There's no place like home for Tiger coaches

Boys hockey coach Keith Revels, one of five ex-FHS athletes
serving as varsity coaches in 2011-12

When Lisa (Dingman) Lippold accepted the boys cross country coaching position this summer she became the fifth ex-Tiger on the list of FHS varsity coaches for the 2011-12 school year.
Lippold, a 1999 Tiger grad who ran in both the state cross country and track meets as a prep, joins former Tigers Jon Holmes (girls hockey and boys golf); Keith Revels (boys hockey); Lynn (Gramentz) Bauman (gymnastics) and Chad Olson (wrestling) on the coaching staff.
Olson and Holmes were FHS male Athletes of the Year in 1995 and 1999 respectively. Revels received the Oscar Lubke Award in 1987 and Bauman won the Leslie Lindell Award in 1993.
Olson isn't the only former Tiger wrestler who will beading up a varsity high school mat program in the metro area this winter. Eric Herrmann will be head coach at Richfield and Josh Burhans will take over the program at Edina.
Ex-Tiger Doug Dingman coached his Prior Lake team to a third place finish in both the the varsity and junior varsity divisions of the Minnesota High School State Clay Target Championships held at the Minneapolis Gun Club in June. 550 shooters from 29 schools competed in the event.
Zach Warweg of New Prague, the son of former Tiger Dave Warweg, finished first in the male competition and Anna Nicolai of St. Paul Academy, the daughter of FHS grad Dan Nicolai, jr. ranked second among female shooters.
1999 Tiger grad Sammy Schmitz, a state tournament golfer for the Tigers who went on to a stellar collegiate career at St. John's University, is now one of the leading amateur players in Minnesota. Last month Schmitz finished fifth at the 108th Minnesota Golf Association Championships at the White Bear Yacht Club and runner-up at the Minnesota State Open Championship played at Rush Creek.
Ex-Tiger boys hockey and softball coach Jim Hoey is wrapping up his second sports-related book, this one on the history of the Minnesota state boys hockey tournament. Last year Hoey, an avid sports fan, published a book of Minnesota Twins trivia.
Former Tiger boys basketball manager Steven Dow has stayed busy in the sports arena since enrolling at Gustavus Adolphus College. Dow has worked at the St. Peter school's sports information office and also served as a student assistant with the men's basketball team. This summer he is doing an internship in media relations with the Mankato Moondogs of the Northwoods Baseball League.
The roster for the 2011 Randolph Railcats of the Cannon Valley Classic Amateur Baseball League looked like a list for a Tiger baseball reunion with player-manager Andy Pierskalla, Bryan Hegseth, Shane Hawkins, Brent Mahlstedt, Caleb Schmitt, Matt O'Leary and Danny Tutewohl all included. Former Tiger hockey players P.J. McIntee and David Ripley also play for Randolph.
Ex-Tigers Carson Jones and Tyler Jones, who helped the Tigers to back-to-back Missota Conference baseball titles in 2005 and 2006, each hit over .300 for the Dundas Dukes of the Cannon Valley League this summer.

Fall 2011 Day 1 Practice Information

Please visit the following link for information on official start dates/times/locations for fall 2011 Farmington Tigers athletics programs, including both High School sports and Middle School sports.

Go to:

1. www.farmington.k12.mn.us/athletics

2. Click on "Schedule Information" (left column).

3. Click on "Fall 2011 Athletics Day 1 Practice Information".

A reminder that you must be completed registered prior to any athletics participation.

