STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Kevin Hopp, boys co-head coach at Stevens Point Area Senior High and Terrence Krall, girls co-head coach at Slinger High School were two of 24 recipients of the 2023-24 National Coaches of the Year by the Coaches Association of the National Federation of High School Associations.

The NFHS, which has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982, honors coaches in  both girls and boys sports. Winners of the NFHS Coach of the Year awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award. This year’s awards recognize coaches for the 2023-24 school year.

Hopp has served on the Panthers’ staff with long-time coach Donn Behnke since 2003, helping guide the program to six WIAA State championships and five runner-up finishes during that span. In the 2023 season, SPASH was undefeated in all meets and won the Division 1 WIAA State title with a state-record score of 36 points and a team average time of 15:44. 

The Panthers added their third-straight State championship in 2024 to bring the program’s total team titles to 14. Both Hopp and Behnke were selected as Division 1 Boys Cross Country Coaches of the Year by the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association in 2024.

In addition, SPASH has had 124 cross country invitational victories and 21 conference championships during Hopp’s tenure on the staff. Hopp was a member of the Panthers’ 1994 State Boys Cross Country championship team, finishing 20th with a time of 16:48.

After coaching track & field and cross country at the junior high and high school levels in Wisconsin for 55 years, Krall won his first State championship with co-coach John Strand in 2023, leading the Owls to the 2023 State Girls Cross Country title. He has coached the boys track & field and cross country teams at Slinger since 1988, and the girls track & field and cross country teams since 2005. Previously, he coached at Oconomowoc Junior High School for 17 years and Oconomowoc High School for two years. 

Krall was selected Girls Cross Country State Coach of the Year in 2023 by the WCCCA and will be inducted into the association’s Hall of Fame in 2025. In 2015, Krall was inducted into the Slinger High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He has been named District 6 Coach of the Year by the WCCCA four times.  

To be eligible for state, sectional or national Coach of the Year honors, the NFHS receives nominations from its member state associations, which works with the state coaches’ association in its respective state. The state association then contacts the potential state award recipients to complete a coach profile form that requests information regarding the coach’s accomplishments, affiliation with coaching and other professional organizations, involvement with other school and community activities and programs, and coaching philosophy. To be approved as an award recipient, an application must be completed by the coach or designee and then approved by the executive director (or designee) of the state athletic/activities association.

The next award level after state coach of the year is sectional coach of the year. The NFHS is divided into eight geographical sections, and Wisconsin is in Section 4 with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan.  

The NFHS Coaches Association has an advisory committee composed of a chair and eight sectional representatives. The sectional committee representatives evaluate the state award recipients from the states in their respective sections and select the best candidates for the sectional award in each sport category. The NFHS Coaches Association Advisory Committee then considers the sectional candidates in each sport, ranks them according to a point system, and determines a national winner.

Along with the two national selections, Wisconsin high school coaches received five other sectional Coach of the Year honors, including:

Baseball - Mike Dee, Aquinas High School
Girls Basketball - Lora Staveness, Edgewood High School
Softball - John Ruffolo, Kenosha Bradford High School
Boys Tennis - Jon Vogt, Brookfield Central High School
Girls Track & Field - Jason Eisenman, Arrowhead High School 

The WIAA, as defined by its Constitution, is a voluntary, unincorporated, and nonprofit organization. The membership oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 513 senior high schools and 36 junior high/middle level schools in its membership. For more information, please contact the WIAA office at (715) 344-8580.

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