Flowings of Your Everlasting Taffyman

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"Sun Newspapers - MNSUN.com - Ronglien gives young coaches a chance


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Ronglien gives young coaches a chance



(Created: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 4:33 PM CDT)

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Tony Kelly, 15, gets set to make a one-on-one move during the Park
High boys basketball camp.

Campers listen intently as director Steve Ha--ar makes a point
during a break in the action.

By John Sherman\Sun Newspapers

When he was 19 years old and a recent graduate of Richfield High in
1979, Larry Ronglien got his first big break.

"Stu Starner [Richfield's varsity coach] asked me to run his summer
camp and also gave me the job as ninth-grade coach at Richfield West Junior
High," said Ronglien, who went on to enjoy success as head coach at
Mound-Westonka, Irondale, Edina and St. Louis Park high schools.

Ronglien is currently at Park, and following in the footsteps of his
mentor, Starner, he gave a young coach a chance to prove himself this summer.

"I turned our summer camps over to Steve Ha--ar, who graduated from
Park in 2004," Ronglien said.

The Oriole head coach couldn't help but notice the parallel between
his own career springboard and the one he gave Ha--ar.

Ha--ar played for Park and was never one of the stars. However,
Ronglien said he liked the blue-collar work ethic that the 6-foot-2 forward
brought to the game night in and night out.

"First of all, I'm thrilled that one of our former players wants to
coach in the program," Ronglien said. "We had about 85 kids in our summer camp
in grades three through nine. Based on e-mails I received, there was very
positive feedback on Steve's coaching. He also helped us a lot with open gym,
which freed Gary Peterson and me to concentrate on coaching our junior varsity
and varsity teams this summer."

Ronglien thought so much of Ha--ar's performance that he has named
him freshman coach for the coming high school season.

While Ha--ar was directing the summer camps, he had help from
counselors that included former Park players Angelo Davis, Jonathan Thompson and
Arsenio Richardson.

"I am very excited to have the guys who played for us return,"
Ronglien said. "They know about our summer camps and what the expectations are
because they went through our camps themselves."

Peterson, a longtime Park assistant coach, guided Ha--ar and his
ex-teammates through some of the planning stages of the camp.

"Coach Peterson was able to give Steve some helpful guidelines,"
Ronglien said.

Going back to his own experience as a young coach in Richfield,
Ronglien said that having the responsibility of running a summer camp launched
his coaching career.

"I am very grateful for the opportunity that Stu Starner gave me,"
he said. "I owe him a lot. One thing he told me before that first camp was that
we needed to develop shooters. That's the same thing I tell my coaches today.

"Coach Starner had faith in me and helped me when I was starting
out. I gained a lot, working with him for just one year. He left to become an
assistant coach to Jim Dutcher at the University of Minnesota, then he coached
at Montana State."

Ronglien said it probably isn't quite as easy to break into coaching
now, as it was for him back in 1979.

"It's a different planet now," he said. "A lot has changed in high
school sports. I think Steve [Ha--ar] will be successful. He's so straight
forward, so hard-working. With a young coach, I have to work with him and have
faith in him. And I definitely have faith in Steve."