Coach Carl Fruechte has been a staple of the Caledonia community and has been inducted into the MFCA Hall of Fame for 2024. The Argus was able to catch up with Coach Fruechte to ask him what the honor meant to him and touch on his journey to induction.
First question pertained to “What were the steps you took to gain success at Caledonia?” We had a lengthy conversation full of insight on this topic, and the most important parts included Carl’s rise to head coach. “The year before I had risen to head coach, our coaching community was reeling. We had just lost Mark Froehling and Kris Fadness from the program, and it was a difficult time for me from a coaching standpoint.”
Fruechte was at that time the defensive backs coach and defensive play caller for the team and didn’t think he would have a shot at head coaching, but got that chance in 1998. “Ironic that six, seven, eight months later Mark had decided to leave and I became head coach. I wanted to make football a priority, as it wasn’t at that time.”
He elaborated on the expectations when first brought on as head coach, “Ken Vandenboom brought me into his office as AD, I remember him telling me that we wouldn’t win more than two or three games.” Of course, Coach Fruechte exceeded expectations and has since gathered a 183-40 record with the Warriors, an immense .821 winning percentage.
Surpassing that, Coach Fruechte has won state titles in 2007,2008, 2010-2012, 2015, and four straight titles from 2016-2019.
Next, Caledonia’s football culture and how that contributed to success was on the docket, and the first thing Coach told the Argus was that “Enforcing discipline throughout the team was a big part of it. My father told me that high school sports get students ready for life.”
Fruechte touched upon “setting the example” a lot during the interview, which is a big component of being a successful coach. “Stay clean, emphasize importance, and stay out of trouble. I’m proud of all of our coaches for doing that. We have to get back to learning from big losses and picking yourself up to move on.”
He also hit upon the need for coaches to be patient and encouraging. “You can mess up, but we need to tell the athletes ‘we’re proud of what you’re doing, keep it up’ and make sure that we develop them as more than just athletes.”
When asked about the induction, Coach Fruechte had this to say, “ I’m very humbled, because this is never one of the things you think about as a coach. You focus on the task at hand and I was surprised when I got the call.”
He elaborated, “I want this to be viewed as a Caledonia Community Award. You cannot be successful if the community doesn’t buy into it. All the coaches and athletes that I’ve worked with did the work and earned success. They deserve the credit before me.”
Coach Fruechte will be receiving the award on April 6 at the Doubletree Hotel Minneapolis Park Place.
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