After a 38-year football coaching career, including the last 24 as co-head coach at Westbrook-Walnut Grove, Leo Theisen announced his retirement recently. His retirement from coaching was approved by the WWG school board Tuesday night.
Theisen, an Upsala native, has spent much of his teaching and coaching career in Walnut Grove and WWG. He was head coach at Walnut Grove in the program’s final years as a solo program.
For the past 24 seasons, Theisen has served as co-head coach with Carter Ross, acting essentially as the team’s defensive coordinator while Ross was the offensive coordinator. The duo guided the Chargers to the Class Nine-Man state tournament in 1998 and a Class Nine-Man state championship in 2000.
Theisen will remain activities director at WWG. He also has previously served as head girls basketball coach.
Ross will remain as co-head coach of the Charger football program, with Johnny Benson joining Ross as co-coach. Benson is a former head coach at Kimball, and is the grandson of the late John Gagliardi, the longtime coaching legend at St. John’s University.
