Frank Aunan

Frank Aunan – Zumbrota-Mazeppa High School – Frank graduated from Denfeld High School in 1959 and from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1969. His education was interrupted with four years in the U.S. Navy. UMD did not have baseball at that time so Frank served as an assistant baseball coach for Soup Stromme at Duluth Morgan Park. Frank then started his teaching/coaching career at Wanamingo in 1968 where he served as an assistant baseball coach for one year before moving to Zumbrota, which later became Zumbrota-Mazeppa. Frank didn’t become head coach until 1975 and was in that position until retiring after the 2000 season. Although it was at times a struggle to maintain a strong program at a small school, Frank worked hard and for most of his coaching career he coached the American Legion teams, the Babe Ruth teams and worked with the summer youth baseball programs, even starting an amateur team in the 1970’s. If you went to a coaching clinic you could expect to see Frank in the front row, absorbing everything that was being offered. Not only was Frank an outstanding coach, he was one of the class acts of high school baseball.

 

Dennis Boe

Dennis Boe – Redwood Valley High School – Dennis graduated from Minneapolis Southwest High School in 1970 and, after attending North Hennepin Junior College for two years, graduated from Hamline University in 1974 where he played baseball and football. Dennis was an assistant baseball, basketball and football coach at Waseca for five years before moving to Redwood Valley as the head baseball coach in the fall of 1979. He held that position for 29 years and after going 0-14 in his first year, his teams won and lost 293 games over the next 28 years. His teams won four conference championships, including a three-peat in 1992, 1993 and 1994. His 1988 team won the section championship to advance to the state tournament. Dennis was voted District and Section Coach-of-the-Year in 1988 and coached in the Lion’s All-Star Series in 1992. Dennis also coaches American Legion baseball for 24 years. Dennis is a past president of the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association and served on the advisory board for many years. Dennis has kept busy with baseball since his retirement and has coached Team Minnesota for the Harvey Showcase in Chicago for the past four years and has been helping the Minnesota Twins in the scouting department for the past three years. Dennis is a past Dick Siebert Award recipient, but says his proudest moments in coaching were being able to coach his sons, Casey and Corey.

 

Gary Halek

Gary Halek – Sauk Rapids High School – Gary graduated from Aitkin High School in 1963 and from Bemidji State in 1968. Gary was head coach at Sauk Rapids for 26 years, from 1971-1996 and for four years at St. John’s Prep, from 2004-2007. During his 30-year career his teams won 320 games and lost 264. During his 26 years at Sauk Rapids his teams won the conference title 13 times and had winning seasons in 23 of those years. His 1989 team finished as state runner-up, losing in the final inning of the championship game. This was the first boys’ sports team from Sauk Rapids to advance to the state tournament in school history. Gary also coached American Legion teams in Sauk Rapids and St. Joseph and coached the Sauk Rapids VFW team for 27 years. He is one of the few coaches in any sport that has won over 1000 games as his teams won over 1100 games including high school, American Legion, VFW and junior high traveling teams. Over the years Gary spent a lot of time in the fall renovating the playing fields in Sauk Rapids and St. Joseph. Gary has been very active in high school athletics, serving as a district and region representative to the baseball coaches association as well as a region representative to the high school coaches delegate assembly.

 

Craig Kusick

Craig Kusick – Rosemount High School - Craig graduated from Greenfield, Wisconsin High School in 1966 and from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse in 1970. Craig was signed as an undrafted free agent in 1970 by the Minnesota Twins. Three years later he was playing in the Major Leagues. Craig spent seven years in the Major Leagues before starting his teaching and coaching career at Rosemount in 1982. Craig was an assistant coach for eight years before becoming head coach in 1991 and coached through the 2004 season when he retired due to the illness of his wife and himself. He also coach football, boys basketball and girls basketball. Craig had great success during his 14 years as head baseball coach with 262 wins and 154 losses. His teams won three Lake Conference championships and seven Section 1AA championships, including six in a rop, with a State Tournament runner-up finish in 1995. Craig was named Section 1AA Coach of the Year in six consecutive seasons. Craig was responsible for designing and raising funds for new bleachers, new concession stand and sound system at the high school baseball field. Craig was inducted into the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse Hall of Fame in 1985. Craig passed away in 2006, but his impact and contributions to the Rosemount athletic programs will not be forgotten.

