New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

MINNEAPOLIS - Don Boelter, a NUHS graduate, and Stan Wilfahrt of Holy Trinity/Cathedral Saturday were formally inducted into the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The presentations were made as part of the group's annual awards night event.

Boelter as presented his plaque by his son Tarry who coaches baseball at Slayton. Boelter coached the majority of his time at Sleepy Eye. Boelter and Son hold the combined father-son winning record in Minnesota high school baseball with 610 wins. Father Don had 309 wins in 34 seasons and son Tarry now has 301 in 23. The all-time leader remains Jim Senske of New Ulm High School, 707, who also was in attendance.

Stan's son Mike accepted the award along with his daughter Cheryl who also was in attendance. Stan's wife Betty was unable to attend.

Also honored with coaching awards were Al Cassidy of Butterfield-Odin, Jim Cosgrove, Washburn; Tim Kiemel Sr.,St. Paul Harding; Jim Muchlinski, Marshall Central Catholic and public; Gary Porter, Maple Lake, Jeff Reese, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva. Al Gisvold of Springfield and Howard Schmidt of St. James (formerly Morgan) were honored in 2008, Max West of Brownton in 2205, Dean Bowyer of Minnesota State in 2005 and Wayne Dietz who coached at Hector who was inducted in 2004 with Senske and Tink Larson of Waseca. Doug Schuete of Brownton received the assistant coach of the year award for his work at Brownton and McLeod West.

The biographical introductions for Boelter and Wilfahrt were:

BOELTER - "Don graduated from New Ulm High School in 1950 and Luther College in 1954. At Luther, just as he was in high school, Don was a four-year starter at shortstop in baseball and a three-year starter at forward in basketball. In his senior season of basketball he broke the Luther College single season scoring record. In 1974, Don was chosen as a charter member of the Luther College Athletic Hall of Fame. Don started his coaching career at Ceylon where he coached baseball and basketball for three years before moving to Sleepy Eye public. There he coached base ball for 34 years, winning 309 games and losing 189, a .620 winning percentage. His teams won nine conference titles and finished runner-up another six times. His teams finished lower than third place only once in the tomahawk Conference. Being in the same district as Jim Senske's New Ulm teams made it tough to advance, but Don;'s teams advanced to the state tournament three times, winning the state championship in 1981 and finishing as runner-up in 1976. His final team in 1989 also advanced to the state tournament. don was awarded the Jim Dimick Retired Coach Award by the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association in 1998.

WILFAHRT - Stan graduated from New Ulm Holy Trinity High School, now Cathedral, in 1943 and from St. John's University in 1949. His collegiate career was interrupted with service in the Navy in WWII. Stan was captain of both the baseball and basketball teams at St. John's, earning four letters in both sports. Stan started his coaching career at Gibbon before moving to New Ulm Cathedral in 1956. while at Gibbon his teams won 33 games and lost 17 while winning three conference titles. At Cathedral his teams won 246 games and lost 68. When Stan retired after the 1978 season, his record for 29 years as head coach was 279 wins and 85 losses for an outstanding winning percentage of .766. His teams won another 10 conference championships at Cathedral and appeared in the state tournament nine times, winning the private school state championship in 1964. Cathedral was also runners-up twice, in 1962 and in 1973 when they lost 2-0 to Cretin and Paul Molitor., That was the only loss of the year for Cathedral after 22 consecutive wins. Only twice did his teams lose more than four games in a year which was highligted by a phenomenal decade in the 1970's when his teams won 145 games against just 23 losses, a fantastic .863 percentage. Stan is also in the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame and the New Ulm Cathedral Hall of Fame. Stan passed away in 2005. (Editor's note: He was also a charter member in the New Ulm Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame and selected as one of the Minnesota Centennial athletes from Brown County.