Clasen enters final season leading Wildcat cross country
Returning letterwinners for the Wildcat girls’ cross country team, from left: Meg Zweibohmer, Sophia Harris, Reagan Lee, Kali Beaman, Joslyn Orr and Sarah Numedahl. Independent photo. To buy this photo and more, visit our photo gallery on this page.
Girls return 7, boys in rebuilding year
Dean Clasen has poured his heart and soul into coaching, so it’s only fitting his final year leading the Humboldt cross country program includes Humboldt hosting the conference and state qualifying meets this fall.
Clasen made the announcement during pre-season.
“This is my 45th year of coaching all told. My 25th year as head coach here and 33 years total at Humboldt with cross country, along with another seven as cross country coach at South Hamilton,” Clasen said.
“We are hosting conference this year along with the state qualifying meet (Oct. 19), it seems like a really good way for me to exit,” Clasen said.
“Exit on a course that I helped design along with Todd Lee and Chris Clarken on the conservation department back in 2013. I think it was a heck of an upgrade for our program and it seems like an appropriate place to end my coaching career,” Clasen said.
“I look at this season the same as a high school senior looks at it – I don’t have another season. I’m approaching it with the idea that we want it to be the best it can possibly be,” Clasen said.
“Obviously, there are a lot of things that are out of our control but I’m hoping I can inspire the kids to work hard and as we’ve tried to do every single year, and have them feel fantastic about the things we’ve accomplished over the season,” Clasen said.
“Cross country is a difficult sport. The real plus about our sport is that everybody gets to participate. When you have somebody like Collin Vik, who starts out his career running in the 33-minute range as a freshman and now he’s running in the 20-21 range and trying to make varsity…I don’t know how you can describe that success,” Clasen said.
“It’s the epitome of what we try to do in cross country. Bring kids along and hope they find their way and do really good things before they graduate,” Clasen said.
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