2025 Coach of the Year
The candidates are:
Tim Bergstrasser, Minnesota State-Moorhead Dragons Men 25-9. The Dragons season was on the verge of wreckage dur to injuries to starting guards Jacob Beeninga and JaMir Price. So Berstrasser brought freshman guard Carson Johnson out of mothballs (that is, out of redshirt status) and stuck him in the lineup. Sink or swim. He swam, and Moorhead finished with 13 straight wins, the NSIC playoff title, and 2 wins in the NCAAs. As a result of his ostentatious success—now 3 tournament titles and a runner-up in 5 years—coach Bergstrasser and Carson Johnson and 2 other Dragons are all out at Denver University to make a go of it in D1. Don’t be surprised if the Pioneers aren’t successful. They play in the Summit Conference along with the St. Thomas Tommies.
Chris Finch, Minnesota Timberwolves 49-33 and 9-6 in the playoffs. Fans complained about Finch being slow to make adjustments, specifically when Julius Randle seemed not to be on the same page with his Timberwolves teammates. Well, eventually Finch found space for Terrence Shannon, but more to the point, he stuck with Randle, and during the last month of the season including the playoffs, Randle was more the player the Wolves had expected him to be. The result was a 17-4 record in March and April, or 26-10 including the playoffs. Not quite what we wanted, but nobody was going to beat OKC.
Matt Fletcher, Concordia St. Paul Golden Bears Men 22-9. Here is a team with precious little success in recent years—just 6 winning records this century, none since 2011, and a 30-153 record in the NSIC since 2016. This year the turnaround was from 10-18 to 22-9. As a result, coach Fletcher was the NSIC coach of the year, even finishing ahead of coach Bergstrasser in that category.
Becca Holland, West Central Knights Girls 27-6. West Central came to the state tournament with no fanfare and no stars, and left with the state Class A title. Coach Holland was pretty much unanimously favored as the girls high school coach of the year.
Amanda Johnson, Concordia St. Paul Golden Bears Women 29-3. CSP won the regular season and tournament titles, and coach Johnson was named coach of the year. Why not?
Laurie Kelly, Gustavus Adolphus Gusties Women 29-2. The Gusties tied Bethel for the MIAC regular season title, then avenged their only loss of the season in the tournament final on Bethel’s home court 66-53. From there, they won 3 NCAA tournament games before bowing to Smith 61-50 in the Elite 8. This was the Gusties’ 4th straight MIAC title.
Dawn Plitzuweit, Minnesota Gopher Women 25-11. The Gophers had to fight through some injuries and a mid-season slump, but they made the best of it, starting 16-1 and finishing with 5 wins and the title of the WBIT. Someday we will look back on coach P as the best coach the Gopher women have ever had.
Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx 34-10 and 3-3 in the playoffs. Coach Reeve and the Lynx continue to be snakebit, losing for the third time (2016, 2024, 2025) when a WNBA title was within reach. Each time, the obvious weaknesses and problems of the silly WNBA land on Reeve’s and the Lynx’ head with specific and precise aim. It’s uncanny. This one maybe hurts the most because the problems seem so intractable, the league so obviously bent on pretending that all is well when it isn’t. And as long as Reeve is the spokesperson for the naysayers, the league seems likely to find a way to penalize the Lynx, as they have now done 3 times.
John Tauer, St. Thomas Tommies Men 24-10. The Tommies finished 2nd in the Summit at 12-4, then finished 2nd again in the tournament, losing to Omaha 85-75. In 4 years in D1, the Tommies have improved from 10 wins, to 19, to 20, and now 24. Nothin’ but blue skies.
Forrest Witt, Alexandria Cardinals Boys 29-3. Alex’ achievement is especially great when you consider the difficulty of Greater Minnesota teams to win in Class AAA and the Cardinals’ own previous failures at the state tournament. Coach Witt and Mr. Basketball Chase Thompson put on a hell of a show.
And the winner is….
5 tie. Chris Finch, Minnesota Timberwolves. Criticized sometimes for being too passive.
5 tie. Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx. Criticized sometimes for being too expressive. Reeve has previously been coach of the year in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2024.
4. Forrest Witt, Alexandria Cardinals Boys. Overcame a lot of history to win the Class AAA title.
3. John Tauer, St. Thomas Tommies Men. Everything looking up, up, up for Tauer and the Tommies men. Tauer was coach of the year in 2016.
2. Dawn Plitzuweit, Minnesota Gophers Women. Someday we will look back on coach P as the best coach the Gopher women have ever had.
1. Tim Bergstrasser, Minnesota State-Moorhead Men. 3 tournament titles and a runner-up in 5 years. Now, it’s hello, Denver.