Former Duluth East Hockey Head Coach Mike Randolph Announces New Job
Following news that long-time Duluth East Boys Hockey head coach Mike Randolph was resigning from his post after decades with the program, this created a vacancy for the Greyhounds and left a question as to Randolph's future after his lengthy tenure at East.
As you know, the question of who would replace Randolph was answered earlier this month, with the hiring of Steve Pitoscia as the new bench boss for the Greyhounds. The remaining question is what the future held for Randolph. That question was answered today.
As reported by the Northland FAN's Brian Prudhomme, Mike Randolph won't be leaving the world of high school hockey or the state of Minnesota as he takes on a new job with another Minnesota boys hockey program.
Randolph shared via text message conversations with Prudhomme that he will be taking the role of assistant varsity coach for the St. Thomas Academy Cadets Boys Hockey program starting this coming season.
The private school in Mendota Heights, just south of St. Paul, has a long and storied high school hockey history. They're also a team many Northland hockey fans are familiar with.
The Cadets tangled with Duluth Marshall and Hermantown in the Class A Championship several times in the last 20 years, handing the Hilltoppers losses in the 2006 and 2008 title game and defeating the Hawks three straight years (2011, 2012, 2013) in the championship before they moved up to Class AA for the 2013-2014 school year.
Since moving to AA, the Cadets have made 5 tournament appearances (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). Of those appearances, two of them included games against Duluth East. The first instance was in 2015, when the Greyhounds won 6-5 in the quarterfinals, eventually going on to fall to Lakeville North in the championship game. The second instance was in the quarterfinals of the 2019 tournament, where the Cadets beat East 3-1. St. Thomas Academy went on to fall to Edina in the semifinals in that tournament.
The move gives Randolph a clean slate after citing "parental pressure" from a limited number of parents of student-athletes and a lack of support from the school administration as the reason of his departure from Duluth East; saying "Without administrative support, it is a losing battle that is tiring and takes the joy out of it."
You can watch his full comments from that press conference below.