Prep football: Malling returns to coach Oconomowoc.
Coach won two titles at Arrowhead
Greg Malling’s working relationship with Oconomowoc athletic director Kevin Flegner was so strong that it helped bring the former Arrowhead football coach back to Wisconsin.
Malling was introduced as Oconomowoc’s new football coach Tuesday. He succeeds Ryan McMillen, who resigned last week after eight seasons to become the athletic director at Muskego.
The return will be a homecoming of sorts for Malling. He went 56-9 (.862) in five seasons at nearby Arrowhead where, with Flegner as athletic director, he led the program to Division 1 state titles in 2012 and ‘13 and runner-up finishes the next two seasons. In December 2015 he accepted a big-time rebuilding job at Coon Rapids (Minn.).
Seventeen months he’s back.
“Part of it is professional in trying to make a move that helps my wife’s career,” Malling said. “That’s a big thing and just that appeal of working with Kevin again and working in the Oconomowoc community.”
When Flegner hired Malling at Arrowhead in 2011, he was succeeding Tom Taraska, a Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach who had built Arrowhead into a powerhouse. He’ll also have big shoes to fill this time. Under McMillen, the Raccoons became an elite program in the Wisconsin Little Ten. Three times in the last four years they won the conference title.
“We don’t want to take a later step backward with our football program,” Flegner said. “We’re coming off a lot of momentum the last few years, a lot of success, so we want to keep the ship moving forward. I didn’t want to gamble.”
Flegner was sad to see McMillen resign, but it’s hard to imagine the AD finding a better replacement on paper than Malling, who will teach English at the high school.
Oconomowoc and the communities that make up the Arrowhead district are similar. The districts border each other.
And next year Oconomowoc will be realigned into the Classic 8 Conference, the longtime home of Arrowhead.
“There is familiarity for sure,” Malling said. “It’s such a brutal conference. I don’t know if you can feel comfortable, but there is something to knowing what we’re going to get into a little bit.”
At Coon Rapids, Malling was in rebuild mode. The program won six games in the five seasons before his arrival. It went 0-9 this past year while playing in a tough league.
Oconomowoc’s football program isn’t in those straits, but it must replace 10 all-conference seniors, including an all-state quarterback and receiver, and will be joining a league that is considered by many as the best in Wisconsin.
“I’m nothing but grateful for the opportunity they gave me here at Coon Rapids,” Malling said. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way I thought it would. …I have nothing but respect for what Coach McMillen has done and I’m looking forward to trying to continue that success and see if we can build on it a little bit.”