Girls Basketball: This season will be the last for Atch
By Ryan S. Clark
rclark@forumcomm.com
Moorhead native Brad Atchison will have plenty of chances to return to home, but Saturday was his last trip as a high school girls basketball coach.
The 56-year-old Atchison said he plans to retire at the end of this season as Willmar’s head coach — ending one of the most prolific coaching careers in Minnesota high school basketball history.
“Those who know me have been trying to lure me into coaching for another couple years,” said Atchison, a Moorhead High School graduate whose Willmar team picked up a 59-57 win over the Spuds on Saturday afternoon. “I have been looking at retirement for a while and my daughter is a senior and I decided this would be a good year for me to go out.”
Atchison’s 588 career wins rank fourth all-time among girls basketball coaches in Minnesota. He’s made six state tournament appearances with three schools and won a state title in 1986 with Midwest Minnesota.
Atchison was hoping to keep his retirement quiet. But the Moorhead Athletic Association honored Atchison prior to Saturday’s game.
“It should be about the kids,” Atchison said. “I’d like to ride off quietly into the sunset.”
Atchison said he considered retiring earlier in his career, but his daughter Lindsey — also his starting point guard — talked him into staying for a few more years. He has coached his daughter’s senior teammates since they were third graders.
As an assistant football and track coach at Willmar, Atchison also got to coach his son Ben, now an architecture major at North Dakota State.
“My wife has asked plenty of times if I am doing the right thing,” said Atchison, who is a physical education teacher at Willmar Middle School. “My wife has just been real supportive and she should be the one to get credit for raising the kids and taking care of the bills.”
Atchison was a member of Moorhead’s 1971 state championship football team and he was the quarterback on the 1972 second-place team. He was also a member of the school’s state championship track team in 1973.
He lettered in four sports before going to Concordia, where he played football and basketball.
Atchison said the experiences he had with his coaches at Moorhead is why he went into the profession.
“For me, the old Moorhead gym is the mecca of basketball … it is where I really learned to appreciate and get a passion for the game,” he said. “I love going to the games and looking up in the stands and seeing some of my old coaches. We had really excellent coaches who knew the game and I think that’s really why I went into teaching and coaching.
“Coaching was never about numbers or conference titles, but I went into it to make a difference in a kid’s life. For me, the highlight has been to work with the kids.”
Half: M 35, W 24 W: Atchinson 8, Marcus 3, Nelson 1, Horning 10, Dunham 12, Fosso 2, Skalla 10, Magnuson 2, Swartz 9, Roenl 2. M: Wixo 17, Tonn 11, Engen 4, Stephenson 1, Rosenfeldt 6, Groth 8, Swanson 10.