Rod Oksendahl

by **ndfan** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 7:29 pm

Long time Cavalier football coach Rod Oksendahl resigned as head football coach of the Tornadoes this past week. I was lucky enough to play three years for him and he was one heck of a football and baseball coach. He won Four football and three baseball state championships as head coach. He's right up their with most wins. Is one of the best high school coaches this state has had.

Tornadoes are gonna have a tough year this year :shock:

by **ndfan** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:34 pm

Sounds like Assistant coach Rod Mack will now head coach the Tornadoes and they are looking for an assistant coach.

PREP FOOTBALL: Calling it a career: Oksendahl steps down at Cavalier
Long-time football coach retiring
By Greg DeVillers
Herald Staff Writer
CAVALIER, N.D. - Even as Cavalier was extending its winning streak to 47 games - a run snapped in the North Dakota Class A high school football championship game last November - Rod Oksendahl was pondering retirement.

Oksendahl has decided to step down. Last week, the 55-year-old resigned as a teacher and football coach at Cavalier High School. Oksendahl has taught for 33 years, including the past 28 at Cavalier.

"I just feel that, to be a coach and do it the right way, you have to put a lot into it," Oksendahl said. "I don't know if I have that in me, that energy, any more. I kind of felt that way even last season. I don't know if I had that energy. It was getting harder and harder.

"It could be a little bit of burnout. I was talking to another coach a few years ago and I told him that I didn't enjoy the wins as much as I used to and the losses hurt like all heck. We'd reached the point where we were expected to win; when we did, it was no big deal. And that was wrong."

Oksendahl did a lot of winning. He had a 261-73 record in his 31 seasons as a head high school football coach, first at Wyndmere, N.D., and at Cavalier for the past 28 seasons.

His Cavalier teams won four state football titles - the first in 1987, then three straight from 2002-04. Those three teams were all unbeaten. That winning streak reached 47 before Cavalier dropped a 33-12 decision to Velva-Sawyer in the 2005 Class A state championship game.

Oksendahl, who is a member of the North Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, also won three state baseball titles (2002-04) and had more than 200 career wins in that sport.

He resigned as baseball coach at Cavalier after the 2005 season.

"Baseball was sort of a testing ground, to see how much I would miss coaching," Oksendahl said. "And I found that I didn't miss it. I guess that was a sign to me that I could do something else. But I don't know how much I'll miss the fall season. Football, by far, is my first love in sports. I will certainly miss it. I'll go watch, but it will be different not coaching."

For Oksendahl, his fondest memory as a football coach was the 1987 season.

"In the two previous seasons, we'd lost close games in the state final," Oksendahl said. "Those were tough losses. We had a lot of kids back from those teams in 1987. It was nice, to get over the hump and win after some frustrating losses.

"And our last state title was special, after the way we'd overcome some adversity to come from behind and beat Dickinson Trinity (21-14 in overtime) in the state semifinals."

Oksendahl said his house in Cavalier is for sale. His plan is to move to Fargo and pursue some business opportunities outside of education.

"Change is inevitable," Oksendahl said. "I just felt it was time for me to do something different."

by **point/center** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:52 pm

i don't believe Rod Mack will be the next HC

by **ndfan** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:59 pm

Do you have any insight on who will be the next head coach? You could be right, i've just heard that he could be the one who replaces him.

by **point/center** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:14 am

i was wrong. looks like Rod will be next coach. just needs school board approval

by **ndfan** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:14 am

They will be honoring Coach O on September 15th when they play MPCG. I have no clue what they have in store for honoring him. I would guess they will name the field after him since it hasn't got one. It should be a great night and hopefully the boys will bring their A game. Should be a great crowd for that one.

by **scruffy** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:51 pm

Cpach "O" picked a good time to quit. He must have seen the writing on the wall.....

by **ndfan** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:01 pm

Must of been some real smart writing on that wall wouldn't ya say.

by **Wombat** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:10 am

Last night, September 15th, at the Cavalier home football game against May-port CG they celebrated the career of Rod Oksendahl. It was a great ceremony. They had a parade of all the graduated football players from 1978 to present before the game started and they all got to go through and shake his hand. after that the mayor of cavalier spoke a little about Coach O. and pronounced September 15, 2006 as Rod Oksendahl day in Cavalier. Also another member of the community, Bert Olson, spoke about Coach O and presented him with a plaque that listed all his accomplishments (24 play off appearances in 28 years, 7 State championships, 4FB, 3BB, 7 time coach of the year, National coach of the year finalist, and many more amazing accomplishments.) He also announced that the Cavalier football field was going to have some big improvements made to it such as a new concessions stand with a sign on it remembering coach O and what he's done and for the grand finale it was announced that the football field itself was going to be renamed for Coach Rod Oksendahl.

Rod Oksendahl

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