Dan Froehlich

Coach Class of 1975

Dan Froehlich became the head SW Women’s Basketball coach in 2011. In the 37 year existence of the program prior to that, SW had won just one city conference championship. In the 11 years since, Dan’s teams have won two conference championships. His teams have posted an 97 – 37 overall conference record and have finished in 3rd place or higher 10 times.

Dan’s passion for coaching was ignited at age 18, when he led a SWAC 8th grade baseball team to the city championship. While in college, he coached the Southwest 9th grade boys basketball team under Walt Williams. He then served as a varsity assistant to Walt’s successor, Ken Kielty, in the early 1980s. Over the next thirty years, Dan coached countless basketball, soccer and baseball teams in the Minneapolis parks.

In his 11 years - and counting - as the head SW Women’s Basketball coach:

• Dan has been named conference or section Coach of the Year four times.
• His teams have won 159 games, the most ever for a SW women’s basketball coach, and second all-time for all SW basketball coaches.
• Dan’s Laker teams have posted season win totals of 21, 20, 19 and 16 (twice). Only one other SW women’s or men’s team has logged as many as 16 wins in a season.
• His teams have earned State Academic Awards 6 straight years, including the 2022 Gold Award for a cumulative team GPA over 3.75.
• Dan has also coached girls summer AAU basketball teams for the MN Suns for the last 12 years.
• Over 40 of Dan’s high school and AAU players have gone on to play college basketball.

Dan is very proud of his role in helping build youth basketball in SW Minneapolis. While interviewing for the SW varsity job in 2011, Dan told then AD Ryan Lamberty that for SW women’s basketball to get to the next level, SW area girls needed the opportunity to develop a passion for competitive hoops at an early age. Dan vowed to help make that happen. A year later, Dan, along with a few other very dedicated and hard working partners, founded and began building the MPLS Lakers Traveling Basketball Association.

Starting with two teams in 2012, the MPLS Lakers fielded 23 boys and girls teams in grades 4 through 8 in 2022. That’s over 230 youth participating annually. This has been a game changer -- 10 of the 14 players on the 21 - 5 2022 SW City Conference Champion were MPLS Lakers Alumni! Dan still serves on the MPLS Lakers board and helps train it’s coaches. Many MPLS Lakers alumni have gone on to play for Washburn, Roosevelt and South as well.

Dan also played 3 years of varsity basketball at SW, earning All-City honors on a team ranked No. 2 in the state at one time. He was named to WCCO’s All-State Team of the Week four times during his career. He went on to play basketball at Golden Valley Lutheran College.

A true Minneapolis City Conference family, Dan is married to Liz, a Washburn grad. They have three children – Kate (SW 2008), Peter (South (2011) and Joey (Washburn 2013). Dan is a semi-retired lawyer, and has made the Minnesota Law and Politics’ Super Lawyer list multiple times.