SPRINGFIELD — After four seasons and two state tournament appearances, Springfield head football coach Bob Fink is stepping down.

Fink coached the Tigers to a 7-3 record this past year and he was 31-11 in his four-year career. He led the Tigers to state tournament appearances in 2018 and 2019.

“It’s been an incredible four years and the kids have been outstanding,” Fink said. “For me, the amount of prep time over the weekends, it wasn’t as enjoyable and I always said when that part of it wasn’t any fun, I had so many other things on my plate and it made it difficult. With that, I just thought it was time and we have so many great coaches in our program, I would just like to volunteer next year if I’m around next fall.”

Fink led the Tigers to a state tournament appearance in his first year as head coach in 2018. In that season, Springfield started the season 0-2 before winning four of the next five games. After losing the final regular-season game, the Tigers made a long postseason run and made it to the state semifinals before getting knocked out by Mahnomen/Waubun at U.S. Bank Stadium, finishing the season with an 8-5 record.

As impressive as that season was, the Tigers were back the next year and built off that late-season success, finishing 10-1. That season, the Tigers outscored their opponents 304-42 during the regular season and their only loss was in the state quarterfinals to Blooming Prairie.

Fink will continue to teach the fourth grade and he also owns his own business, Educational Resources of MN, LLC. His oldest son Alex recently became the head baseball coach at Windom High School so he would like to be an assistant coach for him next year. His youngest son Isaac still plays basketball at Augustana University where he is a sophomore.

Prior to coaching football at Springfield, Fink was the baseball coach for 16 seasons and he led the Tigers to a state championship in 2016. During that time, his teams accumulated 262 wins, won seven conference titles and made four state tournament appearances, including a second-place finish in 2015 and a third-place finish in 1994. He was named the Class A Coach of the Year in 2016 was the Tomahawk Baseball Conference Coach of the Year four times.

He also coached the volleyball program in 2005-06, where he led the program to a school-record 25 wins and a sub-section championship.

While he’s had success on the football field, it was his work off the field that he’s most proud of.

“I guess my favorite memory is getting 25 new kids to sign up for football [prior to his first season as head coach] and they loved it,” he said. “And the other memory was, I don’t believe there ever was a practice that I did not enjoy. Just being around the guys, having fun and working hard and working with incredible coaches was so rewarding. And to top it off, to have the success that we had of all four years.”

He’s also appreciative of the opportunity to be the head football coach.

“I’d like to thank the administration for giving me this opportunity, because when I came out of college, that was what I wanted to do was become a head football coach,” Fink said. “I never thought it would happen, so I’m glad they had confidence in me to offer me the job. These have been four of the best years I’ve ever had coaching and I’m just very thankful for the people I’ve worked with and for the success that I have had.”