Minnesota’s New Head Coaches: Class AAA

The Class AAA level of play has ten new head coaches. Here is the list of coaches and where the program is right now. Seeing as there are 61 Class AAA teams, roughly a sixth of the coaches will be new.   Jason Allen at Sauk Rapids-Rice   Bio: Allen has been the head coach at Apollo the last several seasons and now he moves into the position right outside St. Cloud at a school within the same league.   Position of Program. Good. Sauk Rapids-Rice has some very good talent coming up in the program and they will be one of the best three teams in Section 8AAA. The talent is there to be good for a number of years.   Todd Anderson at DeLaSalle   Bio: Anderson is the long, long time Islander assistant coach under Dave Thorson and Travis Bledsoe. His understanding of the game is high level and I can think of no person better suited to step into this position.   Position of Program: Strong. Todd is one of the most respected assistant coaches in the state and he has the respect of the kids. DeLaSalle will not slip under Anderson and will once again be in position to challenge for a state tournament spot. There is a strong senior class in place led by [player_tooltip player_id='962218' first='Nasir' last='Whitlock'].   Thomas Aune at Hibbing   Bio: Aune played for Hibbing and has been a long, long time assistant coach within the program. He's a Hibbing constant and now after several years as an assistant he is the new head coach.   Position of Program: Rebuild. Hibbing not only lost an all time great from the school (Ayden McDonald) but they had some good young players transfer out of the program so this is a restart.   Tyler Barker at Rocori   Bio: Barker played at Maple Grove HS and at Bethel, he has been coaching with Monticello and the Northstar Titans, and now he takes over a good program.   Position of Program: Good. Rocori has a chance to be very good led by [player_tooltip player_id='1223081' first='Jack' last='Spanier'] and several other returning starters from an 11 win team. I'm not saying they will be a 20 game winner but Rocori does have an outside shot at winning the section this season.   Ryan Blommer at St. Cloud Apollo   Bio: Blommer has been coaching a number of sports at Apollo for many years and everybody in the school is quite familiar with him.   Position of Program. Ok. There is a really nice group of sophomores in this program and while it may take some growing pains, this program does have very good young talent.   Darren Edwards at South St. Paul   Bio: Edwards was the SSP assistant for awhile and took over as the interim head coach last winter. Edwards is now the head coach of the team officially.   Position of Program. Solid. With Alonzo Dodd and a great senior class graduated there will of course be a stepback   Jamaal Gibson at Austin   Bio: Gibson is an Austin graduate and has been a part of the Austin coaching staff under Kris Fadness for several seasons.   Position of Program: Strong. Any time you take the spot of a legend (Kris Fadness) there is going to be some type of process that goes with the change. The good thing is that Jamaal is in the best position to keep the program moving because he understands the position and all that must go along with it, and the kids really respect him as their leader.   Zach Holsman of Grand Rapids   Bio: Zach has been in the Grand Rapids education and athletic system for some time.   Position of Program: Rebuild. GR lost a big senior group from a seven win team from last season so this is definitely a team that will be hitting the restart with a new coach, some new players, and some new go to producers.   Josh Pratt at St. Anthony Village   Bio: Josh is a former standout at St. Anthony Village and he is now taking over the program as it's new head coach. Josh has done a nice job of coaching with the Minnesota Heat.   Position of Program: Ok. St. Anthony Village is coming off of an eight win season and they are short on some of the standouts they have recently had BUT they do have a nice senior backcourt this next season and they have a shot to be a .500 team.   ? at St. Paul Humboldt   Situation: I was told the school was looking for a new coach again but the MSHSL site still lists the coach from last season as the current coach so maybe it's not open.   Position of Program: Rebuild. Humboldt won two games last season and they are facing a rebuild.

The Class AAA level of play has ten new head coaches. Here is the list of coaches and where the program is right now. Seeing as there are 61 Class AAA teams, roughly a sixth of the coaches will be new.