Tiger football prepares for fall season with annual South Dakota camp

While the National Football League, its players and its fans were sweating out the end of the four-month old lockout, Tiger football coach Mark Froehling and his 2011 squad were busy getting ready for the 2011 high school season.
Froehling, his coaching staff and 52 varsity hopefuls attended a three-day camp July 10-12 conducted by players and coaches at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
Froehling noted that although the usual number of players took part in the camp, several more had scheduling conflicts so it was hard to get a clear picture of what the fall season might look like.
"Hopefully in August we will have added some depth that we didn't have at the camp," he said.
The camp experience consisted of position-specific instruction by the South Dakota staff and players, a king-of-the-hill competition and three full-scale scrimmages.
"One of the teams we scrimmaged was Sioux Fall Lincoln who was the two-time South Dakota champion," Froehling said, "and another was Rapid City Central, the state's largest school."
Froehling said the thee-day camp met his goals, namely to evaluate his team's offensive and defensive schemes; to gauge individual athletes' readiness to play at the varsity level and to bring together a new group of players to begin the process of building a team.
"I thought our passing game looked good in the scrimmages," Froehling said, "and our defense looked fairly strong against both the pass and the run.
"We lacked depth and experience on the offensive line but that was because we lost five starters from last year's team...Our young sophomores performed well at several positions."
Fall practice begins Monday, August 15. The Tigers open the season Friday, Sept. 2, with a non-conference road contest at Section 1 rival Rochester Mayo.

Sondra Chadwick chosen as new Tiger girls basketball coach

FHS girls basketball coach Sondra Chadwick with husband Joel

Sondra Chadwick, a former standout high school and collegiate player with close ties to the Farmington basketball community, has been chosen as coach of the Tiger girls basketball team. She replaces Jason Berg who recently took an elementary principal position with the Owatonna Public Schools.
Chadwick is a human resources project manager for Accenture, a global consulting and outsourcing company located in Bloomington.
The new leader of the Tiger girls hoops program was a three-sport athlete at Wheaton High School in western Minnesota where she led her team to a runner-up finish in the 1987 Minnesota Class A state tournament. She also qualified for the state track meet three different times.
At the University of Minnesota-Morris, Chadwick continued her basketball career, earning all-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) honors. After her senior season, she was was named the NSIC Female Athlete of the Year.
Chadwick later served as a student assistant coach at Minnesota-Morris. In Farmington she has coached numerous teams in the girls travel program as well as several area AAU teams. She has also served the Farmington girls travel program in the capacity of president and director of skills development.
Chadwick said that one of the areas she will stress in the Farmington program in strong defensive play.
"My philosophy is that in order to be competitive, a team needs to be able to play defense effectively," she said. "That will require players to be well-conditioned and understand the game."
In recent years, the Farmington program has been very successful with two appearances in the section championship game in the past three years. Chadwick hopes to continue that success in her first year on the job.
"We are fortunate to be returning a number of experienced and talented players," she said. "I am looking forward to working with the girls, evaluating where our strengths are when the season starts and setting our goals from there."
Chadwick, who lives in Farmington with husband Joel and teenage children Alex and Sofia, has been a Farmington sports fans for years and is very much looking forward to becoming an integral part of the Tigers athletic program.
"I am very excited to now be a part of the girls high school program," she said. "I want to continue to build upon a great tradition of success and create some new traditions and memories with the girls."

Ex-Tiger Lippold named boys cross country coach

Tiger boys cross country coach Lisa Lippold
with husband Adam and children Mackenzy and Carter

Former Tiger cross country and track standout Lisa (Dingman) Lippold has been named boys cross country coach at her alma mater. Lippold replaces Keith Revels, another former Tiger runner, who resigned last spring.
The new coach brings to the position a wealth of running success. In high school, she became the only Farmington female to qualify for the state cross country meet in two different seasons and in her senior year she earned all-state honors in track.
Lippold was a nine-time all-American in cross country and track in college and in her senior season she helped her Doane College (Nebraska) team to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic Association (NAIA) outdoor track and field championship.
Lippold has been the chemical health counselor at Farmignton High School since 2008 and for the past three seasons has served as an assistant track coach, specializing in working with the middle and long distance runners.
While the number of females coaching male athletic teams is Minnesota is not large, Lippold said she doesn't have any concerns about the challenge.
"It helps that I already know many of the cross country athletes from track," she said. "It also helps that running is such a big part of my life and family. My husband also ran in college and I know that if I have questions, he will be more than happy to help me out.
"I am really looking forward to building our program into one that other schools will be looking out for."