The Lakeland athletic department received resignations from three head coaches during the summer, and has now hired three new coaches to fill their posts.
Since May 28, when men’s tennis coach Doron Green announced his resignation, two more coaches—men’s and women’s soccer coach Dave Madsen and wrestling coach Pete Rogers—handed Lakeland Athletic Director Jane Bouche their two-week notices.
Former Lakeland tennis standout Casey Carr, Milwaukee Wave Hall of Famer Tony Pierce, and Wisconsin wrestling mainstay Mike Deroehn, have now been hired to the men’s tennis, men’s and women’s soccer, and wrestling jobs, respectively.
Madsen announced he would leave Lakeland July 19 for an assistant coaching job with UW-Milwaukee’s women’s team after spending a summer as goalkeeper coach of the Chicago Red Eleven, an amateur affiliate of the Chicago Red Stars of Women’s Professional Soccer coached by David Nikolic, UW-Milwaukee’s associate head coach.
Because Madsen announced his resignation during the summer, the most plausible time for job changes, the athletic department was able to conduct a national search for his replacement, Bouche said.
“We wait two to three weeks for applications to come in before we start interviews,” Bouche said. “Within ten days we had 50 applicants. We received approximately 70 applications in all.”
A committee including Bouche, Vice President for Student Development Nate Dehne, and Lakeland coaches compiled a list of characteristics they were looking for in a soccer coach before narrowing down the résumé pile according to which candidates fit the criteria, Bouche said. When six candidates remained, Bouche said her role on the committee became researching candidates’ histories.
“I call references to find out the character of a person and if they would be a good fit for Lakeland. I also ask coaches and student athletes what the characteristics of a good coach are,” she said.
Bouche said Dehne, Lakeland coaches, and soccer players from the men’s and women’s teams met with candidates for the head soccer coach position. Typically, at the end of the hiring process the selection committee “nearly always comes to a unanimous, or close to a unanimous choice.”
The hiring of Pierce, one of the winningest goalkeepers in the history of the National Professional Soccer League and former head coach of three Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Schools, was no exception, said Bouche.
“We’re fortunate to hire someone of Tony’s caliber and experience,” Bouche said. “He’s a fixture in the state soccer scene, and we’re thrilled to have him join our team.”
Bouche said Rogers’ August 30 announcement that he would resign from Lakeland to become an assistant wrestling coach at Purdue only allowed the athletic department time to post an ad for the position on the D3 wrestling Web Site.
Bouche maintained that the smaller search, which drew 12 candidates in two days, resulted in the correct hire for the program, former head wrestling coach at UW-Oshkosh Mike DeRoehn.
“We were very thorough with the hiring process for the wrestling coach,” Bouche said. “We know pretty well about his value system and the people who recommended him to us—including Pete Rogers, who’s a close friend of his—know about his wrestling. Once anybody meets him they’ll know he puts student athletes first. For him, it’s not only going to be about him helping the program improve but about helping kids graduate.”
Bouche said high-profile moves to the Division I level like Rogers’ and Madsen’s are proof of their positive impact on Lakeland.
“I applaud coaches when they get offers to coach at great programs. They must have been doing something right or else they wouldn’t have Division I coaches knocking on their door,” she said.
Bouche said six candidates were interviewed to fill the men’s tennis coach position vacated by Green, 62, under whose leadership stark improvement occurred in the form of consecutive third place finishes at the NAC tournament.
Carr’s hire was not announced for over three months following Green’s resignation. He is a former singles champion for the men’s tennis team.
Tennis coaches at Lakeland have a part-time status, making Carr’s residence in Sheboygan a necessary qualification, Bouche said.