Veteran coach Dave Aus said so-long to Blaine High School where he taught at the school and directed the hockey team for 14 seasons. He said hello to Brainerd High School where he will take the coaching reigns of the Warriors this upcoming season. The move comes after Aus completed his recent coaching contract and teaching assignment at Blaine.
Aus takes over the Brainerd program with a career 238-144-13 record. Former Brainerd coach Jim Archibald’s contract was not renewed for the upcoming season that opened the opportunity for the former Blaine skipper to move.
Aus steps into a program at Brainerd that has been gradually improving over the years. Of late, the Warriors have advanced to the Section 8AA finals in the 2012 and 2013 seasons and fell in the semi-finals this past year to Moorhead by a score of 2-1. The Warrirors compiled a record of 113-46-2 over the past six seasons with Archibald at the helm and have been competitive in the section mix as well as the Central Lakes Conference.
High level players from Josh Archibald (2011 grad and Jim’s son), Matt Pohlkamp (2012), and Mitch McClain (2012) have all been key impact players to come from the program in recent years. Archibald recently starred at the University of Nebraska-Omaha before signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins this spring upon completion of his junior season. Pohlkamp completed his freshman season at Bowling Green University and McLain completed two seasons with the Langley Rivermen in the BCHL and is committed to attend Bowling Green University next season.
Aus gives the Warriors plenty of State Tournament experience from his coaching resume. He led the Bengals to six straight State Tournament appearances from 2006-2011 earning third place finishes in 2006 and 2009. He will inherit a team that graduates 12 seniors this year. The Warriors finished atop the Central Lake Conference standings with a 10-1-1 record this past year, one game ahead of Alexandria.
Pete Waggoner has covered hockey since 1989 and his work includes play-by-play and studio hosting. Currently, he is the play-by-play voice of high school hockey on Sports Radio 105 The Ticket and hosts a weekly hockey talk show called "On the Ice with Chad Graff every Saturday morning at 9am. His past work appeared on KFAN FM 100.3, 1500 ESPN, MyFoxHockey.com, Fox Sports North Prep Zone, MNHockeyCenter.com, and prep45.com.Prior to that, Waggoner developed MyFoxHockey.com along with Fox9 Twin Cities and was one of the original architects of the MNHockeyhub.com from concept to delivery. He has covered the Minnesota Wild and NHL hockey for the MNHockeyNews.com since 2005 and hosts the Minnnesota Hockey Magazine Radio show that can be heard on this site.
