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CROSBY After 38 years, a state title and countless family members added to the family tree, Rich Aulie has retired as the head boys golf coach of Crosby-Ironton/Aitkin.
The 1971 C-I graduate said hed love to come back for another year, but feels hes leaving the program in a fantastic situation and in good hands.
ADVERTISEMENT Im not really ready to retire, but this was the time, Aulie said.
I have probably the deepest roster that Ive ever had, which will be coming back next year.
Im not leaving the cupboards bare.
Theyll have 12 kids who could play pretty well next year.
I think Cleys (Twigg, Crosby-Ironton activities director) plan was to promote my assistant coach, Goeff Zastrow, and hes been with me for three years.
Hell take over the program and the kids are all used to him and like him.
Then we picked up another assistant this year, who has done a really good job.
They have two good coaches and a really good group of kids who are coming back.
It would be nice to spend another year with them, but its probably the right time to let go.
Former Staples-Motley head boys golf coach, Rollie Penfield, first dealt with Aulie as a player.
Aulie was a dominant force in the former Mid-State Conference.
When Aulie took over for John Pappas in 1989, the two reconnected and formed a strong bond.
He was in high school when I first met him and he was really one of the better golfers in our area, Penfield said.
He qualified for state as a senior along with another kid from Staples, so we got to go to state together and I got to know him pretty well.
When John retired, Rich took over and has just done a great job.
He was really involved with the golf advisor committee, which I think is pretty important and he spent a lot of time teaching kids how to be good golfers.
Rich was always teaching kids what to do and how to do it the right way.
Aulie played for Pappas on the varsity his seventh-grade season in 1966.
His first season as a head coach was his first time being a coach other than sixth-grade basketball.
He went into it with a lofty goal sheet.
I worked out the goals for the team and the first one was to win a state championship, Aulie said.
The second one was a state individual champion.
Then it was conference champions, section champions and I even threw in state academic champions because we always keep track of that every year.
Its nice to have an academic title because the kids miss so much school.
Its kind of nice to say we had the all-section academic team.
ADVERTISEMENT Anyway, I had a lot of those goals.
They had never won an invitational tournament anywhere before, so that was another one.
I looked back on that list when I went into the C-I Hall of Fame a few years ago and the only ones we didnt get were the academic state championship and two years ago we missed by two hundredths of a percentage point.
The other one that we never got was the individual state champion, but Mike Koop did finish second in 1995.
I was close to getting all that done.
Aulie chuckled after looking at everything his program accomplished.
He was proud of the list, but after 38 years he understood coaching was all about relationships and family.
He recalled giving Seth Knudson his first golf lesson when Knudson was in fifth grade.
Knudson is the head boys coach at Bemidji High School.
You foster those relationships when youre working with kids in high school and then you have kids come back and reach out after theyve graduated and stay in touch.
It's like an extended family, Aulie said.
When youve coached for 38 years, its a pretty big family.
Two big career highlights were coaching both of his sons, Marcus and Rick.
Marcus was part of the 1996 state championship team.
That was incredible, Aulie said.
For 11 straight years I had one of them on my team.
That was the best because I went through a divorce and so I had split custody with the kids.
Along with my custody time, I knew I had time with the boys at practice and at meets.
That meant a lot to me, but I refer to all of my former golfers as my boys.
One of those boys was Brandon Turk, who was on Aulies first team in 1989.
Aulie later coached all three of Turks boys.
I played for him my senior year and he was the greatest golf coach you could probably have, Turk said.
He could quietly and calmly fix anything you had wrong with you.
He was never overbearing.
He never overcoached.
He had the perfect combination of genius coaching and the ability to not only bring out the best in his players, but the ability to stay calm in all of the moments.
Thats him in a nutshell.
ADVERTISEMENT Turk will argue if it wasnt for COVID-19, Aulie would have another state title on his resume.
That being the senior season of his twin sons, Colten and Cayden Turk.
That was the first year Crosby-Ironton paired with Aitkin and the roster was stacked.
He brought out the best in us, Colton Turk said.
Even my senior year when we didnt know if we were going to have a season or not, he always found ways for us to get out practicing.
As for the 1996 season, Aulie would argue the team the year before was deeper, but he cant argue with results.
It wasnt really a dominant year, Aulie said.To tell you the truth, the team I had the year before was a much better team and we missed winning by four strokes.
Then the team that won it, it seemed like one of my top four kids had to miss a meet from time to time.
We never really gelled until the very end.
We really only had four scores we could count on so there was a lot more pressure on them.
Aulie was good at hiding any pressure he felt.
He talked a lot about his longevity and how not many coaches lasted as long as he did.
Even at C-I, he rattled off Dave Galovich and Roger Twigg, fellow hall of fame coaches.
But the list stopped there.
I dont know how many coaches are going to be able to put in 38 years in any sport anymore, Aulie said.
Its just so hard.
The players have made it like an extended family.
I just always enjoyed it.
Maybe its a good time to get out while youre still enjoying it.
My career goes back in Crosby to 1966 when I first played varsity golf.
I went away to college and came back to Crosby and taught for many years.
John Davies asked me if I wanted to take over the boys golf program, so it was time to get down to work.
I didnt know it was going to be 38 years later, but it was a really nice run.