While not new to coaching at Cleveland, Charlie Haugen (center) is the new varsity baseball head coach.
“I love this town and really enjoy the group of guys we have,” said Haugen, who is a physical education teacher at CHS. “It was an honor to be considered for the job, and I am pumped to get going.”
Haugen took up baseball at a young age. He played for Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul and went on to play for the Gustavus-Adolphus College baseball team for two years.
For the past two years, along with Jeff Skinner, he coached the Clipper junior high team, and he has been also involved with the 507-Baseball program in St. Peter for the past two years. Still a player himself, he is a member of the Cleveland Spiders mens amateur baseball team.
Haugen also coached JH football at CHS and has been the Minnesota River Bulldog boys hockey varsity assistant coach for the last two years.
He likes baseball because it takes both concentration and the ability move on when a play doesn’t go as planned: striking out, getting caught on the base paths or committing an error in the field.
“It’s a mental battle and a game of failure, which makes the successes that much better. You also have to be engaged throughout the whole process.”
Thus, Haugen said that being a good baseball player is as much mental as it is physical.
“It takes dedication, patience, discipline, a gratitude for the game, a love for the game and a competitive spirit through highs and lows.”
While this year’s team has a few returning starters, like seniors Gabe Sullivan and Brady Bostic , juniors Alex Johnson, Kyle Connor, Blake Lyons, Kale Kelley and Blake Gibbs—and transfer student Brennan Kortuem—sophomore Nathan Seeman and freshmen Carson Lyons and Caleb Connor, it also includes a slew of younger players and players who have not been out for baseball for a while.
All want to improve on last year’s 1-13 record.
“It will be rewarding to see each guy get better and buy into the program,” Haugen said. “Our goal is to get better every day and lift each other up, no matter what the outcome of the game is.”
Haugen’s assistant coaches are Cold Spring MN native and Cleveland School third-grade teacher Dalton Thelen (right), who played varsity baseball at GAC for 2 years, and Danny McCabe (CHS 2019, left), who played JV baseball at GAC.
The varsity Clippers were scheduled to open their season with a home game against New Ulm Cathedral on Monday, but rain put a damper on that outing. They are slated to travel to Lake Crystal next Tuesday.
The JV team is scheduled to take on visiting Nicollet this Saturday.