The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

Naet Hoaglund's life journey seems to have come full circle.

It began in Hartley where he grew up and returned home to teach and live. Now, he's a head coach at his alma mater.

"I was fortunate enough to transition back to the place that had a large part in who I am today and I'm so thankful that opportunity opened up because it's great to be back in town with family," said Hoaglund, whose wife Morgan is an English/Language Arts teacher at H-M-S Middle School.

Hoaglund is a 2007 graduate of H-M-S. He went on to attend the University of Northern Iowa and earned a degree in physical education, health, coaching and talented and gifted.

He taught for seven years at Spirit Lake, where he coached football and basketball before getting his first opportunity as a head coach. Hoaglund led the girls' basketball team for three years during which the Indians had an overall record of 32-33.

A year ago, Hoaglund returned to H-M-S as K-12 TAG and high school STEM teacher, and was the assistant girls' basketball coach. When Mark Petersen resigned as head boys' coach after last season, Hoaglund was interested in the position.

"This opportunity opened up and looking at the crew of kids that we had, just being in the school and the support of the parents, I thought that would be really cool to do," he said. "So I got the position and I'm so thankful that I did."

Past coaching experience has shaped his philosophy. There were only 12 girls on his first team at Spirit Lake, which taught him that getting youth involved in the sport was a must.

"If you don't have the investment in the youth program, you end up with only 10 to 12 girls who are out," Hoaglund remarked. "So putting on camps, the youth tournaments which we brought back last year, and those types of things to be able to build the program up, to make kids excited and want to be out for basketball."

He also learned the "day-to-day" aspects of being a coach, from organizing practices and communicating with parents, to relating with high school athletes and making sure they have the best experience possible.

Hoaglund also credits former coaches with being important influences. One was his high school football coach.

"One of our projects in college was to write a paper about an influential coach in your life and I wrote about Coach [Steve] Waechter – his character, those types of things he tries to instill in you. Being around him in high school kind of shaped that, being able to take his classes and being coached by him is a huge influence."

Another major influence was Spirit Lake's head football coach, Josh Bolluyt.

"His 'Built for Others' philosophy really taught me that we are only at our best when we are committed to see and bring out the best in others," Hoaglund noted. "He really opened me up to seeing things from more of a process and journey based perspective rather than outcome, accomplishment or reward-based perspective."

Hoaglund will measure success at H-M-S more by who his players are than how many games they win.

"Success, No. 1 for me, is who they are as people off the court," he said. "The biggest key to success is if we have a group of kids who are upstanding citizens, active in the community, they're respectful in their classrooms, willing to volunteer and those kind of things. That's my vision of success.

"And then that translates directly onto the basketball court: hardworking, respectful and committed – those things. I think if you lay the foundation, we'll be successful and that's what success looks like."