MADISON — Darby Bjorgan knows what shoes he’s having to fill on the Lac qui Parle Valley baseball team.
The new head coach for the Eagles, Bjorgan replaced long-time head coach Bart Hill, who retired last season. Beginning as head coach back in 1996, Hill compiled a 378-211 record over his LQPV tenure.
Bjorgan was a player for Hill in 1998-99. And since coming back to LQPV nine years ago, he was an assistant under Hill. Now, Bjorgan hopes to keep some continuity in the Eagles’ dugout.
“You can’t replace Bart Hill,” Bjorgan said. “I’ve been around the guys and they know me, they know what I like. Bart and I have very similar coaching styles.”
Fielding a young roster this season, Bjorgan’s head-coaching career started off on a high note Friday with an 11-9 six-inning victory against Camden Conference foe Ortonville. Bjorgan knows it wasn’t the prettiest win, but it was one for his personal record book.
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“We’ll take the wins as they come, especially early in the season,” Bjorgan said. “There’s a lot that we still need to clean up.”
Helping with that continuity is having another assistant, Josh Benson, back in the fray.
“Coach Bjorgan has been with Bart for, like, I don’t know how many years now,” junior third baseman Kaden Molden said after Friday’s victory. “He’s been learning things from him and taking things that Bart did and integrating it and now trying to make it his own thing.”
“It’s not just one coach, it’s everyone that’s helping out here,” Bjorgan said. “And Bart’s included in that still.”
Along with his time under Hill’s coaching tree, Bjorgan was previously an assistant coach at Minnewaska under Brian Gruber and Chris Bennes.
“I took a lot of stuff I learned from them in Minnewaska back here and Bart’s always been good about bouncing ideas back and forth,” Bjorgan said.
On the coaching differences, Molden has seen more of an analytical approach from Bjorgan. No surprise considering he’s a high school math teacher.
“He tries to look at it from the perspective of numbers and how to get things working in the best way,” Molden said.
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Being at the school has helped immensely in the coaching transition.
“We have him at school and we joke around with him during practice and he can joke back,” Molden said. “But when it’s time to get serious, then we need to get serious.”
Bjorgan added, “The guys have been great. They have no problem coming up and visiting with me (at school). They know that when we’re here (at the field), we mean business. We’re going to get to work and we’re going to do things the right way.”
And if Bjorgan has a query, Hill has been there to help Bjorgan. In the season opener, Hill was in the press box. He was the public address announcer and was calling the game on the radio for KLQP in Madison.
Bjorgan joked, “I’m surprised he didn’t get on the PA and yell a few things at me and remind me of stuff.”
He continued, “The best thing is all the support I get. Bart’s one of my good friends and if I need advice or anything, I’ll give him a jingle or shoot him a text and he’s the first guy to be there to help me out.”
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