2018 Hall of Fame Inductees

Rob Fornasiere ~ University of Minnesota

Rob graduated from Sun Prairie High School and the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. He played baseball in high school and lettered four years in college as a shortstop-pitcher. Rob started his baseball coaching career as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green State University from 1979-80.  He became the head coach at Normandale Community College in 1980, leaving there in 1985. His team played in the Juco World Series in 1983. Rob became the first full-time assistant at the University of Minnesota in September of 1985 where he was named Assistant Head Coach in 1992. Rob retired this spring from coaching after his 33rd season. He had a hand in recruiting over 350 players to the U of M program, a large portion of those from Minnesota High Schools. Rob recruited and helped develop seven Minnesota High School players that have been named Big 10 Player of the Year. During his tenure at the U the teams won eight Big Ten Regular Season titles and six Big Ten Tournaments. The team also appeared in the NCAA Tournament seventeen times over his career. He has coached in over 2100 games including over 1,900 at the U of M with over 1150 wins with the Gophers. Rob was named the ABCA National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2008, received the U of M Frank Kara Integrity Award in 2009-10, and the MSHSBCA Angelo Giuliani Award in 2009. The MSHSBCA Assistant Coach of the Year Award is named after Rob. He is married to his wife Ruth.  They have two sons Andy and Matt (Ashley) and a daughter Katie (Steve) and two grandsons Calan and Case.

Mike Louden ~ Hastings High School

Mike graduated from Cannon Falls High School in 1964. He attended and graduated in 1968 from Augsburg College. Mike went on to serve in the army from 1968 to 1970. He is a Vietnam vet, serving in the 1st Cavalry Division. He started his teaching and coaching career in 1972 in Glenwood and moved to Hastings in 1974. Mike taught social studies and coached in Hastings for 30 years where he was the head coach from 1979 to 2004. His teams won 352 games, 5 conference championships and were state champions in 1999. Mike also coached American Legion and VFW baseball. The Legion team was state runner-up in 1981 and the VFW team was state champs in 1997. Mike won the 1999 Coach of the Year Award and the 2011 Jim Dimick Retired Coach Award. He is a member of the Hastings Baseball Hall of Fame. Mike and his wife Mary live in Hastings.

John Madsen ~ Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial High School

John graduated from Grand Rapids High School in 1978. He attended Itasca Community College and graduated from Bemidji State University. He played baseball one year at each college. John started his career of teaching elementary on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, South Dakota where he coached junior teams for basketball, wrestling and track. He then spent one year teaching in McGregor, Minnesota where he coached varsity teams in basketball and baseball. In 1986 John began teaching at the Lake Crystal Elementary School and started his varsity baseball coaching for Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial High School where he continues in this coaching role after 32 years. John was an assistant basketball coach and then varsity coach for both boys and girls basketball for 27 years, with 18 years for the varsity. He retired from teaching in 2018 but continues his passion for coaching, remaining the varsity coach in both basketball and baseball. Coaching highlights include coaching varsity, Legion and VFW teams. John’s baseball teams have earned over 400 victories. Team honors include 11 Valley Conference Championships. Under his leadership, Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial won the State Consolation Championship in 1997. In the 2011 State Tournament, LCWM took second place honors while playing at Target Field. John has been married to his wife Jeanne for 34 years and they have two sons, Ryan and Drew. John had the privilege to coach his sons in both basketball and baseball from t-ball to varsity. The family baseball passion continued with Drew playing junior college baseball at Riverland Community College and Ryan coaching the varsity baseball team at Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad, California.

Ray Ross ~ Minneapolis Washburn High School

Ray Ross (deceased) graduated from Minneapolis Central High School in 1920. His senior year he played on state championship teams in basketball and baseball. He attended the University of Minnesota where he played basketball and baseball. In 1928 Ray started his teaching career in physical education. He continue teaching and coaching until his retirement in 1964. He also coached football and basketball. An interesting fact is that the school asked him to coach basketball on a trial basis and he ended up coaching it for 31 years. Baseball was his first love and his players said he stressed dedication, fundamentals and hard work. The City Conference dropped baseball in 1930 but resumed it in 1933. Ray coached baseball until 1959. His teams won many division and city championships during his career. Their first championship was in 1947. His Washburn team won their first state championship in 1955. That year they also won the state basketball championship. They lost the 57’ and 58’ state championships by one run each year. Ray is also in the High School Basketball Hall of Fame. His assistant was Jim Cosgrove who took over for him when he retired. Jim was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2009. Ray passed away in 1976. Representing Ray tonight is one of his former players, Lee Chapman.

Randy Schaub ~ Renville County West High School

Randy graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1976 and went on to graduate from Mankato State University in 1981 with a BS in Social Studies and Coaching. His coaching career in baseball started when he coached Legion baseball in Albert Lea in 1978. Randy has coached baseball at several different schools including Albert Lea, Danube, and Danube-Renville-Sacred Heart. He became head coach at what is now Renville County West High School in 1990 and is still leading that program. He has also coached basketball and volleyball over the years at Villard High School, Alden-Conger High School and Renville County West. Randy coached the Sacred Heart Legion team to the 2000 Minnesota and the Central Plains championship for Division II. His Legion teams appeared in the state tournament in 1978, 1992, 1996 and 2000. Randy has been married to his wife Shari for 30 years. They have three children, daughter Kelsi, who is married to Mahad Hassan, daughter Madison and son Griffin. They have one granddaughter, Malia who is one.

Jeff Tanner ~ Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City High School

Jeff is a 1973 graduate of Morris High School and the University of Minnesota-Morris in 1978. He owes a lot of his success and longevity to his high school coach, Don Chizek. After college, he began his career teaching and coaching at Grove City. Over the years, it changed to Atwater-Grove City,and finally to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. Jeff coached for a total of 36 years. With the help of many good ball players, Jeff picked up 312 wins in his career. His assistants over his career were DougKingery, Ole Hovey, Dave Johnson, Dave Oehrlein, Tom Kingery and David Zaeska. All were key to the success of the ACGC baseball over the years. Jeff has filled in at all levels in the game of baseball as well. He, with a lot of help, has been a part of the Atwater Baseball Association, which has made many improvements to the baseball field in Atwater. His family, which includes his wife Robin, sons Matt (Jenna), and Jordan, daughter Jamie, and granddaughters Korbin and Karsey, have put in many hours at the ball field showing an early love of the game.

Tyrone Wacker ~ Jackson County Central High School

Tyrone graduated from Stewart High School in 1962 where he played football, basketball, baseball and ran track. He attended Mankato State for two years, going on to graduate from Mayville State College in 1967. Tyrone played football and baseball at Mayville. He received his master’s degree from South Dakota State College in 1974. In addition to coaching baseball Tyrone has coached football and track at Gaylord, South Dakota State University, Worthington Community College, Huron College, Morningside College and Jackson County Central. From 1998-2009 Tyrone served as the Head Baseball Coach at Jackson County Central with a record of 189-107. He had Section Championship 3 years, a 3rd place finish in 2000 and a State Championship in 2004. Tyrone maintained the baseball field in Jackson and the field is named the “Wacker Field”. He served as athletic director from 1984-1994 at Jackson County Central. Tyrone has coached or played in 26 State Tournaments in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. He is currently assisting the Hutchinson High School baseball program and coaches a Junior Legion team in the summer. Tyron has been married to his wife Vereen for 53 years. They have three children, RoShelle Buddenhagen (Tim), Wade Wacker (Stacy) and a son Lincoln who is deceased. They are blessed with six grandchildren, Jordan, TyAnn, Tenley, Joshua, Shadrach and Lacey.