Frank Haege - A Look Back - Part 1
Michael Vergane
Sunday February 25, 2001
Bio
Frank Haege enters his seventh AFL season. This season marks his second in the af2 as the Steamwheelers` Head Coach. In his first year, Coach Haege took his team through the season undefeated (19 – 0) and claimed the inaugural af2 Arenacup Championship.
Prior to the Steamwheeler’s, Coach Haege served as the Red Dogs Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, and in 1997-1998 he held the position as Defensive Coordinator. Prior to joining the New Jersey Red Dogs, in 1996 Haege was the defensive Coordinator Coach with the AFL`s Minnesota Fighting Pike, which led to the league`s fifth best overall defensive in the Pike`s first and only season. Prior to that, he was the Special Teams Coordinator and FB/LB Coach with the 1994 Milwaukee Mustangs.
Haege, 31 was also the Offensive Coordinator from 1996-1998 at Augsburg College, a Division III school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From 1992-1995, he also coached on the collegiate level with Bemidji State University (MN), where he directed the Secondary for this Division II program.
His playing career included one year (1987) as a wide receiver for Vermillion Community College (MN) and three years as a tight end for the University Wisconsin-Stout (1989-1991). His career highlights include a team high 37 reception for Vermillion, and three years as an all-academic selection at UW-Stout in receptions in 1991.
A resident of Davenport, IA, Haege earned his bachelor`s degree in Marketing Education from UW-Stout in 1992 before completing his master`s degree in Physical Education at Bemidji State University in 1995.
The Interview
Mike Vergane – Describe your preparation for this upcoming season compared to preparing for the 2000 start-up season.
Frank Haege – This year I have been able to concentrate more on personnel. Last year at this time, I had to worry about finding practice facilities, finding office space, purchasing computers and all of the administrative things that go with setting up an organization. That is all done now so this year I can concentrate more on just finding players. That would be the biggest difference between this year and last year.
Mike Vergane – Since your 2000 season started a week later than the rest of the league, you only had one practice scrimmage before the season started. When did you realize that your 2000 squad could be good?
Frank Haege – I didn’t have any clue in the pre-season how good we were. That Arkansas scrimmage ( a pre-season scrimmage against the Twisters in St. Louis) was an even up match-up and I didn’t know how good Arkansas would be. After we beat Tulsa in the season opener, I knew that (Coach) Jon Norris would do a good job down there so I thought we would be pretty tough. But I tried not to let anyone know that for as long as possible.
Mike Vergane – What teams did you think could be good last year?
Frank Haege – How I looked at it was by what teams hired what coaches. And then I predicted what teams would be good and what teams would be mediocre. And I was about 90% accurate just based on who they had as their coach. I just knew who would be a good Arena coach and who didn’t have any experience coming into the season.
Mike Vergane – You were one of the few coaches that spoke out about the af2 playoff expansion that took place during the middle of the season. And you caught some grief for it. Explain why you were so much against it.
Frank Haege – I got into a little trouble from the league over that – and that’s fine. But I still have the same stand. I just do not think it was right to force the players to play 3 games in a little over a week. That was not a good move in terms of player safety.
Hopefully something like that won’t happen again. But this year they may run into the same problem. Only 8 out of the 28 teams will make the playoffs. So about halfway through the year, a bunch of teams will be out of the playoff picture. And they are going to say “we can’t sell tickets”, “the players aren’t playing hard” and “nobody wants to come see our games”. The only answer is going to be to increase the number of teams in the playoffs.
In most pro sports about half of the teams make the playoffs. If you have a winning record, .500 or better, in pretty much any major league sport they give those teams a chance to compete for the championship. So we should have at least 12 teams scheduled before the season to make the playoffs. It only makes sense.
Mike Vergane – Were you surprised that you and the Steamwheelers were slighted during the year-end awards ceremony, the night before the Championship Game?
Frank Haege – It didn’t surprise me at all. The coaches are the ones that tend to vote on them, but a lot of the owners get involved and say ‘vote for him and not for that guy’. I knew that owners would get involved because the ballot comes across the fax machine in the team offices, so they do see them.
I thought it was obvious that Billy Dicken had the best QB rating in the league. Shon King had the most catches and scored the most points and was the most explosive player in the league. And he was playing on the best team. That should count for something. So I thought it was going to be a no-brainer that those two would be the MVP’s at their positions.
Mike Vergane – Have you ever been a part of a team with as much character as the 2000 Steamwheelers?
Frank Haege – It was one of those teams that you knew every week going into the game that they were going to play hard and were going to win the game. You just knew that they were that group of guys.
I’ve been with one other group of kids when I was coaching college ball at Augsburg College (MN) in 1997. We went 10-2, but you just knew every game that you were going to be right there at the end and get a win. Scott (Hvistendahl, current Steamwheeler WR/LB) was a junior for us that year, and an All-American. That was a team that had the same aura as us last year.
Michael Vergane was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2002.
