John's Journal: Back In The Game, Just Like His Mentor

If Hall of Fame high school football coach Roger Lipelt was still alive, he would be very proud of Brad Anderson. There are similarities between the two men, including their devotion to football and young student-athletes.

In 1981, Anderson was the quarterback on the first Wayzata football team to go to the state tournament. Lipelt, who died in 2012, was the head coach for that team 43 years ago, and Anderson went on to a great coaching career of his own.

The similarities include a coaching rebirth for both men. Lipelt was the coach at Wayzata from 1977 until his retirement in 1998, and in 2004 he came out of retirement to become the head football coach at Providence Academy.

Anderson was an assistant coach at Wayzata under Lipelt for several years before becoming head coach when Lipelt retired. He remained in that position for 18 years, leading the Trojans to five Prep Bowls, winning three state titles (2005, 2008, 2010) and resigning in 2016 with a career record of 156-47.

This season, eight years after leaving Wayzata, Anderson became the head coach at Benilde-St. Margaret’s. The move closes a circle for the two coaches; Lipelt was inducted into the Minnesota Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001 and Anderson joined that group in 2017.

Anderson returned to coaching three years ago, working as an assistant at Orono.

“I missed it,” he said. “But there’s missing football and there’s missing being a head coach. I was not looking to become a head coach again. But at the end of last season I felt like I had done what I could do for Orono and I felt like I left them in a good spot.”

When the job at Benilde-St. Margaret’s opened up late last year, Anderson was encouraged by some close friends to take a look. One was Tim McNiff, a former Twin Cities TV news and sports personality who worked as an assistant coach for Anderson at Waytzata. Another was Benilde-St. Margaret’s boys hockey coach Ken Pauly, who also teaches social studies at the school in St. Louis Park; he and Anderson were football captains at Wayzata as seniors in 1981 and they have known each other since elementary school.

“Brad texted me, asking about the job,” Pauly said. “I was like a pit bull at a pig roast. I sat down with Brad a couple times and told him about my experience here. I tried to sell him hard at coming.”

Anderson, 60, who is retired from a career in education, said, “Tim McNiff called me and said, ‘You’d be perfect. That’s what you should be doing.’ And Ken said, ‘You should come over here and take a look.’

“I saw lots of positives, a great culture, and that’s what I enjoy, culture. We went through the interview process and I think I was interviewed by six or seven players along with administrators.”

There’s another connection between Lipelt and Anderson. When Lipelt was hired at Providence Academy, the athletic director there was Rick Johns … the same Rick Johns who now serves in that role at Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

“I knew this could work,” Johns said. “I knew you could find a great retired Hall of Fame kind of coach. I reached out to Brad right away. We had a really deep pool of applicants and Brad rose to the top because of his resume. The kids who were part of the interview process really loved him.

“One question was, ‘How is this guy going to connect with the school community?’ Our football numbers had been slipping and they’re up now. As a part-time employee, Brad has been at school every day, recruiting the hallways, using every connection he can as far as having the kids recruit other kids. And he’s providing a positive, education-based program on the field.”

The Red Knights have a record of 1-2 going into Friday’s game at unbeaten Totino-Grace. Benilde-St. Margaret’s opened the season with a win at Willmar before losing to Byron and Rocori.

There are differences between Wayzata and Benilde-St. Margaret’s, both in enrollment and the number of kids playing football.

“Everyone always thinks kids change, but some things don’t change,” said Anderson, who had carpal tunnel surgery on his right hand the day before the Red Knights met Byron. “Kids want to be treated well, treated with respect, they want to be coached. It’s our job to coach kids each and every day. That stays the same.

“One difference at this level is we have a lot more multisport athletes, and sometimes that includes in-season. We have hockey players who go to offseason hockey practices some days, we have some baseball players who we didn’t meet until practically the first day of football. Same with lacrosse and basketball players.

“Another difference is that at a larger school, a challenge is how do you get everyone involved so they feel they have a meaningful contribution? You look at depth charts, figure out how to get guys into the game, that’s a challenge. In a smaller school like this, it’s not, ‘Can we get all the kids into the game, it’s ‘Do we enough kids to have a solid lineup on both sides of the ball?’ ”

Anderson’s coaching staff includes five first-year coaches. Four of the coaches played for him at Wayzata.

“Just being a first-year coach, there’s so much to learn,” he said. “Part of my job is to coach the coaches, too.”

One of those coaches is defensive coordinator Darren Jakes, of whom Anderson said, “I think Darren will be a head coach someday.”

“At the end of the year, we want to have everything place so everyone knows their roles, and see how we go from there,” Anderson said. “We run a complex offense and defense, and it takes a while to try and have them understand what we want to do.

“I have had nothing but positive experiences.”

--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]