John's Journal: After 50 Days Of Summer, A New Year Dawns

The sun rose Monday on a new day in Minnesota. Since the final out of the baseball state championship games at Target Field on June 22, the high school sports world has been dormant. For 50 days, folks relaxed, rested and enjoyed summer. As the days went by, thoughts began turning to August 12, when a new year would dawn.

The dawning was extra special as teams in fall sports gathered for the first practices of the season. From early morning through sunset (and some teams that began workouts one minute after midnight), coaches and players began the process of navigating whatever the 2024 season will hold. From soccer to volleyball to cross-country to football to girls tennis to girls swimming and diving, everything is a go.

Around the state, the mood was upbeat. That was partly due to outstanding weather; cool temperatures and clear skies. But there’s also something special about the dawn of a new day, the dawn of a new season, the dawn of a new adventure.

At Verndale, the football coach who has won more games than anyone else in Minnesota took his 55^th team through the usual first-day tradition. For the past 20 years or so, Pirates coach Mike Mahlen has held an Iron Man competition, with the players being tested and measured in things like a standing long jump, a shuttle run, weightlifting, 40-yard dash and, in what Mahlen jokingly said “The kids really love,” running 400 meters.

Thirty-nine kids were on hand Monday, with half a dozen returning starters from one of the top Nine-Player football programs in Minnesota. The Pirates were 6-4 a year ago, their season ending in a loss to eventual state champion Nevis in the Section 5 playoffs.

Mahlen doesn’t like to make predictions, but of Nevis he said, “They’re going to probably be just as good as last year.”

Mahlen has a career record of 432 wins, 132 losses and three ties. Next on the list of winningest football coaches is Becker’s Dwight Lundeen (399-167-3, 54 years).

Verndale played a Zero Week game last year for the first time, which meant that the Pirates started practice a week earlier than usual. That opened Mahlen’s eyes to something: preseason scrimmages might be overrated.

Many teams traditionally attend a four-team, rotating scrimmage the Saturday before the week of their first game. Verndale didn’t do that in 2023.

“We found out it’s not so bad,” Mahlen said. “We didn’t have a scrimmage this year, either. The more coaches I talk to, the more are staying away from scrimmages. Especially the small schools, with maybe nine or 10 guys you can rely on. You lose one of them in a scrimmage, and that’s not good.”

Mahlen has no plans to step away from coaching. He is a retired teacher and athletic director who enjoys focusing on football in the fall and having time to himself and his family otherwise. 

“Football is more fun than ever,” he said. “As long as I enjoy going to practice and game planning, that’s the key. Anybody can do the games, that’s the easy part.”

For his first 16 years at Verndale, Mahlen had only one assistant coach. This year there are five, which makes Mike chuckle.

“I said, ‘Geez, I don’t know what to do with five assistants. I just stand around.’ ”

At St. Charles High School, the Saints girls soccer team practiced from 8 to 11:30 a.m., with the boys soccer team taking over the school’s artificial turf field later in the day. Around 40 girls reported for the first workout, with a few still needing to complete the required paperwork before they can join in.

“It was super exciting,” coach Taige Puetz said after practice. “As a coach and as players, you’re kind of nervous for the first day.”

On Sunday night Puetz’s husband, Justin, asked her, ‘Are you ready?’ She replied, ‘No, but talk to me after day one and it’ll be good.’ ”

Indeed, it was good. Very good.

The Saints have become a southeast Minnesota force in soccer, with the girls going to state the last two years – finishing as Class A state runner-up last year -- and the boys going to state for the first time last fall.

“Having the success that we’ve had is a good motivator for younger kids who are driven,” Puetz said. “It’s a new group, a new team, and I was thoroughly impressed with their conditioning and how hard they pushed themselves.

“The girls work hard and we’ve prided ourselves on being one of the more fit teams. Hard work can be a little scary but it sets a tone.”

Pequot Lakes High School won the Class AA girls volleyball state championship last year with a team led by nine seniors. The 2024 season will have a different look, with plenty of spots open. The Patriots had workouts Monday morning and evening as preparations began.

“Some of these kids are getting an opportunity, they’re all kind of vying for spots and working hard to show what they can do in multiple positions,” coach Christine Ganley said between practices. “If the position that’s their first choice doesn’t work out, they’re thinking, ‘OK, can I make it at another position?’ It definitely feels like they’ve come in ready to play multiple positions because there are multiple positions open.”

Pequot Lakes will open the season with a home match against Pierz on Aug. 27. Between now and then – and throughout the season -- the coaches and players will work together on improving each day.

“If you have the heart of a teacher, these years can be exciting because you see improvement quickly,” Ganley said. “In the long run, from today to the end of the season, they’ll be a different team. Last year, I had coached those players so long that they knew me, I knew them and we only had to do some fine-tuning as the year went along. This year we’re hoping for big improvements as we go. Coaches love to teach and it doesn’t matter who you’re teaching.

“I don’t want to overcoach the younger, less-experienced players. They need to learn somewhat by trial and error. Giving them too much information too fast is not going to help them. You want them to love the game and they just need game experience and knowledge.”

