Darby Carlson

Darby Carlson, Maple Grove High School, graduated from Parkers Prairie High School in 1977 and from Northwestern University in St. Paul in 1981.  Darby was an all-conference performer in Baseball and Football in both high school and college, while also lettering in Basketball and Tennis in high school.  Darby served as an assistant baseball coach at Osseo for a dozen years, 1984-1995, where they went to the State Tournament in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, finishing as Runner-up in 1991 and 1992.  Darby was named the head baseball coach at Maple Grove in 1996, where he has completed 25 years in that position while compiling a 390-195 record with eight conference championships. His teams went to the State Tournament in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2017, finishing as Runner-up in both 1999 and 2011.  He coached a Mickey Mantle team to a State Championship in 1992 and won a State VFW Championship in 2013 as well as a VFW State Runner-up in 2015.  Darby was the Minnesota High School Baseball Coach-of-the-Year in 2001 and coached in the High School All-Star Series in 2002 and 2013.  Darby also coached football for over 30 years at Bethel University, Hopkins Lindberg, Osseo, St. Michael-Albertville and Maple Grove.  He was awarded the prestigious Butch Nash Assistant Football Coach of the Year in 2013.  He is currently the Head Sophomore Football coach at Maple Grove and he has been coaching ninth grade boys basketball at Maple Grove since 2010.  He has also officiated Basketball for over 20 years, including two state boys basketball tournaments.

Don Dvorak

Don Dvorak, New Prague High School, graduated from Northfield High School in 1965 and from Minnesota State University in 1969.  He started his teaching and coaching career at Mankato Loyola where he served as a volunteer assistant baseball coach.  After moving to New Prague in 1971, he served as a junior high coach until taking over as Head Baseball Coach in 1981, a position he held for 16 years through the 1996 season.  During that time his teams won two Missota Conference championships and finished as runner-up seven times.   His final record was 162-161.  He was named conference Coach-of-the-Year in both 1988 and 1989.  Don also coached junior high football at New Prague.  He coached the American Legion team for 22 years and started the Babe Ruth program in New Prague.  Don was the Jim Dimick Retired Coach Award in 2015 and coached in the High School All-Star Series in 1989, which was on by the South team that he coached.  Don managed the Veseli team for 10 years and the Webster team for five years in the DRS League.  He also served as Secretary/Treasurer of the DRS for 40 years.  A noteworthy fact about Don is that he is one of only two people, along with Dale Welter, that have attended every Fall Baseball Coaches Clinic in the 42-year history of the clinic. 

Gary Palm

Gary Palm, St. Anthony Village High School, graduated from Crosby-Ironton High School in 1960 and St. Cloud State University in 1965.  In high school, Gary participated in Baseball, Basketball and Football.  His first teach position was at Kimball, Minnesota, starting in 1965, where he was assistant baseball and basketball coach before taking over the head coaching position in both sports for the next three years.  He was also an assistant Football coach for four years at Kimball.  After Kimball, he moved to St. Anthony Village in 1969 where he taught for the next 36 years.  Gary was the St. Anthony Village head Baseball coach for 20 years before retiring with 203 wins.  He also served as an assistant boys basketball coach for 19 years and as an assistant football coach for six years.  He was the head Golf coach for 12 years.  He was also the Athletic Director at St. Anthony Village for 19 years, retiring in 2005.  Gary came back to baseball as a volunteer assistant to Troy Urdahl for 13 years during which time the team won Class A state championships in 2006 and 2008 with a consolation championship in 2010.  A highlight of his baseball coaching career came when they went into tournament play as the number 16 seed and beat the number 1 seed, South St. Paul, in a single elimination game.  Gary spent 50 years coaching high school sports.  He also served on the Minnesota State High School League Board of Directors for three years.  The baseball field at St. Anthony Village is named Palm Field.

Todd Smrekar

Todd Smrekar, Cambridge-Isanti High School, graduated from Cambridge-Isanti High School in 1989 and from St. Cloud State in 1994.  Todd earned all-conference honors in football and baseball and all-area in football while playing football and baseball for four years and wrestling for one year in high school.  Todd starting his teaching and coaching career at BOLD High School, serving as an assistant baseball coach, before moving to Cambridge where he is still teaching and coaching. Todd was head baseball coach at Cambridge-Isanti for 21 years, 1997-2017, winning 210 games as head coach.  As part of a 30-year coaching career, Todd has also coached American Legion, VFW and Youth Baseball, along with youth hockey and softball.  In addition, Todd was an assistant football coach for 13 years with highlights being a state championship in 2000 after a state runner-up finish in 1999.  Equally impressive as his coaching resume has been his work with the High School Baseball Coaches Association where he is a past president and is currently secretary/treasurer and also the webmaster for their website.  Todd has served on the Baseball Advisory Board since 2008 and has been a section delegate to the Delegate Assembly for many years. Todd is a past president of the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association and was a Dick Siebert Award winner in 2015.

Ken Solarz

Ken Solarz, Upsala/Swanville High School, graduated from Upsala High School in 1968 where he played baseball, basketball and football, earning all-conference honors in football.  He attended Hibbing Community College and played football for two years and graduated in 1975 from UW-Superior, where he played baseball and football.  His first teaching and coaching position was at St. Mary’s Parochial School in Bird Island where he was an assistant coach for baseball and football at the public school and also coached junior high basketball .  After four years in Bird Island, he went to Jasper High School for another four years.   He was head coach for boys and girls track, girls basketball and an assistant in football.  Ken went home to Upsala in 1983 where he was an assistant in a number of sports before taking the head baseball position in 1991.  He retired  after the 2012 season with a record of 311-179 in 22 seasons.  His  teams never had a losing season.  His teams won seven conference championships and advanced to the state tournament in both 2005 and 2006. After being retired for one year, Ken came back to coach the JV team and continues to do that as well as running the Legion team In the summers.  Ken ran the summer youth program for about 20 years and coached the Legion team for over 20 years.  He also played amateur baseball for 21 years at Upsala.  Ken was the head volleyball coach for 28 years with a record of 484-181 and went to the state tournament in 2000.  He was the Athletic Director for 28 years and was inducted into the Upsala High School Hall of Fame in 2016.

Herb Wolf

Herb Wolf, Fairmont High School, graduated from Truman High School in 1928 and Minnesota Teachers College in 1932.  He played Baseball, Basketball and Football in high school and Baseball and Gymnastics in college.  Herb taught and coached in Huntley, Hendrick and Hutchinson before coming to Fairmont in 1942.  Herb was head baseball coach at Fairmont for 30 years, 1947-1976, and retired with an overall record of 271-136.  His teams won six conference championships, 16 District titles and five Region championships.  They participated in the State Tournament in 1963, 1964, 1968, 1971 and 1975, finishing third in 1964 and 1971 and second in 1975.  Herb is in the Mankato State Coaching Hall of Fame, the Minnesota Coaches Association Hall of Fame and was a charter member of the Fairmont High School Hall of Fame.  Herb started the Gymnastic program at Fairmont and won 26 consecutive district titles and his gymnastic teams finished as State Tournament runner-up four times and also had three third place finishes.  At various times Herb was also a head coach at Fairmont for Basketball and Softball and was an assistant in football and track.  He coached at the high school level for over 50 years.  In the summers, Herb, in his career, was involved with all levels of the baseball programs.  He was one of the founders of the Fairmont Baseball Association in 1946. Herb died in 2001 and he and his wife, Jeanette, made a very generous donation of $150,000 to the Fairmont Baseball Association.  The baseball field in Fairmont is named Herb Wolf Field.