FOLEY -- After tallying over 700 wins in 30-plus years of coaching, Foley's Lyle Freudenberg has been inducted into the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches' Association Hall of Fame.

"It was a very humbling experience -- I felt very fortunate," Freudenberg says. "It was just a great honor because it encompasses lots of great athletes and coaches, so when you get inducted it's one of those things you dream about doing."

"It's an honor that belongs to a lot of people -- not just myself, because a lot of people along the way influenced me and the community itself has been a huge support for our program."

Freudenberg was honored in a ceremony last Saturday in Benson along with fellow inductees Paul Cyr, Al Olson, Brad Pike, Eric Sanders, Paul Vaith, Joel Viss, and the late Tom Keating -- who preceded Freudenberg as head coach at Foley.

"He was a very energetic man, he was just always very positive -- that's what I remember about Tom the most," Freudenberg says. "The sport of wrestling has encompassed our school district and our community for a long time and Tom was a big influence on that."

Freudenberg coached Foley from 1982 to 2014, winning three state titles with a career record of 727-157-6. His 727 career wins ranks fourth all time in state history.

"When you coach for 32 years, there's just a ton of memories," Freudenberg says. "Some things have changed -- the way you coach has changed, but we just had a lot of good wrestlers come through our program."

"To have the dads and the sons come through the program at different times and coaching both of them, that's just a great deal and a lot of fun."

In his last two years, Freudenberg split head coaching duties before giving way to current head coach Scott Gorecki, who wrestled for Freudenberg on the 1993 state championship team.

 

Photo: Jill Schmidt
Photo: Jill Schmidt
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