Lorensen and 600 wins

Fred Lorensen has been coaching high school basketball at either Monroe High School or PCM High School for as long as I have been alive.

Lorensen started coaching in the district in the middle of the 1980-81 season. There isn’t much he hasn’t seen on the basketball court.

The long-time hoops coach hit the 600-win mark recently.

“It’s been fun. The years have gone by too fast,” Lorensen said after a recent home game. “I have been doing this long enough that I have coached kids’ kids. And it’s getting close to kids’ kids’ kids maybe, too.”

Lorensen was the assistant coach to start the 1980-81 season but took over the head coaching duties midway through the season after the head coach left the district to take a principal’s job in another district.

Since then, he’s guided his teams to 10 state tournament berths. The first one came with Monroe back in 1987 and the team finished fourth.

His first state tournament appearance with PCM was back in 1995. He led the Mustangs to a top-four finish six times and won the Class 2A state championship in 2004.

The most recent trips to the state tournament came in 2011 and 2012. The 2011 team went 27-1 and placed third in 2A. The 2012 team was 22-3.

For as much success as Lorensen had, he still may remember the losses more. That’s why he’s been so successful.

“There’s frustrations with that, too,” Lorensen said. “We had some state-tournament games we were so close to winning and didn’t win.”

Lorensen coached his son Todd during a time when his program made the state tournament in 2001, 2002 and 2003. They were fourth in 2001 and 2002. Lorensen’s only state championship came the year after his son graduated.

“My son and I had dreamt ever since he was a kid that we were going to win a state title together and we were so close twice and maybe a third time, too,” Lorensen said. “That’s how life goes though. The other teams are trying to win, too.”

Two players who were on Lorensen’s state title team were Brandon Myers and Grant Burns.

Myers was the best player in 2A the year the Mustangs won the championship. Lorensen thought he was the best player period. Myers was the all-tournament team captain in 2004 after leading 2A in scoring and rebounding at the state tournament.

“Coach means the world to me,” said Myers, who went on to play football at Iowa and in the NFL. “He believed in me from an early age. We have a lot of great memories together and it’s something I’ll cherish forever.”

Both Myers and Burns loved playing for Lorensen. And both of them said one of his best qualities is allowing players to play. He gave his guys a lot of freedom on the floor.

“Coach Lorensen is one of my favorite coaches I ever played for,” said Burns who was a freshman and sophomore on those 2003 and 2004 state-tournament teams. “Some coaches try to control every aspect of the game. Coach was very good at letting players play and knew exactly when he needed to stop or slow things down for teaching moments.

“The state championship run was something people will never forget. Sure, we had great players, but again his ability to let his players play, play through adversity and knowing when to stop us and steer us in a different direction is just something most coaches can’t do.”

Since quikstatsiowa.com, which is now Varsity Bound, started recording statistics online in 2006-07, Lorensen has never had a losing season. The Mustangs were 12-11 last year and in 2016-17, but PCM has won at least 16 games nine times in the past 14 years.

One of Lorensen’s most recent players was Reed Worth. He averaged double-figures for the Mustangs in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.

Worth agrees with Burns and Myers about being free to just play.

“It was a lot of fun to play with freedom. He let his players play and when they needed to be controlled he took control.,” Worth said. He taught me a lot about the game of basketball and treated me with a lot of respect and allowed me to grow as a player.”

Contact Troy Hyde at thyde@shawmedia.com