NEW ULM — Dave Wilfahrt, who has been the head girls basketball coach at New Ulm Cathedral for the past 12 seasons, has resigned from that position.

Wilfahrt cited wanting to be with his family more as the main reason.

“Jevan is playing basketball at Gustavus and Shay will be playing volleyball at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, so it was time,” he said. “Twelve years is good chunk of time, so this will give me some time to watch them a little bit more and do some other things. The coaches in the [Tomahawk-Valley] conference are getting younger, so I think that it is time for the girls to get a coach with some new ideas and freshen things up a little bit.”

Wilfahrt, who teaches at Mankato East, said that leaving New Ulm each day to teach at East and then come back home to New Ulm to coach the Greyhounds was long.

“Whether you had practice each day or late away games — it was something that you got into a routine — but the hardest thing was if the weather was bad,” he said. “But if it was bad they would call off practice or cancel the game.”

Wilfahrt said that New Ulm Cathedral will always be a special place to him.

“When you coach that many years, you get to meet a lot of people,” he said. “The players and their parents — they are all great kids — those are the great memories that I have in just getting to know all of the families. They are all so respectful and nice and just great kids. And they are going to be great adults.”

Wilfahrt said that when it came time to make his decision to resign, it was a tough.

“It always is when you are making any kind of a change in your life, but again it will give me some time to try some new things and do some new things,” he said. “Maybe I will write another book. So it was tough, but it is not like I am dead or anything. I will still be around and be able to watch the girls play volleyball and basketball and other sports.”

When asked if he felt it will be tough next season for the first time watching girls basketball and not coaching it, he said that he wants the program to succeed and the girls to get better.

“So I can do that as a coach and I can do that just as a fan, too,” he said. “It will be fun to just watch them and not worry about all of the other things a head coach has to do. I can just enjoy the games now.”