Cloquet Hit With Coaching Resignations

Aug 14

Kerry Rodd – NSO

An unusual set of circumstances has Cloquet activities director, Tom Lenarz, scrambling for head coaches of three varsity sports. Over the past two weeks the baseball, girls soccer and softball coaches have all resigned, leaving Lenarz in a bit of a quandary.

“It is unusual to have so many openings due to the fact that we have had a good track record in terms of retaining coaches over the last four years,” commented Lenarz to NSO. “However, when you look at other schools this does happen. Some of it is timing as well. It seems like the news about softball, baseball and soccer all came out in the same week.”

Baseball coach Steve Jezierski made the decision of not returning a while ago, but wanted to wait until the VFW and Legion seasons were complete before letting his players know.
Steph Sklors, the softball coach, reached a decision not to return last week. Kari Bjorklund, the girls soccer coach, will be leaving the area this fall and her announcement came a couple of weeks ago.

Lenarz says he will not be posting the softball and baseball jobs until after fall sports and he won’t post the girls soccer job until the spring.

“Because of the timing of the soccer coach’s announcement that she wasn’t coming back, I felt it wouldn’t make sense to try and hire a new person in a week and half from the start of the season,” said Lenarz. “I approached assistant coach Dustin Randall and asked him if he would be willing to step in as an interim coach for this season with the understanding that I would be posting the position again after the season.”

Randall will take over this season for Kari Bjorklund who is leaving the Cloquet school district.

“I have confidence that Coach Randall will do an excellent job and his familiarity with the program will help ease the transition for the girls,” commented Lenarz. “I would certainly expect him to apply for the position on a full time basis when it is posted.”

Kerry Rodd can be reached at Kerry@northlandsportsonline.com