 

Glenn LaChapelle

Glenn LaChapelle – Apple Valley and Eagan High Schools – Glenn graduated from St. Bernard’s High School in 1967 and the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1974. Al still holds scoring records in hockey at Stout. Al was the assistant coach for five years at Apple Valley before becoming head coach there in 1982. Al spent 19 years as a head coach at Apple Valley before retiring after the 2000 season. His teams won 291 games with 230 losses. His teams won three Lake Conference Championships and two section championships. They finished third in the 1987 state tournament and were consolation champions in 1992. He also was an assistant hockey coach at Apple Valley for 15 years. Presently, Al is the assistant coach at Eagan where he has helped rebuild the Eagan High School field from a virtually unplayable field into a first rate facility. For the past eight years, since his retirement at Apple Valley, Al has also coached youth baseball in the community. Al was inducted into the UW-Stout Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.


Neil Pierce

Neil Pierce – Alden-Conger High School – Neil graduated from Freeborn High School in 1959 and from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1963. Neil was a five-year letterwinner in high school and a two-year letterwinner at Gustavus. One of his highlights as a player was batting against Satchell Paige while playing for Albert Lea. Neil was the head coach at Alden-Conger for 33 years from 1964 through 1999, with three years in the mid-90’s spent in retirement. His teams won 277 games with 214 losses. Neil also coached American Legion and Service League baseball during his career at Alden-Conger. His high school teams won 11 conference championships, including one in his first year and one in his final year. Alden-Conger is a small school and declining enrollment over the years meant that his teams often were short on numbers and had young, inexperienced players in the lineup. Yet Neil’s teams were always competitive and played the game with a sound, fundamental foundation under his coaching. His final two seasons were two of his better teams and finished with records of 15-8 and 17-6. Neil was also the athletic director at Alden-Conger for many years.

 

Ken Staples

Ken Staples – Robbinsdale Cooper High School - Ken graduated from Humboldt High School in St. Paul in 1946. While there he was All-City in hockey for three years, All-City in football for two years and All-City in baseball for two years. After graduation from high school, Ken was offered a contract with the Chicago Black Hawks for hockey, but instead signed a professional baseball contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers and by 1951 had worked his way up to the Dodgers AAA team in Montreal. Ken then spent the next two years in the U.S. Army before returning to play minor league baseball in 1954. Ken did not sign a contract for 1955, became a holdout and was put on the suspended list, thus ending his professional baseball career. Ken then entered St. Thomas College where he even played football for a year in 1956 at the age of 28. Ken graduated in 1959, when he was selected as Mr. Tommy. While a student at St. Thomas, Ken served as Head Baseball Coach and Hockey Coach and his teams won two MIAC baseball championships and three times they finished second in hockey. In 1959, Ken started his teaching and coaching career in the Robbinsdale school district, coaching at both Cooper and Robbinsdale High Schools where he was both head baseball and head hockey coach. That career ended in 1986. Ken spent a number of years working for the Minnesota Twins. Ken spent 10 years as the Twins roving minor league catching coach, and he managed in the Twins minor league system for seven years. After that, for 15 years, he was an instructor at Minnesota Twins clinics around the state. Ken is a member of the St. Thomas College Hall of Fame and the St. Paul Athlete’s Hall of Fame and in 1998 he was honored as one of the 100 Top Athletes in St. Paul high schools in the last 100 years.

 

Robert Stark

Robert Stark – Caledonia High School – Bob graduated from Red Wing High School in 1943 and from Winona State College in 1951. While at Winona State Bob played on four conference championship baseball teams and one conference football championship team. Bob served in the United States Marine Corps from 1943-1946, seeing combat action in the South Pacific. He also played baseball while in the Marines and was a teammate of Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman, Gil Hodges. Bob was head baseball coach at Caledonia for 31 years, from 1952-1976 and then again from 1981-1986. His record was an outstanding 236-91, a .722 winning percentage. His teams won 19 conference championships and 11 district titles. Four times his team was defeated in the region championship, three times by Austin when they were a state power. Bob also served as the school athletic director for 22 years. Bob was elected to the Winona State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.