Mike Donahue

Year Honored: 2022

Career:
1976-77 Rosemount High School (Social Studies, Assistant Hockey and Baseball)
1977-2016 Jefferson/Alexandria Area High School (Social Studies)

Coaching at Alexandria
Football
1978–8th grade
1981-1989 Varsity Assistant
1998-2012 Freshmen
2013-Present Varsity Assistant
Hockey
1977-1981 Varsity Assistant
1981-1994 Varsity Head Coach
1990-1997 Various Youth Teams
2000-2007 Varsity Head Coach
Girls Fastpitch Softball
1979-1988 Head Coach

Most memorable Cardinal Sports moment:

Football–1986 State Tournament Quarterfinals, on a very rainy night, Trent Anderson’s perfectly
thrown TD pass to Chris Schoenrock to win the game. OR from 2018-2020 watching a very
humble young man, Nolan Morical, rewrite every running back record for Alexandria.

Hockey–1984 regular season game against Elk River, the toughest team on our schedule that
year. We had lost to them earlier in the season in their barn, they had physically taken it to us
and the referees swallowed their whistles and let a lot of cheap stuff go. Elk River was now

coming to Alexandria for our second matchup of the season. We worked a lot on the power
play to prepare for this matchup, knowing Elk River would take a lot of penalties. A day before
the game we lost both of our varsity goalies, so we had to start the JV goalie who had never
played in a varsity game. The guys knew they had to play a hell of a defensive game. I’ve
never seen a team block as many shots as they did that night. We scored four power player
goals and won 6-4.

Fastpitch
1979 was the first season that Alexandria fielded a girls fastpitch softball team. Entering that
season, the girls had only played in some summer slow pitch leagues, never facing fast balls,
change ups, breaking balls, sinkers, etc. No one had ever pitched before either. Every team on
our schedule was experienced at the fast pitch game. Needless to say, we started the season
slow and had no wins in the first half of the season. The girls kept working hard and it all came
together in the second half of the season and they advanced to the section final game. I’d like
to say we won and advanced to the State Tournament, but we lost in the finals. I was so proud
of how far they came in their first season.