Anoka Football: Restoring the A
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The Anoka Tornadoes’ football program had fallen on hard times. They had not won more than one game in a season since 2016. In an attempt to turn around the proud program, they turned to a coach familiar with turning around programs. Bo Wasurick was brought in to restore pride in the A.
“Something about Anoka felt right to me,” Wasurick said. “We are talking about a historic program in the state. When I played at the University of Minnesota, Anoka won the state championship. I wanted to be part of something historic, but at the same time, I like a difficult challenge. I am not the person you are going to call to replace someone who is coming off three state championships. Over my career, it has been coming into places that have not had much success and getting the kids to believe anything is possible.”
The new coach would bring in all new coaches and schemes, but . . .
“The biggest hang-up is getting kids to believe in themselves,” Wasurick said. “When kids have two or three seasons where they are down, they start to believe they are not good enough.”
After coming to Anoka after turning the Jordan program around, Wasurick has the kids and the community believing in just his third year. The kids and the community didn’t know that they didn’t have a choice.
“I am stubborn,” Wasurick admitted. “I grew up my whole life not wanting to be a salesman. My dad was a salesman. I didn’t want to be a salesman. I couldn’t stand selling – it is terrible. I came to find out – as a coach – I have been a salesman my whole life. That is all I do. I come into a place, and I sell to the community that we are good enough. This place can be successful. Just like a good salesman, I am not going to take no for an answer. I believe in what I think will work for the football team and the athletic department.”
Helping the entire athletic program is not just lip-service with Wasurick. Just look at – likely – his best-returning football player’s example.
“Our offensive tackle who has five DI offers – Grant Chapman Grant Chapman 6'5" | 280 lbs | OL Anoka | 2023 State MN – wrestled this year for the first time because it would help the team,” Wasurick explained. Being a team guy, a school guy, he said if he could help Anoka in wrestling, he was going to do it. That is a huge factor. Maple Grove – two of their starters from their state runner-up team in football, were key players in their runner-up in hockey. Promoting that it is about the community and this school is one of the similarities between Anoka and my time in Jordan.”
On the field, the team took on a whole new identity. They were going from a run-first offense to – well – something else.
“Like all our philosophies, our offense is a collection of where we’ve been. I was lucky enough to play at the University of Minnesota in the Air (Jim) Wacker days. We were the top passing team in the Big Ten. A lot of the background came from them. When I went down to Texas, I worked for a guy named Cody Vanderford at Flower Mound, who was one of the top guys in the emergence of the no-huddle offense in the early 90s in Texas. I got a chance to work for him and got to call plays. When I moved to Rockwall Heath High School, I had to install the offense. I had to teach the coaching staff and the players. When you do that, you find out what works and doesn’t work, what is easy to understand, and what is confusing.”
The offense and his teaching of the offense continued to evolve at each coaching stop. When he got to Jordan, then Anoka, installing the offense became much easier. Finding players to run the offense – that was a different story.
“It was difficult the first year (in Anoka),” Wasurick admitted. “The year before I got here, they had a sophomore quarterback. I was excited to work with him, but he decided to transfer. That left us with a hole at quarterback. We had to start a sophomore – it was next man up. He did nothing but hand the ball off and run a little bit of option as a freshman. We not only had to get him playing at the varsity speed as a sophomore but also try to do all these things he had never done before.”
“It was a major transition. In general, most of the best kids would go to defense first. We flipped it. We started chucking the ball around.”
The program continued to struggle, but there were signs.
“(Quarterback) Jacob Deutschman Jacob Deutschman 6'0" | 195 lbs | QB Anoka | 2022 State MN – who had a great season this year – had some growing pains,” the former Minnesota Gophers’ tight end explained. “We had some injuries that year. Then we went into the COVID year, and that was a monster in itself. We had a strong group of seniors this year. Talent-wise, they were good but commitment-wise, they were outstanding. They put in the work and believed in what we were doing.”
As the Tornado’s program and offense evolved, believing in the program was critical. Then COVID hit.
“For a receiver to catch fifty balls in a season is not crazy – that is normal. For a quarterback to throw for 300 yards per game is pretty much the standard in this offense. Getting the kids to understand that was hard. You put into it the COVID year – that was such a unique scenario for everyone. As a new coach going into the second year with the program, we don’t have time to meet with the kids or get together to get to know each other and have team-building activities in the summer. It was a difficult year to build a program.”
The COVID year was tough but led to better things.
“The kids started believing. A lot of our offense is believing the only thing that stops us is us. I have seen it at every one of my stops that when the lightbulb goes on when they see that nobody can stop us except for us. During the COVID year, I started to see that lightbulb go on. If we execute our offense, we are good.”
Although the wins did not come easily early, the new coach could see the players were not only buying into the offense; they were buying into the new philosophies.
“At the end of the first year, I give a survey to the kids about everything in the program,” Wasurick explained. “We got some honest feedback and some positive feedback from the kids who were leaving. They were excited about the future for the kids who were going to be here. I knew we were heading in the right direction.”
Not everyone bought into the changes.
“A strong minority of the community was not on board with the changes we wanted to make,” the former Wisconsin prep tight end said. “It was the definition of insanity – if you keep doing the same thing and expect different results.”
Fortunately, Wasurick had support in the right areas.
