Larson comes full circle after being named new LHS baseball coach

Louisburg High School has a new head baseball coach as Kade Larson was named as the successor to former head coach Joel McGhee, who resigned early in the summer.

Kade Larson made a big impact on
the Louisburg High School baseball program in his four years of playing for the
Wildcats from 2010-2013.

Larson still holds numerous team
records and was an All-Frontier League player during that span. His baseball
life came full circle recently as he was named as the LHS head baseball coach and
the hire was approved by the USD 416 Board of Education in June.

Now, one of the best players in
Louisburg baseball history, will be leading the Wildcat program from a
different perspective.

“I’m very excited to get started and I
look forward to developing the new and returning players to their best
potential,” Larson said. “This is very special to me to be able to return and
be the head coach for this program.”

Larson was the assistant coach for the Wildcats
last season and will take over from former coach Joel McGhee, who resigned toward
the end of last school year. McGhee spent the last four years as the Louisburg
head coach.

“Kade will do a great job and he’ll have
great support from his home town community,” McGhee said. “We had had
significant transition over the four years, having had six assistants. We were
very competitive in a lot of games, but tended to have a bad inning that would
come back to bite us. This past season could have been a good one,
but we had several things that came up that knocked down our team strength
throughout the season.”

Another former Wildcat will join Larson on
the bench this upcoming season as former head coach Jeff Lohse will return as
the team’s assistant coach. Lohse spent 17 years as the Louisburg head coach
and helped lead two teams to the state tournament during that span.

Larson played under Lohse during his
entire high school career and he is excited to have his former coach on the
bench with him.

“I’m very happy to be the new head baseball
coach,” Larson said, “The experience I gained last year will be very important
to the success we hope to find this year. Coach Lohse will be very helpful. Any
time you can get that much experience on the bench, it helps tremendously.”

Lohse remembers Larson during his playing
days and he could tell, even then, that Larson would have the opportunity to become
a head coach one day.

“Kade was a competitor and very
knowledgeable of the game even back when he was in high school,” Lohse said. “He
still holds many records for us and is one of the best to ever put on the
jersey. I know his goal was to be a head baseball coach one day, but I
don’t think he ever thought it would happen so quickly for him. 

“Kade has a passion for coaching
and is willing to put in the work and time to help this program be
successful. We are happy to have him back in the purple and white.”

Larson currently holds three Louisburg
baseball records, including career hits (109), career doubles (30) and doubles
in a season (13). He is also in the top three of four other categories as he
put together one of the best offensive careers in Louisburg history.

He will now try to translate that success
to his current players as he begins the newest chapter of his baseball career.

“I feel as though we have a lot of
returning talent this year and we hope to make big strides forward,” Larson
said.