Hodge, Moen up for national coach honors

Coaching honors are nothing new for Flathead High School’s Dan Hodge and Gary Moen.

But in a little over two months, both may receive their highest recognition to date at the National High School Athletic Coaches Association convention in Des Moines, Iowa. Both are National Coach of the Year finalists.

Hodge, now in his 38th year as head coach, is in the boys head track coach category. He was also up for this in 2002, 2005 and 2008.

Moen, in his 37th year as an assistant, is a finalist for the second time as assistant coach for girls sports. The first time was 2010.

Awards will be presented to coaches in a total of 12 sports on June 22-26, plus several other special categories. There are eight regions and those winners are eligible for National Coach of the Year.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” Hodge said.

“I’ve had some very good teams.”

Flathead has won six state championships, been state runner-up seven times, captured 16 divisional titles and has placed second 10 times since Hodge took over the program.

Individually, he has had 76 state champions and 156 divisional champions.

His coaching record in track is 2,244 wins and 344 losses.

“I work with some very talented fellow coaches,” Hodge said of his staff of assistants.

“We have been together for years. They are very dedicated to it, love the sport and keep coming back. They recruit the kids ... coach the kids.”

Hodge said Paul Jorgensen, a two-time NHSACA Coach of the Year for boys and girls cross country, has been an assistant track coach for 40 years.

Bill Epperly is in his 42nd year, Joe Sullivan is at 27 and Bob Raeth is at 25 and counting.

Tom Gilman, who passed away last year, was a track assistant at FHS for 18 years.

And Jim Kola, now an assistant at Glacier, spent 34 years with Hodge at Flathead.

“When I first started coaching in 1972 (became head coach in 1976), the girls track program had an unbelievable number of state championships,” Hodge said.

“My goal was to catch the girls track program. It was something to aim for.

“I always looked up to Joe McKay’s program,” he continued.

“They were winning all the time. If we were going to have a good boys program, I knew we had to match what they were doing. To do that, I had to get a lot of boys to come out for track and it had to be fun for them.”

Mission accomplished on all levels for Hodge and Flathead. As a result, he’s been named Montana Coach of the Year by the Montana High School Association seven times.

Moen, a 1964 FHS graduate, began his high school coaching career in 1977. If you include junior high coaching, he’s been at it for 42 years.

He currently specializes with the boys and girls javelin, but has also coached the long jump, high jump and triple jump.

Under his guidance, 10 FHS girls have won either state long jump or javelin titles and five boys have won state javelin championships.

“Never have,” Moen said of being a head coach.

“I always say I like coaching too much (to do that).

“I was surprised,” he said of being a national finalist again.

“I didn’t know you could do that. It’s still nice to get some recognition for the efforts you have put in.”

Moen has been a part of 14 girls and six boys state championships in track.

He was also an assistant on two boys and girls state basketball championship teams.

“We’ve had some great kids over the years,” he said.

His coaching record for sub-varsity girls basketball is 606-256.

“I’m excited to be a part of it,” Moen said of coaching.

“It’s kind of fun. I look forward to coming back and starting every year ... getting connected with kids and coaches.”

Moen was named Assistant Coach of the Year and AFLAC 500 National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2002.