SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s football coach Brent Kucera said that he and his longtime assistant coach Matt Andres are both stepping down from coaching.

Kucera had a career record of 71-38 at St. Mary’s and he led the Knights to three straight state appearances in 11 seasons. He said that he’s planning on spending more time with family.

“Early last fall, by the end of September, we decided we were going to give it one more year,” Kucera said. “There was lots of reasons, but it was time, especially with COVID this year. It was just a really stressful year for everybody everywhere, so we just decided to all move on.”

Kucera led the Knights to three straight state tournament appearances in 2011, 12, and 13. He is proud of the fact that his coaches and players all had a say in how things were run at St. Mary’s.

“We had three state tournaments there and a couple of undefeated seasons [regular season], we had some really good players and we had some really good coaches,” Kucera said. “I kind of ran the program differently, probably more than most head coaches. The players and all of the head coaches, we all kind of took ownership of the head coach, so it wasn’t a one head coach type of thing. We all took ownership.”

He had several favorite moments in his 11 years, especially the state tournament years.

“I’d say that the first season we made it to state, we made it to the Metrodome and nobody expected us to do anything that year,” Kucera said. “We didn’t even have expectations for ourselves that year and to come out and go to state and end up at the Dome, that was a good memory that we had.”

He said the relationships he’s built with his former players is something that he’ll never forget.

“We’re the most proud of the relationships that we had with our players, and how they listened to us and respected us,” Kucera said. “When we see them after they’re done playing for us, we can talk to them and go to their weddings, that’s probably the most proud that I am.”