February 14, 2012
Duluth
News Tribune
Denfeld turns to familiar face for football
coach
By Rick Weegman
For the first time in 30 years, Frank Huie wasn’t
on a football sideline last fall.
After spending 23 years as an assistant and five
years as head coach at Duluth Denfeld, Huie yearned to return to
the sport.
“I missed it a ton,” he said Monday.
“I saw three high school football games in two years …
and it was extremely difficult to sit and watch. I wouldn’t
call it terrible, but it wasn’t a pleasurable experience either.
It drudged up feelings of wanting to be a part of it.”
As of Monday, he’s back in the game. Huie
was named head football coach at Denfeld again, just two years after
being bypassed during the school district’s process of consolidating
from three to two high schools.
Huie expressed bitterness when Chris Vold and
Joe Hietala were selected instead of him — with former Central
coach Vold taking the Denfeld job and Hietala staying at East —
saying he had been treated poorly by district administrators. But
Vold stepped down after last season, and Huie, who had volunteered
his time at the junior level in 2010, decided to go through the
hiring process again.
“Chris resigning fairly quickly after just
two years, there was a feeling in my mind that it was a job I still
wanted to have,” said Huie, 50, a physical education instructor
at Morgan Park Middle School. “There was still a quest to
be part of the community and lead (the team) back to where I think
it should be. That was the biggest yearning for me.”
The Hunters were 2-7 last season.
Huie, whose son, Cale, is a freshman at Denfeld,
said he didn’t attend any of the Hunters’ games while
he was away.
“I thought I could do a better service to
the program by doing that than anything else,” he said.
Between five and 10 candidates interviewed in
front of a seven-person committee, Denfeld activities director Tom
Pearson said. The school had full authorization to make the hire
this time, unlike in 2010 when the district handled all re-applications.
“It’s a completely different situation,”
Pearson said. “The first time we had three teachers who applied
for two jobs. This time we had multiple applicants, some internal,
some external. The (consolidation) was unique as far as the district
was concerned.”
Pearson says the committee will forward its recommendation
to the School Board for approval.
“I know Frank had some hard feelings as
any coach would who wanted the position and didn’t get the
position,” Pearson said. “So I give Frank a lot of credit
for throwing his hat back in the ring. He could have just as well
said, ‘I’m not going through that again.’ ”
Huie will be paid approximately $4,900.
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