The Stilllwater High School Ponies of Minnesota haven’t lost a dual meet in over a decade, and their head coach has now broken a record that hits close to home.
Coach Brian Luke and his Stillwater squad broke a state record last week for most consecutive dual meet wins – a record previously held by Luke’s father Elmer.
A win over East Ridge was the 125th consective victory for Brian Luke, breaking the record his father set while coaching Hopkins through the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
Elmer Luke is now a volunteer assistant with Brian’s Stillwater team even at the age of 89. The local Pioneer Press newspaper printed a great profile of the Luke’s father-son dynamic earlier this month, after Brian Luke tied the record on a win over local private school Cretin-Derham Hall.
The Pioneer Press piece notes that the girls on Brian’s Stillwater squad still affectionately refer to Elmer as “grandpa.”
Brian Luke’s Stillwater teams haven’t lost a dual meet since 2003. He’s been coaching at the school since 1975, and coached directly against his dad for about two decades. Elmer joked that he would beat his son’s teams regularly – “I’d teach him a lesson once in awhile,” he says in the Pioneer Press piece – but also said he hoped his son would break his consecutive wins record.
Stillwater has produced a number of Division I prospects in recent years, including Kaela Anderson (Minnesota), Sophia Bisch (LSU), Jordan Bowen (UConn) and Hannah Bowen (Notre Dame).
Elmer is one of the ‘class; guys of the sport. Always put the athletes first and cared about the kids he coached. Congratulations, Brian, keep up the good work.