File photo by Travis Rosenau Julie Rogers talks with her New Ulm players during a timeout in the Section 2AAA Girls Basketball title game on March 5 at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

NEW ULM — Julie Rogers, who has been a math teacher for six years and the head varsity girls basketball coach for the New Ulm Eagles for the past four seasons, has accepted a similar position at Tri-City United High School in Montgomery beginning next school year.

Rogers, who compiled a 72-38 record guiding the Eagles, said that the change came down to travel.

“I live in the Cleveland School District, so I live on the other side of St. Peter,” Rogers said. “So right now I am driving one hour one way each day. TCU is much closer — I am giving up an hour drive one way to a 10-minute drive.”

Despite the time she will save, Rogers said it was a very difficult decision to make.

“I have really enjoyed teaching and coaching here,” she said. “I have some wonderful people who I work with in the math department here — they are top-notch teachers — and I have really enjoyed working with the girls basketball program here. It was definitely a tough, tough decision to make. Math teaching openings are not as popular as other positions. So when an opening came up in the TCU District, I needed to explore it and see if I could get in. If I waited another year or two, there was a possibility that there would not be an opening.”

Rogers said that she has some great memories in her four years leading the Eagles.

“I have had a lot of wonderful experiences here,” she said. “Seeing players go from freshmen to seniors — it has just been a real pleasure to see them grow and develop not only as basketball players, but more importantly as young women. They are all going on to play at some college in some sports.”

She said that she keeps in contact with players who have graduated.

“And it is just a real joy to see them now in college and see them become young adults and the positive impact that they have on the world around them,” she said.

Rogers said that the Eagles won some big games in her four-year tenure.

“My first year was the year that we upset Mankato West — we were the seven seed and they were seeded two — so there was a lot of celebration that happened then.” Rogers said. “And this season we knocked off New London-Spicer, who had been unbeaten. And we had an exciting sectional tournament comeback win over St. Peter. There have been some big games that we have won. But it is more the day-to-day relationships and occurrences that I have really enjoyed.”

And Rogers will see the team that she coached the past four seasons when they play her new team in the TCU Titans.

“I am staying in the [Big South] Conference,” she said. “And that is going to very strange. Especially when TCU comes to New Ulm and I sit on the opposite bench. I have thought a lot about that and some of the players here have asked me how is that going to feel. It is going to be a strange experience for me.”

Rogers said that when she informed her players that she was resigning, she told them that she will always cheer for New Ulm.

“Unless they are playing TCU [laughs],” she said.