Alli Joerger – Staff Writer
The Gustavus Men’s Basketball loss to St. Olaf College in the MIAC playoffs marked not only the end of the season for the team, but also the end of the career of Head Coach Mark Hanson. While the team would have wished for a few more games in the season, the 2021-2022 season was full of victories and demonstrations of the program that Coach Hanson built throughout his 32 seasons with the Gusties.
The Gusties ended the season with an overall record of 14-9, and a MIAC record of 11-6, which gave them the number 4 seed heading into the MIAC Tournament. The season ended in an upset against St. Olaf, where the Oles scored a buzzer-beater three point shot to win the game. However, the season’s conclusion does not diminish the success that the team saw during the season.
Senior Nolan Malo explained that the team overcame various illnesses and injuries and managed to play its “best basketball at the end of the season. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how well we were playing as a team once our team was at full strength,” Malo said.
The all-conference honors awarded at the end of the season also speak to how well the Gusties performed throughout the season. Senior Kaleb Feahn was named part of the All-Conference first-team, Malo making All-Conference second-team and Senior Pete Lundquist being an Honorable Mention. Additionally, Sophomore Adam Biewen was named to the All-Sportsmanship team, and First-year Spencer Swanson was named an All-First-Year.
The awards received by three Gustie seniors indicates how important the senior leadership remained throughout the season. Assistant Coach Justin DeGrood spoke highly of the senior athletes, saying that they were “instrumental in our successes this year.” Not only were the seniors key players on paper, their contributions to the mindset of the team made this season possible.
5th year Seniors Lundquist and Feahn “matured and grew more as players and young men than any I have seen in my years of coaching,” and “completely transformed their intent and work ethic,” Degrood said. The true seniors of Malo and Benji Lundberg were what DeGrood called the “hardest workers we have had in quite some time,” possessing the ability to “elevate those around them in their level of work. This graduating group has helped elevate Gustavus basketball to the path it should be on,” DeGrood said.
While the athletes were instrumental to their own success, the success of the team and their growth as individuals nods to the importance of their Head Coach, Mark Hanson. Hanson has instilled what Malo called “a longstanding tradition of great team basketball.” A 1983 graduate from Gustavus, Hanson’s resume being both an athlete and a coach is expansive. Hanson is the all-time highest scorer in the program with 1,774 points, and has coached his teams to 21 MIAC Playoff tournaments, 14 MIAC finals, seven MIAC titles, six NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances, three Elite Eight appearances and one National Runner-Up title. His overall coaching record concludes with 533-317.
Hanson explained that his passion for Gustavus has been strong and unwavering since he started at the college as an undergraduate. “Somehow I walked onto this campus in the fall of 1979 and started bleeding black and gold,” Hanson said. Hanson has helped many other individuals over the course of his time at Gustavus, and is extremely grateful for the length of his career. “One of the blessings of a long career is that every team is different—sometimes in dramatic fashion, but generally it’s more subtle. I have been fortunate to be a common denominator over the years that allows a thread of connection among years of different players and teams. In spite of all the likely differences amongst teams there has been a commonality at some point that a player from the 1990’s knows something of what a player from the 2010’s has experienced,” Hanson said.
Several individuals can attest to the impact that Coach Hanson has had on their lives. DeGrood, a former athlete for Hanson and an assistant coach under him for nine seasons, explains that who Hanson is as a person is what makes the program something he wanted to return to. DeGrood explains that Hanson has become someone that is important in his life. “I often tell people that Hanson has gone from coach to boss to mentor to friend,” he said. DeGrood described Hanson as someone with a “plethora of passions that lie outside of the sport,” which is something that Hanson advocates for in his athletes.
Senior Nolan Malo speaks highly of the impact that Hanson has had on himself and his teammates, especially through the well-roundedness that Hanson promoted in the program. “Not only did he want me to be the best basketball player I could be, his door was always open for my teammates and I when we had school or life questions we needed help answering… he is a great mentor on the court and an even better mentor off the court,” Malo explained. Hanson himself makes this mature relationship with his athletes a priority, explaining that he strove to treat them as adults as they endure the strange transition period of college.
In reflecting on his own career, Hanson said that he would not necessarily describe the way his career ended as satisfying. “It has been a memorable and enjoyable finish with this group, but in a broad way I feel like the finish was with these players as well as all of the alums that have been a part of my career,” Hanson said. He is the most proud of the “compliments that have derived from the way our players act on and off the court,” and plans to continue to be a presence at Gustavus in his retirement. Coach Hanson will be missed by the program, but certainly not forgotten as his legacy of camaraderie, well-roundedness, and success will persist into the future.