When the New London-Spicer Wildcats beat Montevideo Tuesday night, it was a milestone win for veteran head coach Mike Dreier, who recorded his 900th career win.
Dreier has been the head coach of the Wildcats since 1978 and has been a familiar presence at the state girls basketball tournament. He has coached 17 teams who have made the trip to the Twin Cities and two have taken championship trophies down Highway 55 in 1997 and 2002.
Last year's team beat the Esko Eskomos in the quarterfinals and fell to the eventual state Class AA champion Roseau Rams 79-57. The Wildcats would come up short in the third place game as they were defeated by the Watertown-Mayer Royals 49-48.
Before Dreier coached his first state title team in 1997, New London-Spicer lost four straight Class A championship games. Two were to the unbeaten Rochester Lourdes Eagles in 1991 and 1993 and to Tracy Area in 1992. They also fell to the Blake Bears in the 1994 Class A final. In 2001, the Wildcats fell to the St. Michael Albertville Knights in the Class AA championship game and the following year they would beat Yellow Medicine East for their second Class AA title. It would be 14 years before Dreier would lead the Wildcats to the Class AA title game but they lost to the Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs.
Dreier's son, Matt is the head coach at Wright County Conference rival Annandale. The first meeting between the two schools is Tuesday, January 9 in Annandale and the rematch is Friday, February 2 at New London-Spicer. Another son, Joey is a student teacher and assists Mike with the girls basketball team. He is a senior at UW-Eau Claire.
Congratulations to Mike Dreier and could he aim for 1000 wins in the next few seasons?
No comments:
Post a Comment