By Chad Koenen

Publisher

In Henning, basketball has always been held as a bit of a sacred sport.  ¶  Some towns in Minnesota claim hockey as king, others have football or volleyball as the sport that their community rallies around before any other. But going back over 100 years, Henning has always had basketball at the top of the mountain.  ¶  So it may come as a bit of a surprise when one comes to learn that despite state championships, as well as countless conference and section titles, that very few former Henning High School students ever become a head basketball coach in another community. There have been a few over the years, of whom several had quite a bit of success, becoming a head coach has been a bit of a rarity among the hallowed halls of Henning High School.  ¶  That makes Thursday’s match up between non-conference rivals Parkers Prairie and Henning extra special as Henning High School alum and first-year Parkers Prairie head coach David Holm will welcome his former high school coach Randy Misegades and the top ranked Henning Hornets to town.

It will be a bit of a unique experience for Holm who gives a lot of credit to Misegades for not only giving him a chance to play in high school, but continuing to offer him assistance when they run into each other throughout the year.

  Holm said a lot of how he prepares the Panthers for action each night comes from the lessons he learned while playing for Misegades and the Hornets 10 years ago.

“What (I) know is basically everything he already knows. Everything I learned is from him. I might have some new stuff, but the style of play and what we are trying to accomplish is all the same. I think it might be a little weird in that sense (coaching against Misegades). I think we say some of the same things and we kind of repeat each other I am sure,” said Holm. “I do a couple of the same plays or different sets, but I try to not do everything (the same).”

By his own account, Holm said he was never the biggest, fastest, strongest or even the best basketball player during his time in high school. Even though he would become a starter for the Henning Hornets during his time in high school, Holm said basketball was about much more than simply the work on the court. It was the life lessons and ability to put life aside for a few hours everyday when the high school athletes were on the court in practice and a game. 

In fact, Holm said most coaches would not have been so willing to work with someone who may not have been the most athletic when he was younger. However, he said Misegades and the rest of the Henning coaches worked with him throughout his career at Henning School to give him confidence to compete on the high school basketball court.

“When I look back I was not very talented,” said Holm with a laugh. “I didn’t have any family that played varsity sports. In gym class I was never the one was who the top at push ups or the fastest or strongest or biggest. I honestly think if I was coached by anyone else I don’t think I would have been in basketball. I credit a lot to it to just coaching and habit building.”

With an extremely young team during his senior season, with a number of eighth grade and freshmen making up the roster the Hornets finished just 10-16 Holm’s senior year of high school. 

Even more than the wins his senior season, Holm said he remembers a text he received from Misegades that helped him overcome the unexpected death of his father before his senior year of school and how basketball helped him get through a challenging time of his life. 

“Basketball is what gave me my confidence. I know the summer going into my senior year my dad passed away unexpectedly and the first person to text me was not a family member, or a friend, but it was Randy and that kind of meant a lot to me,” said Holm. “What helped me get through that was going to summer basketball stuff and looking forward to my senior season.”

After graduating from high school Holm wanted to share his passion for sports with other people as he pursued a degree in sports management at Minnesota State University-Mankato. As a way to further his college experience and begin to build a resume, Holm began looking for ways to volunteer in the greater Mankato area in the sports field. That’s when a professor at MSUM shared an email with Holm from a neighboring high school at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton who was seeking a junior high girls basketball coach. 

While coaching junior high girls may not have been an ideal job for a lot of college students, the 19-year-old college student embarked on what would become a life changing experience by taking the paid coaching position and giving back to the basketball community. 

“It was a paid junior high boys and girls position,” said Holm. “I just felt like this would be giving back and would be something to put on my resume.”

Holm fell in love with coaching and soon found himself spending more time at the local high school than the college campus itself. He attended just about every boys and girls basketball game, as well as football games. He was a line judge in volleyball and even found himself coaching softball as what began as a way to build a resume turned into a bit of a calling of sorts. 

“I did that and the guy I coached with he was about 10 years older than me and we kind of became best friends. I spent more time coaching and doing more things at the high school in Janesville instead of hanging around the Mankato campus,” said Holm. “I was just trying to help out any way I could and I really like the kids there and the staff I worked with. It was just kind of what I wanted and I started realizing I wanted to be more of a teacher and a coach.”

The Henning alum eventually switched majors from the more cutthroat industry of sports management to a more laid back atmosphere of teaching phy ed, where he could also help to shape the lives of the next generation of students. 

After graduating from MSUM with a degree in physical education, Holm was hired as a phy ed teacher at neighboring Parkers Prairie approximately four years ago. He was hired to coach C-squad basketball, before spending the next two years as a junior varsity coach. Holm was promoted this year to the head coaching position, something that he is excited to begin a new era of storied basketball in Parkers Prairie.

The Panthers have opened the season with a record of 3-6 overall, but almost as important as the wins and losses are the opportunities for new challenges that the coaches and players get to embark on everyday. It’s the same mentality Holm remembers from his time in high school where the coaches and players worked together to get ready for life on and off the court. 

“There is something new everyday that you are not expecting. It could be the small stuff. A kid might be sick or someone is not feeling good. A kid had a bad day at school and something is going on at home and just the challenge of just getting them to work together and forget about what is happening outside of school and practice,” said Holm of what he has enjoyed about his first year as head coach. “That is the fun part because then you get to show your ability on a pretty unique stage. A basketball court where the fans are on top of you and there is nowhere to hide”

For Holm and the Panthers, Thursday’s game will be a tough task at hand when the top ranked Hornets come to Parkers Prairie for what has been a tough rivalry game for both teams. Despite coaching against his former high school team at younger levels over the years, Thursday’s game will be the first time he gets to face his former team as a head coach. Something Holm said will be a mix of emotions from outright weird and strange to memorable in a season full of memories for the Panthers both on and off the court.