Albany boys basketball coach Cory Schlagel steps down; Lakeville North names new coach

After capping off an undefeated season with a second state championship in a span of three years, Cory Schlagel stepped back from head coaching duties with the Albany Huskies boys basketball team this week, the school confirmed Friday.

The No. 1-seeded Huskies went 32-0 and won the Class 2A state title in March, becoming the first undefeated boys basketball state champion since 2012.

“I try to do my job, which is put these guys in a position to win, and they show up and they play hard every day,” Schlagel said after March’s state championship.

Schlagel, who plans to continue teaching at Albany, cited wanting to spend more time with family and attend the events of his three children as the primary reason for resigning from a head coaching role, said Scott Buntje, Albany activities director.

Schlagel, 48, served as an assistant coach at St. Cloud State before taking the head coaching role at Albany. In 12 years with the Huskies, Schlagel amassed a 268-73 record.

“Coach Schlagel’s influence on both our boys basketball program and athletic program overall has been incredible,” Buntje said. “He has high standards for his athletes and holds them accountable to those standards. His work ethic is second to none as a teacher and a coach.”

The team’s 2015 trip to state in Class 3A was its first tournament berth since 1997, and its Class 2A state championship in 2023 was the first title for the program.

“It started way back in 2015 when that crew went to state tournament,” Schlagel said in March. “It just showed that Albany could get there.”

Mike Nolan has big shoes to fill, but it helps that he’s familiar with the path they’ve treaded.

The Panthers varsity assistant coach will take over the Lakeville North basketball program after head coach John Oxton retired this year, following a 706-win, 33-year career with the team. He is one of only six boys basketball coaches in Minnesota history to have reached 700 career victories.

Nolan joined the Lakeville program in 1993 and became an assistant varsity coach in 1996. He helped the team to its 2014 Class 4A state championship.

“I’m super excited to start a new challenge. Obviously, you got big shoes to fill with Coach Oxton, a Hall of Fame coach,” Nolan said, “but I feel like being under him for close to 30 years has prepared me for this.”

A former Hamline player, Nolan stepped in as interim head coach for two seasons, 2006-08, when Oxton took a break from head coaching to follow his daughter’s basketball career.

The Panthers have reached the state tournament 12 times, most recently in 2023.

“The program’s in a pretty good spot. There’s not a lot of big changes, right?” Nolan said. “But we always try to, every year, make little adjustments, little additions, to make everything better.”