Mabel-Canton VB’s Lonnie Morken on reaching 800+ wins as head coach

Morken is the fourth volleyball coach in Minnesota high school history to surpass the 800-win mark.

(ABC 6 News) — Mabel-Canton Volleyball Head Coach Lonnie Morken recently achieved 800 career wins in his tenure with the Cougars.

The mark came during the Floodwater Polar Bears Classic on September 2 as the Cougars won four out of five games that day. In speaking with Coach Morken, he says it is humbling.

“I’ve been fantastically blessed to have some hard-working kids — hard-working parents — that just want to put in time in the weight room and doing speed and agility,” Morken added. “And obviously time in the gym to get to the level that they play at almost every single year.”

With the skill level Coach Morken’s team plays at, 900 wins is certainly a possibility. Furthermore, Morken has no plans to retire soon; he’ll keep going until he’s had enough.

“I just really don’t think that’s in the near future at all,” Morken emphasized. “I just love working with the kids, I’m still fairly healthy. I’m 52, I know I’ve been doing it for 30 years which I don’t feel like really old… It’s just the challenge every single year of a small school like Mabel-Canton… It’s a little bit of a competitive challenge for me to try and keep our program at the level that it’s at. We’re going to keep plugging away eight, ten, twelve, fifteen years, we’ll see.”

After Tuesday’s victory over Kingsland, Coach Morken now stands at 803 total wins. Among others in the 800 club is current Stewartville head coach John Dzubay with over 1,000 victories.