A longtime Luverne High School teacher and coach is experiencing a major lifestyle change.
After 25-years, Mike Wenninger is stepping down as head coach of the LHS baseball program.
Wenninger came to Luverne as a wide-eyed 22-year-old prior to the 1996-97 school year, and his quarter century run as the face of LHS baseball came to an end with a June 8 loss to Paynesville that wrapped up a successful 20-5 season.
Now, for the first time in a long time, Wenninger, 48, finds himself not playing or coaching baseball during the summer months.
“I’ve been involved in baseball as a player or a coach my whole life,” Wenninger stated.
“It all started with me playing catch with my grandfather and my uncles, and I remember watching one of my uncles with amateur teams in the New Ulm area when I was really young. My dad (Randy) was the coach of a couple of the youth teams I played with, which I think was a special time for both of us.”
Based on the way things have worked out, Randy Wenninger (and his wife, Monica) played important roles in creating their son’s love of the sport.
Randy was serving in the Air Force in Topeka, Kansas, when Monica gave birth to Mike, and they moved to Alexandria shortly after that before settling down in New Ulm, where Mike made his way through the town’s school system.
He became a three-sport standout (baseball, basketball and football) during his high school days as an Eagle, but baseball became his calling card.
After receiving limited varsity playing time as a sophomore, Wenninger became a full-time starter as a junior, when he played multiple positions.
As a senior, he emerged as an outstanding pitcher for a program that recorded consecutive third-place finishes at the Minnesota State Class AA Baseball Tournament in 1990 and 1991.
“The guys I grew up with in New Ulm really liked baseball and we were pretty good at it,” Wenninger recalled.
“We had some really good coaches, too. … I learned a lot from them.”
Between his junior and senior seasons, Wenninger gained seven to eight miles per hour on his fastball, which opened the door to a college career for the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher.
Wenninger spent one year at Dakota Wesleyan College (Mitchell, South Dakota) before transferring to South Dakota State University (Brookings) for the next three seasons.
He played college ball with LHS graduates Terry Van Engelenhoven, Mark Schoeneman and Micky Sehr at SDSU, and they helped influence Wenninger to take physical education position/head baseball coach positions that were available in Luverne in the summer of 1996.
Wenninger toured LHS with then Cardinal baseball coach Mark Lundgren and liked what he saw. When then high school principal Gary Fisher offered Mike the positions, he accepted the jobs without hesitating.
There’s little doubt that Wenninger was the perfect fit for both positions.
Being a physical education instructor kept him from being boxed into one classroom during the typical school day, which was something he fancied.
His track record as a baseball coach speaks for itself.
Wenninger’s 25-year reign includes just one season with a Cardinal team having a below .500 record.
His 2001 team won the Section 3A title and went on to place second at the Class A State Tournament.
LHS won another Section 3A title in 2003, and the Cardinals captured Section 3AA titles in the 2009 and 2013 seasons. The 2009 team finished as the consolation runner-up at the state tournament, while the 2013 team won the consolation title at state.
It was Wenninger’s devotion to the development of players that made his tenure a successful one. In some ways, his job was just beginning when the high school season was complete.
Wenninger coached Luverne’s VFW and Junior Legion teams every summer since 1997, and he worked with the seventh- and eighth-graders playing summer ball for the past 20 years. Those commitments did take up a lot of time, but he said it was time well spent.
“Having the opportunity to watch kids develop from the time when they were in seventh grade through their senior seasons was rewarding,” he said.
“In some cases, watching the progress they made truly was amazing. If you don’t invest a lot of time into coaching and developing players, you won’t get much back in return”
Now that his coaching career is complete, Wenninger has more free time to spend with his children, Skyler, Mckenzi and Cade (who just graduated from LHS).
Mike plans to travel to Cade’s baseball games at Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, Iowa, next spring instead of coaching LHS baseball.
“I’ll miss competing, which goes along with being a coach,” he said. “I won’t miss the long bus rides and the long hours it takes to be a coach.”
He said he’s grateful for the experiences and for the support of his family.
“It was a big part of my life and I made a lot of friends by playing and coaching baseball over the years. For that, I have to give thanks to my wife (Lauri Wenninger),” he said.
“She had to sacrifice a lot so I could coach and play a kids’ game for a long time. Our athletic family was blessed to have her by our sides through all of it. I’ve always believed that behind every good coach is a better wife, and that’s definitely true for me.”
John Rittenhouse, Star Herald sports writer for more than 30 years, came out of retirement to write this feature on the coach he’d worked with for 25 years.