“Receiving the Coach of the Year Award is quite an honor,” said Gronner.  “It’s more so a team honor, though.  If I’m getting honored it means we have a really good team, and to have a good team you have to have good players, and I have had that.  For Dave to get the assistant award is very well deserved as well.  He’s very valuable to me having ten-plus years head coaching experience and also being my defensive coordinator in football.  He received the Butch Nash award earlier this year, a prestigious award that goes to an assistant coach in football.”

The Cardinals won their last fifteen games of the year, including a 67-58 win over Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa in the Class A State quarterfinals on March 12 at Maturi Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota.  His team was scheduled to face the Henning Hornets in the semifinals at Williams Arena, however, the rest of the tournament was canceled due to the Coronavirus. 

“Our season had very high hopes only losing two games last year and bringing all five starters back,” added Gronner.  “We bulked up our schedule as well with all of the top AA and AAA teams in our area.  We ended up losing two games, to defending state champs Minneota in the Breakdown Tip-Off Classic to start the year by two points, as well as to a AAA state tourney team from Hermantown.  We defeated six teams that were ranked in the top 10 of Class A or AA at the time we defeated them.  That led us to have the #1 QRF final ranking.  We finally defeated 9 time Section 7 champions Mountain Iron-Buhl in the section title game and were very hungry to get another shot at Minneota in the state championship game, but unfortunately our season ended right before the Henning game at 29-2.  We were a state caliber team because of our experience, all starters back, and having two all-state Division II players on our team.  Cousins Taya Hakamaki and Shaily Hakamaki are both going to play for UMD next year.”

Gronner graduated from Underwood High School in 1993 and has spent eight years as head coach of the girls’ basketball team, leading the Cardinals to a record of 183-46.  Prior to that he was an assistant coach with the boys’ basketball team for 14 years.  He was named Section Coach of the Year in 2017, 2019 and 2020. 

Jeff has also coached football for 22 seasons at Cromwell, 16 of them as head coach.  His overall football coaching record is 138-42.  In their 8 state tournament appearances, the Cardinals have one title (2010), one runner-up finish (2005) and lost in the semifinal round three times (2006, 2016, 2018).  He has been Section Coach of the Year 8 times and state 9-Man Coach of the Year in 2010.  In his 6 years as defensive coordinator the Cardinals won five more section titles with a runner-up finish in 2000 and a state title in 1998.

“The closure part to the season is tough,” acknowledged Coach Gronner.  “A state championship was our goal all season, not just to get to state, but to win state.  To be so close but not get that opportunity to finish it was tough.  Then, not to really see the team and have an awards banquet has been tough as well.  I did a virtual awards banquet for the girls, but obviously it is not the same.”