UW-L down to four finalists for head football coach

Caledonia coach and
UW-L grad among finalists

The field is down to four, in the search for a new football coach at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

The Eagles are looking for a coach to succeed Joel Dettwiler, who resigned in the fall after five seasons at La Crosse.

One of those finalist, who will all be brought in for interviews next week, is Caledonia High School football coach Brent Schroeder.

Coming off an undefeated season, Schroeder has led teams to MSHSL state titles in four of the past six years he’s been the head coach in Caledonia. His record is 76-3. Before that, he was the defensive coordinator for the Warriors from 2001-09.

Also a finalist is UW-L graduate Mike Schmidt, who has been on the coaching staff at UW-Platteville since April. Before that, he was at Dubuque, where he was named the DIII assistant coach of the year. Schimdt graduated from UW-L in 2008 as a four-year letterwinner in football and baseball – captain of both in 2007-08.

University of Minnesota assistant coach Jim Zebrowski and Travis Rundle from Illinois-Wesleyan round out the top four.

Zebrowski has been with the Gophers since 2011, serving as the quarterbacks coach and later being elevated to passing-game coordinator. He was also receivers coach for UW-Whitewater from 2007-09. The Warhawks won National Titles twice and lost the other during that span, going 42-3.

Rundle wore many hats at Illinois-Wesleyan – defensive coordinator, head strength and conditioning coach and linebackers coach – since 2011. Before that, he was a graduate assistant at Penn State (2004-06), coaching the defensive line.