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Choral judge and director
enters hall of fame Rodney Urtel — Choral Director/Judge 180 students participate each year in the
choral groups at Mankato West High School, which includes 4 choirs, all
under the direction of Rodney Urtel and merely part of the music program he
has created there.
In 1981 Urtel earned the Minnesota Teacher of Excellence Award. He has hosted Minnesota High School League events, including music adjudication clinics and large group contests. His choirs annually represent Mankato West at both large group and solo/ensemble contests. He also is in demand as a judge for contests in other regions. He is a member of the Minnesota Music Educators Association (MMEA) and the American Choir Directors Association and twice served as a section coach for the All-State choirs. He is active in the MMEA convention every year and often a presenter for clinics. His choirs performed at the association’s state convention in 1998, 1990 and 2002, the most prestigious performance opportunity in Minnesota.
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His selections for musical productions at Mankato West provide quite a stretch for student vocalists and performers. Performances have included the opera Aida, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, The Wizard of Oz, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Godspell. Urtel’s concert choir, women's choir, men's choir, West Connection (a jazz ensemble), small groups, and soloists consistently get excellent ratings in League music competitions. His students have sung in cathedrals and concert halls in New York, Washington D. C., England, Ireland, and Wales. Urtel has provided much leadership as district music chair and participates on several school-wide and professional committees. He is continually in demand as a guest clinician. He graduated from Stillwater High School. He earned his B.S. in music education at Winona State University and his masters in music degree at the Minnesota State University, Mankato. Virgil Vagle — Coach
“Virg” Vagle taught math at Paynesville High
School for Thirty-seven years and coached wrestling for Thirty-nine,
football for Thirty-two, and junior high baseball for Eighteen years. His
wrestlers, among them his 5 sons, won Seventeen section championships,
Thirty conference titles that included an 18-year unbeaten streak from 1975
to 1993, and won 4 state championships in 1987, 1990, 1991, and 2000. He
also coached 9 individual state champions and the 1991 wrestling team ranked
in the top Ten nationally. |
The Paynesville Bulldogs broke the state record for career victories in
1997, making him the coach with the most career wins in Minnesota. His
record stood until January 2004, the year he retired from coaching with 661
wins and a Class A wrestling team that competed with top-ranked teams in
Minnesota regardless of school size.
Vagle served several years as a representative to the Section 5A
administrative committee. His football teams won 4 conference championships
and he coached in the 1980 Minnesota All-State Football game. He holds many
conference and section Coach of the Year honors in both wrestling and
football and is a member of the Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame, the West
Central Tribune (Willmar newspaper) Sports Hall of Fame, and is a charter
inductee to the Paynesville Athletic Hall of Fame.
Two Minnesota sports books, published in 2003 and 2004, feature Coach Vagle:
Legends and Legacies - Celebrating a Century of Minnesota Coaches, and
Grappling Glory - Celebrating a Century of Minnesota Wrestling and Rassling.
Wresting USA magazine, sponsors of the National High School Wrestling Coach
of the Year Award for which Vagle was runner-up in 1997, selected him to
coach the 2005 USA Dream Team at the Keen Athletic Dream Team Classic in
Dallas, Texas.
Vagle is a graduate of Oak Grove Lutheran High School in Fargo, North
Dakota, and Augsburg College in Minneapolis where he earned his B.A. He also
holds an M.S. degree from St. Cloud State University.
Read about other inductee's into the hall of fame.
At Eagan High School during the past Sixteen years, Coach Joni Anker has built a nationally competitive, Ninety member speech team.
Bauer’s outstanding record at Anoka High School laid the foundation for greatness yet to come. He went on to become winner of Twelve national ski titles.
Willmar High School’s girls’ golf program began in 1972 under the leadership of Coach Elaine Engle. A member of that group of women who cleared the hurdles that lay in the path of implementing Title IX.
Grinaker returned to her alma mater as assistant coach of track and field and cross country. During her tenure there, University of Wisconsin teams topped the Big 10 Conference, boasted Twenty-one national champions, and won Ninety Big 10 individual and relay championships.
The late Mel Ivonen entered Ely High School as a freshman in 1939. On the swimming team in his sophomore year, he unofficially broke the state record in his 1st 100-yard breaststroke competition.
Tom Malchow took up swimming to fight childhood asthma. His swimming career at St. Thomas Academy of Mendota Heights includes 7 individual state titles, All-America honors in 8 individual events, and All-America consideration in 5 relay events.
Wanda Manther has advanced many state qualifiers to state speech and debate tournaments sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League.
Dick Stanford has been the man at the microphone for Minnesota State High School League boys’ hockey games since 1976, and at other events since the 1960s,
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Dean College participates in Intercollegiate athletics in Region XXI (New England) of the National Junior College Athletic Association and is a Division II member.
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