. 2 stories. He had more impact on the development of Chase Coley from potential to production than any case I know of, that is, of a particular girl and a particular coach. In this case, a girl, in other words, on the doorstep of stardom and needing to find the way to get through that door. And that’s according to Chase and her dad and high school coach Tylor Coley. And the result was that Chase is not just another D1 recruit but is on the verge of stardom down at Iowa.
2nd story. In Stillwater, the Ponies had the reputation for not playing hard. In one year, Coury got ‘em playing the hardest and with the best results we’d seen in a decade or more (I live in the Stillwater district). But he was pretty verbal and some of the parents didn’t like that, so Coury—push or pull, I don’t know—but he didn’t return.
6. Stephanie Tolkinen, Park
Some years, Tolkinen has had some pretty good ballplayers at Park, but 2016 wasn’t one of those years. But everytime you turned around they were winning games they had no business winning—beating Hastings by 9, St. Paul Central by 17, East Ridge by 5. Tolkinen gets more out of the available talent than anybody. And she sure helped Sydney Lamberty get up and over that big hurdle that faces every girl who wants to play D1.
7. Faith Johnson Patterson, Eden Prairie (and formerly Mpls. North and DeLaSalle)
The record pretty much speaks for itself. 8 state titles. But, now, at Class AAAA for the 1st time, she faces the biggest challenge of her coaching career, and frankly walked into a situation where I think she was shocked at how bare the cupboard was at Eden Prairie when she arrived. I mean, there was some talent, but confidence was at a very, very low ebb. 1-and-7 in the Lake Conference was not a surprise though 6-21 overall maybe was. This year a .500 record overall and even 3-5 in the Lake will be a very positive achievement. More than that, getting some of her girls who hadn’t gotten a lot of support to go out and play with confidence and aggression has been an even greater accomplishment.
8. Ron Gunderson, New Prague
Another who gets maximum mileage out of his almost always undersized troops.
9. Mike Durbin, Comets (and St. Ben’s)
Again, the record more than speaks for itself, and girls in central Minnesota have been blessed by the Comets ability to get Durbin into their organization and mentoring more Minnesota girls.
10. Ellen Weise, Metro Stars (and St. Thomas assistant, and formerly Orono)
Osseo came up a little short of their goals, which would have included a couple-three more timely wins and a state title, under Weise. But she’s still mentoring younger girls for the Metro Stars and between the Xs and the Os and the motivation and team-building and confidence-building, a girl of a certain age couldn’t do much better than play for Ellen.
Of course, she’s also still coaching in a school setting now in her 1st year as a Ruth Sinn assistant at St. Thomas.
By the by, she also is always a great interview. When her favored team lost to Marshall in the state tournament 2 years ago she said, “They looked like they’d been here before and it looked like our first rodeo.”
11. Jeremy Post, White Bear Lake
I don’t know what it is about White Bear Lake, though it is surely at least partly due to Jeremy Post’s coaching record, but nobody this side of Centennial has the kind of depth the Bears seem to have year in and year out. I mean, they can (and do) go 15 deep. In a lot of places, kids and parents (especially parents) chafe for more minutes. In White Bear, they just love each other to death.
So the frequent substitutions are sometimes disorienting for the fans, at least, but they usually mean that somewhere along the way Post finds a favorable matchup that even he hadn’t anticipated, and by the time the opposing coach can react, the damage is done. He makes it work.
12. Erin Herman, Hill-Murray
Herman is kind of a throwback, you know, where the idea is to outwork your opponents and then outwork them some more. But out on the floor during games, the kids have a lot of freedom to get aggressive and make a mistake. It’s not so much the coach’s game as some. It’s the kid’s game. But she gets ‘em prepared, for sure, and nobody plays the game with more integrity.
13. Kent Hamre, St. Michael-Albertville
Again the record speaks for itself. It took Hamre and St. Michael 5-6 years to finally win a state tournament game after moving up from Class AAA to Class AAAA. Last year he said, “We’re not just the team that comes down to the state tournament and gets beat anymore.” Ironically he said that after an upset loss to Post and White Bear. But he was right. This is a program to be reckoned with in 2017 and beyond. If I had to guess who might win a state title in, say, 5 years, I might say Hopkins or St. Michael.
14 (tie). Rob Robertson and Ken Theisen, Crossfire
Rob Robertson sells his kids as hard as anybody (and with more skill than some) and one of his favorite arguments is that, I’m not a real coach. Ken’s not a real coach. We only coach in the summer. So it’s not the coaching, it’s just pure talent that you’re seeing from their players out there on the court.
