Under Review: Coaches come and go, but these three will be missed

I’m not one who particularly likes change. So, imagine how I felt when in the span of less than two weeks, I discovered that three area coaches whose teams I’ve covered in my inaugural year with the Leader-Telegram are all stepping down from their positions?

It started with Rob Scott, who announced that he was leaving as Memorial High School’s head football coach to accept the same position at Superior High School. Scott was followed by Mike Collins, the Old Abes boys hockey coach for the past four seasons and ended (so far) with longtime Chippewa Falls boys hockey coach Scott Parker announcing his retirement on Thursday.

I met Scott on only my third day with the newspaper as I was beginning to help compile articles for our football preview issue and I was not only struck by how welcoming he was, but also how organized and truly enthusiastic about his job and his team.

In an exclusive interview with the Leader-Telegram following the announcement of his resignation, Scott explained that while leaving Eau Claire will be bittersweet, the Superior vacancy, which became available when longtime Spartans head coach Bob DeMeyer retired at the end of the 2023 high school football season, was one he couldn’t refuse and it allows him to return to Superior where he spent 15 years, from from 2006 to 2021, as both an educator and football coach in multiple capacities at that high school.

He was the Spartans’ assistant head coach and defensive coordinator in his final eight seasons with the program and during the 2019 season, Scott helped the team reach the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 1 State Semifinals.

Scott’s overall enthusiasm transferred onto the football field — both in practice and on game day — and no matter what the final score was, he was always willing to talk to me about the game and preview the road ahead. Trust me, in my many years of covering sports, some coaches just aren’t that way. You will be missed, Coach Scott and your contributions to the community are appreciated.

As for Collins, while he stepped down as head coach for the Memorial hockey team, he will remain on as an assistant, so his days behind the bench in one capacity or another are luckily not over.

I developed an instant rapport with Collins upon meeting him during the pre-season and part of that had to do with his candor, part with his obvious high hockey IQ and finally part of it can be attributed to us sharing a common affinity for Ohio University club hockey, where the coach played during his college days and I later covered that squad in my year in Athens, Ohio, prior to joining the Leader-Telegram last August.

Before taking over the Old Abes job, his immense hockey credentials first led him to UW-Eau Claire, where he served as the first head coach for the Blugolds’ women’s hockey team, a role he remained in for 15 years.

Collins said in a February Leader-Telegram article that once he left UW-Eau Claire, he didn’t think he would get back into coaching, but decided to accept the Memorial offer in the summer of 2020 because of his immense love of hockey and joy of coaching.

“I really enjoy the energy and the excitement of the athletes,” Collins said in the Leader-Telegram interview. He noted that while that joy has never changed for him, what has changed over the years is his approach to coaching. “I have become more open. I’m doing this now for the pure enjoyment of coaching.”

Which is why he has chosen to remain with the team in the assistant capacity.

“I just decided to step aside. It’s a bit less time commitment year-round,” Collins told the Leader-Telegram. “It’s the same group, just shuffled around.”

Collins enthusiastically noted that his replacement, Jeff Schemberger, an assistant coach with the Old Abes for the past 27 years, will make for a smooth transition when hockey season starts up again in the fall. “ Schem will be a great head coach.”

There’s no doubt about that one, as I have been a first-hand witness to Schemberger’s guidance of this team from his assistant coach position and it should be a seamless transition from one experienced coach to another.

As for Parker, I only had limited contact with him this season, but his record and longevity with Chippewa Falls speaks for itself, and whoever replaces him with the Cardinals will have some mighty big skates to fill, indeed.

Parker guided his first team — the 1987-88 Chi-Hi squad — to the state tournament and ended his 37th year behind the bench by guiding the Cardinals team to an undefeated record in the Big Rivers Conference. The squad would make it to the semi-final round of the Wisconsin boys state hockey tournament.

For the 2023-24 season, Parker was named in March as Coach of the Year in his division and section by the Wisconsin Hockey Coaches Association (WHCA) in part, for his guiding the squad to the Big Rivers Conference championship crown.

In a social media post made Thursday evening on X, formerly known as Twitter, Parker posted a picture of a wall in his office lined up with framed photographs of the teams he’s coached with the simple caption: “Thank you to all players who worked hard. Jerseys are earned not given.”

Truer words were never spoken.

My sincere best wishes to all three of these coaches as they embark on the next phase of their lives.

My Quick Takes on the NFL DraftI would be remiss not to provide just a little bit of commentary on the recently completed NFL Draft.

It starts out with, I get sick and tired of all the mock drafts in the almost three months leading up to the main event (heck, on our Associated Press newswire, a mock draft for next year was available for publication on Sunday!). Because of that, I rarely watch more than the first round of the draft and then follow the wire or social media for complete results. So this is not an exhaustive review of the proceedings in Detroit, just a few quick observations to wrap up this column, as I prefer to see these draftees actually in action before deciding how valuable they may or may not be.

If you’re a Packers fan, you have to be pleased that the team filled its needs, though none of the picks were exactly sexy choices. That’s OK, though.

After taking Arizona offensive tackle Jordan Morgan in the first round, the Packers focused on defense with many of their picks in the NFL draft that concluded Saturday. Since the Packers are reportedly switching from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 scheme under new coordinator Jeff Hafley, the former Boston College coach who took over for the fired Joe Barry, so the selections make sense and stand the team in good stead for the battle ahead in the NFC North.

What didn’t make sense to me in the first round was my New England Patriots selection of quarterback Drake Maye, while they left Marvin Harrison, Jr., standing in the wings to be snatched up by the Arizona Cardinals only moments later. If the prototypical quarterback that was Mac Jones couldn’t succeed in Foxborough, I question whether Maye can when the team drastically needed a stud wide receiver to throw to, in my opinion.

Making only a little more sense to me was the Falcons’ selection of Michael Penix, Jr., with their first-round pick, when they just signed Kirk Cousins to a contract worth a whole lot of money. I guess they will utilize Cousins as a mentor to their future QB, but Atlanta needs way more help than that and I think they risked alienating their prized captain in the process. But, who knows, that’s just my opinion.

Finally, if you’re a Vikings fan, you’ve gotta like JJ McCarthy, (heck, and yes, I know many would disagree with this, but I would have actually preferred the Michigan signal caller to Maye for New England since they were obviously hell-bent on getting a QB). And this is coming from an Ohio State Buckeyes fan. While analysts’ grades range from A-to-C on Minnesota overall, I’d give them a low A- (if I were ranking!) I especially like their strategy of moving up in the draft to nab EDGE Dallas Turner with the 17th selection in the proceedings.

Of course, like I said a few paragraphs ago, the real winners and losers of the draft won’t be determined until these players hit the field. In some cases it might even take a few years to evaluate their overall effectiveness. Until then, the results are definitely Under Review.