“I was willing to take the challenge on, and luckily, I had an administration that was willing to support what I was doing. One of the reasons it was easy to win people over was that we had a lot of support from the parents. The parents were all in. Now we have unbelievable support from our parents and our booster club.”
The coaching staff, the new coach put together, helped calm the detractors.
“We brought back Coach (Jeff) Buerkle, who was the former head coach. There were a lot of people who said, ’are you sure that is a good idea.’ Number one, he loves Anoka, so why wouldn’t he be a good hire? The only way he wouldn’t be a good hire is if I let my ego get in the way of doing what is best for our program and our kids. He was a perfect fit. Our defensive coordinator was at Andover for eighteen years – Adam Dehnicke. He has been a tremendous addition.”
“Defensively, I want to make sure the coaches have the freedom to run their defense. Coach Dehnicke does a great job. I want them to be confident in what they are coaching and teaching the kids. All defenses work, you just have to know the nuances of it, and you have to be able to sell it to the kids like it is the cure for cancer.”
“Greg Mualling is a former head coach in Wisconsin and Minnesota who is our offensive line coach,” the Tornado’s head coach continued. “He rounded stuff out where we have a lot of guys who are pushing the same message to the kids. My offensive coordinator – Trey Delamarter – has been with me the longest. He was a young kid I met in Jordan. He was on the staff when I took over and was a kid who was a sponge. He wanted to learn everything. When I left, he came here and is the guy who does a lot of the administrative stuff and ties the staff together.”
Learning how to believe was more important than learning a new offense or a new coaching staff. Wasurick leaned on some sales lessons he learned from his father all those years ago.
“A lot of it was getting the kids to believe they have value and the place they are at is special. With me, it comes down to a marketing standpoint. We have a brand that is marketable and is identifiable. Trying to change the brand and the image was where it started. Then, on the athletic end, I was an athletic director in Texas, and I still think like an athletic director. I value multi-sport athletes – I push it, I encourage it. Whatever I can do for ’the A.’ Whenever I can do something for ’the A’ – for Anoka – I am going to do it.”
Years of losing made changing the A a challenge.
“We had to overcome the thought that they were cursed – the thought that something was going to go wrong. Something is going to happen – it always happens,” Wasurick told prepredzonemn.com. “Getting them past that – even this year. Even in our (season-ending) loss to (eventual 6A champion) Lakeville South, they grew a lot because they realized we are a lot closer – playing that team – than they thought they were going into it. That will feed into next year.”
Like most programs, next year has already started. Wasurick is involved in the weekly quarterback school they run, the weekly youth receiver school they run, and multiple daily weight room sessions.
“We are constantly trying to find ways to impact the kids. That is what I was used to. In Texas, we got to see our kids every day and keep that connection and influence with the kids. Those connections are huge. Here, I had to get more creative. I had to change the mindset of the kids that I am not just here to be your coach for three months. I am here year-round. I am here for you to help however I can. This is a full-time job to me.”
A full-time job includes getting involved in all aspects of the program.
“Something that was missing here – I was told – was the connection with the youth program. I believe strongly in a connected K-12 program where you know that you are building toward the same thing. Our core beliefs – the EAT model – Effort, Attitude, Trust – is something we push on all levels. From our youth association to our Touchdown Club, to our high school program, our strength training program, it is all tied together, so there is no grey area. We make sure these are expectations. There is no example for the younger kids with a place that has not had success recently. We talked a lot in the last year and a half about setting a standard for how we do things. The weight room is not optional. You have to be in here, or you are not going to play. It is not a punishment. There are guys that are going to be in here getting bigger, faster, stronger, and if you are not one of them, those people are going to pass you by. Focusing on setting the standard and pointing out guys that are setting the standard – we’ve got shirts that we give to them – setting the A Standard – is what we call it. Once we get that established, it builds upon itself.”
Something else – if done correctly – that builds upon itself is the youth program.
“The base of everything in our youth program is fun,” the former Hubman coach explained. “I love nothing more than when I go to the banquet at the end of the year, and like this year, we had six guys get up and talk. All of them talked about how fun it was. How much fun practice is; how fun the games are. To me, that is huge. We stress that with all levels. If you are a third-grade kid and you are out there not having fun, we will not retain you as a player. Football is work, so if you can’t find a way to put some fun in it, kids will not stay around. What is fun to a third-grader is playing and maybe getting to touch the ball once or twice and win or lose; who cares once they hit Dairy Queen. Once you start getting older, kids start to care about winning more, and when you get to middle school, they start to want to win the game and help the team.”
On the varsity team, the team will have some holes to fill but have some great guys to build around.
“Chapman and Eli Paulson were voted captains for next year,” Wasurick said. “Our offensive line is going to be the strongest it has been since I have been here. Eli is a special receiver. We have some young kids who I am excited about. Defensively, we have to answer some questions. Ian Wittek was a starting linebacker for us last year. He is going to be a special player. We have six guys who will rotate on the defensive line. Sawyer Chell is one of our top players on the defense at corner. He has big-time college ability.”
Those returning players helped the program to its best season since 2011, but no one in the program is satisfied.
“It is not about one year,” Wasurick said. “It is about how do we build this thing, so we are ready to roll for the next seven or eight years. It has to start from the ground up. When we look at our young kids in our program, I am really excited about what we have for the next six or seven years. We can’t go backward.”
The A had been running in place and going backward for years. Now, the pride has been restored in the A.