Well, Rob, that’s B.S. I mean, watch his teams, watch Ken’s teams. Yeah, there is/was talent out there on Rob’s 2016s and Ken’s 2019s. But they play with as much passion and enthusiasm and motivation as anybody. Coaches don’t have anything to do with that? They make good choices and good plays. They space the floor. They help. Coaches don’t have anything to do with that?
Last year Rob was our summer coach of the year. This year Kevin Anderson picked Ken as his summer coach of the year. So, sorry, Rob, you guys can coach and the word is getting around.
15. Wendy Kohler, Alexandria
16. Josh Thurow, Minnehaha
Okay, sorry about the broken record. The record speaks for itself. Kohler has been a Hall of Famer for a dozen years now and both have been coach of the year within the past 2-3 years. As much as I love Thief River Falls, I do hope we get to see Wendy and her Alex team down here for the state tournament at least one more time before she hangs ‘em up.
17. Tara Starks, North Tartan
Used to be that T.T. was coach Starks’ daughter. But for how she’s T.T.’s mom. She’s also the former head coach at Mpls. North, and coaches younger girls both at North Tartan and in the Hopkins system. She’s a constant presence around girls basketball and has initiated lots of girls into the finer points of basketball and lots of other stuff, too.
18 (tie). Tim Peper, Fury (and St. Catherine’s assistant, formerly Simley)
18 (tie). Matt Stueber, North Tartan
Two more guys who are mostly involved with girls ball (high school age) now during the summer, but both also have lots of experience within the schools. Both are among the great teachers and motivators who consistently put teams out on the court that are well prepared for the game at hand.
19 (tie). Greg Amundsen, Stars (formerly Centennial)
19 (tie). Jill Becken, Centennial (and formerly Centennial)
Centennial has had nothing but success going back 10 to 15 years now, first under coach Becken, then more recently under coach Amundsen. For whatever reason, things suddenly came to a crashing halt with a 14-13 record last year, and the larger outcome of that was the non-renewal of coach Amundsen and the return of coach Becken. The odds are very good that Centennial will have a kick-butt season again with coach Becken because they've got so incredibly much talent. But last year all of that talent was more of a problem than a blessing. Nobody can find minutes for everybody on a team that goes 15 deep. I don't know that coach Becken can solve that problem or that anybody can. But the odds are that Centennial will have a good year, well, because they've got all that talent. I just don't see the same thing sabotaging them 2 years running, no matter who's in the coaching box.
Now, enquiring minds want to know when and where coach Amundsen will return. I think he will return. He won 6 (I think) state titles in North Dakota before coming to Minnesota to coach and somebody is going to want that kind of resume soon enough. One off year does not make a guy with this resume a bad coach. Not even close.
20 (tie). Gary Lembcke, Norwood-Young America
20 (tie). Mike Dreier, New London-Spicer
And, finally, 2 more of the grand old men who have been around for a long time, who just flat out know how to coach, and always send their girls out well prepared for success.
21. Chris VanderHyde, Park Center
I'll never forget the first time I interviewed Hannah Schaub and I asked her how summer coach Herbie and winter coach VanderHyde were different. She said, “Herbie doesn't shout.” Or after Park Center's 1st round win in their 1st state tournament ever in 2014, I asked VanderHyde if his kids had first game jitters. He said, “I had first game jitters.” Gotta love the enthusiasm, not to mention the results.
22. Leah Dasovich, Minnetonka
Sometimes over the years Minnetonka has been beaten by Hopkins before they even took the floor. Hopkins dominance has been a big big emotional hurdle for the Tonka girls over the years. But they overcame that hurdle last year in one of the most mentally tough performances I've ever seen.
23 (tie). Andy Berkvam and Les Knutson
Two guys who no longer coach the girls, but they're both still active, coaching the boys at Northfield and Heron Lake-Okabena (Berkvam's girls career was at Lakeville North, Knutson's at Heron Lake). So, who knows, they could be back someday, so consider this a placeholder for if and when they do.
24. Greg Dietel, Jordan and North Tartan
25. Willie Taylor, Stillwater and Stars
Too young to be “grand old men,” but “grand” nonetheless. Willie, like his friend Faith Patterson, has taken on the toughest challenge of his career at Stillwater.
There are of course 100 more great coaches out there. Whatever success Minnesota girls and women are having in the game of basketball, these are the kinds of folks without whom it would be totally impossible.