Few have as fabled of a history in Caledonia’s coaching ranks as Roger Knutson and the wrestling program he fostered at Caledonia Area High School. He will be inducted into the Mayo Civic Center Region 1 Hall of Fame for 2024.
Coach Knutson's wrestling career both as an athlete and a coach are illustrious and an example for all. Roger won the 167# Class A State Championship for the Stewartville Tigers and was an exemplary coach for the Warriors for 17 years.
He coached MCC Hall of Fame member and two time state champion Trent Hatlevig, and also 24 state place winners and 47 state qualifiers during his time with Caledonia.
Coach Knutson was not one to take all the credit and honored his father as well. “It’s obviously an honor, there’s a lot of good people from Section 1; my Dad is in the Hall of Fame as well. He passed away in 2013, and I know that with my work and my induction, he would have been proud.”
Roger’s father, Roger Knutson Sr., was inducted into the MCC Hall of Fame in 2008, and later inducted into the Minnesota State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013, before passing away later that year.
Knutson credited a lot of the other coaches he worked with, including but not limited to coaches John Pitts, Steve Butell, Mike Stemper, Nick Frank, Jeff Schuldte, and Todd Sesker. “They laid the real groundwork and put in the time and effort for the kids, and they helped us succeed.”
Roger also gave credit to Karl Freuchte and how fortunate he was to be able to work with him during his time at Caledonia.
Roger had this to say what has changed over the years, “Well, it was a different era, but the number of matches kids get is so much more than we used to wrestle. You always want more practice time but the number of matches is much more. We used to call it scrambling back in the day, but the new style is much more exciting – it looks like there’s not strategy to the untrained eye, but it’s much more complex than people give it credit for.”
For a coaching style, Coach Knutson said, “I think the thing we focused on the most was conditioning. A wrestling match is a series of sprints, and good conditioning can beat a better technical wrestler. Wear a guy out in the first two periods, and that technical skill isn’t there. Our kids bought into that, and we had a lot of kids win matches in the 2nd half of the bouts. We would obviously bring in technique later in the practice, but conditioning was key.”
How can Caledonia recruit kids into sports? “This is a great question, but it’s tough to answer. Right now, it’s too easy for kids to do things outside of sports and extracurricular activities. On top of that, do parents now have an ability to advocate for their kids to go into sports on top of working a lot?”
He added that the “community” was helpful in getting kids into sports. “Coaches in Caledonia have cared about kids more than winning. Of course you want to win, but if the athletes think you don’t care about them or the sport, then why should they? In all my years at Caledonia, the important thing was that we wanted to nurture good men and women.”
One tip for athletes, “As an athlete, each week you should be better at the end of the week than you were at the beginning. Additionally, take what you don’t do well AND what you do well and improve them.”
“The biggest takeaway for this honor is that it wasn’t just me who did the work for the success we had. The entire community is who we should be crediting as well, because without the support of the community, this would never have happened. Also, it’s the head coach that gets to put his name on this, but the wrestlers did the real work and the real battles.”
Roger will be inducted on Saturday, Mar. 9 of this year, and the ceremony will be held at Charlie’s Eatery in Rochester, Minn.
Most Popular
Comments / 0