A new merged football team held workout No. 1 Monday from 6 to 9 p.m., with kids from Leroy-Ostrander and Lyle/Pacelli coming together for the first time. Lyle is a public school in the town of the same name and Pacelli is a private school in Austin, and they have worked together to form teams for years.

Lyle/Pacelli didn’t have enough players last year to field a football team. LeRoy-Ostrander has not had a junior varsity team for five years due to low numbers. Now, everything is different.

“We’re extremely excited,” said LeRoy-Ostrander coach Trevor Carrier. He knows about managing a team with a small group; in 2021 the Cardinals won the Nine-Player state championship with only 17 kids on the roster.

“They’re bringing about 13 kids over and we should have about 37 to 39 kids, double our state championship roster,” Carrier said.

The team will wear the red and white colors of LeRoy-Ostrander and be known as the Cardinals (the L-O nickname).

LeRoy-Ostrander finished 8-2 last season with a team that had only two seniors. The Cardinals are in Section 1, which has produced eight Nine-Player state champions and four runner-up teams in the past 16 years.

Last season, Nevis defeated Section 1 champion Kingsland in the Nine-Player Prep Bowl game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Kingsland was the only team to beat LeRoy-Ostrander during the 2023 regular season, and those two teams will open the 2024 season at Kingsland in Spring Valley on Aug. 30.

“It should be the best Nine-Man game in the state right off the rip,” Carrier said. “It’s quite the little rivalry we have down here.”

The new athletic administrator at Big Lake High School is not new to the job, but he is new to Big Lake. Mark Kuisle spent 34 years in the Rochester school district and was the athletic director at Rochester Century High School since the school opened in 1997. He stepped away from that position in the spring and was quickly hired in Big Lake.

He has spent time getting to know the coaches and laying the groundwork for 2024-25.

“The memory is the same, I guess, about what you need to get done leading up to the first day,” he said during the middle of a busy Monday. “That’s not much different, but I’ve been trying to outline expectations and my style of organization, not trying to have those toe-stubbers on day one.”

A former wrestling coach and a driving organizational force behind the state wrestling tournament each year, Kuisle has an extensive background with the Minnesota State High School League and Minnesota Interscholastic Activities Administrators Association, serving as a board member and president of both organizations. He was a 2024 recipient of the MIAAA Award of Merit.

“We want everything to be organized and ready to go,” he said. “I’ve been real pleased with the organizational skills of our coaches here at Big Lake. They’ve bought in. I’ve inherited a nice group. That’s been fun and I’m truly enjoying it.

“It’s great to see kids in the hallways and gyms and practice surfaces. They’re excited to be here.”

The girls tennis team at South St. Paul practiced from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday, and the players include coach Rebecca Spreigl’s twin daughters, sophomores Annie and Grace. They are among five 10^th-graders who played on the varsity squad throughout the 2023 season and 24 athletes who were on the court Monday.

“We’re rebuilding,” Spreigl said. “Our five sophomores are kind of the core of the team. Three of them played as eighth-graders, as well.”

“It’s not the easiest but it’s gotten easier,” she said of coaching her own kids. “The older they get the easier it is and the more I think about it as stolen time with my kids. I get to have a front seat for everything they do.”

She credits veteran assistant coach Dave Sonday for stepping in at the right times.

“I usually send him out to coach my kids when I can,” Rebecca said, laughing. “But as much as we might have our moments of tension and stress, they’re always standing right next to me when I’m talking.”

The Packers will open the season at Lakeville South on Aug. 20 and meet Rosemount at home on Aug. 21.

Spreigl, whose husband Manuel is the Packers’ head football coach, works at Lincoln Center Elementary in South St. Paul. She works as a media specialist in the school library and has coached tennis for 17 years. That combination means she knows almost every student who ends up on the tennis team.

“South St. Paul is such a small little world, and a lot of younger kids know the girls,” she said. “Tonight I told them that I think I’ve either taught everybody here, and if I didn’t teach them directly I’ve had them in some capacity. That’s pretty special. There’s not a kid out there who’s new to me. I know them all.”

The new athletic administrator at Rochester Mayo is no stranger to the school. Dan Christoffer was the school’s athletic trainer for 13 years and became A.D. when Jeff Whitney retired after 33 years. Along with his medical background, Christoffer has a master’s degree in athletic administration and a doctorate in adult and higher education.

Christoffer officially took over just a week ago, but being familiar with coaches, kids and teams has been important in transitioning to his new position.

“Initially here we’re just starting to do the day-to-day stuff and making sure everything is set up for our seasons,” he said. “Making sure the lights are turning on, the P.A. systems are working, all those kinds of facilities things.”

Most of the coaches this fall are Mayo veterans, with a few new additions.

“I’ve built relationships with coaches already and I’m trying to get on board with the new coaches, too,” Christoffer said. “I’ve been working with coaches on what’s been going well, what do we need to work on and how can I help. I told them, ‘I’m an advocate for you and I’m trying to support you the best I can.’

“I think the most important part of it and most fun with all of it is the energy around campus. At the beginning of the season there’s a lot of energy and everybody is ready to go.

“It should be a fun year.”

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]