Colleagues Bid Farewell to Woodbury Coach Preller With Two Awards

Playing sports in high school, Dave Preller says he always enjoyed baseball, mostly on the mound and behind the plate.

It also provided some of the impetus for his career as the girls basketball coach.

“Pitchers and catchers, they really manage the game,” he said. “And that’s where it grew from.”

Preller, 57, is retiring from both coaching and teaching this year. His fellow coaches recently selected him as the Section 4AAAA Coach of the Year and Class 4AAAA Minnesota Girls Basketball State Coach of the Year. It’s the eighth time he’s won the section award and second time for the state award, which reflects the strength of the Woodbury program he led for the past 24 years.

“I was very humbled,” Preller said of receiving the honors.

While this year’s team came up short in the Section 4AAAA playoff final, Preller has had plenty of success at Woodbury, most notably winning the state title in 2003, the year before he won his previous state coach of the year award.

“So maybe I should stick around, if that’s what it takes to win state,” he said with a laugh.

Preller, who lives in Woodbury, said the awards are likely a result of his body of work; he has spent 32 years coaching girls basketball.

In retirement, Preller said he will miss the camaraderie with his fellow coaches, talking Xs and Os, the competition and watching his players develop.

A hallmark of his teams has always been man-to-man defensive intensity. But on the offensive end things were a bit more fluid from year to year. He said he tried to tailor his offense to his players’ skills.

“I never asked kids to do things they can’t do,” Preller said. “It’s the old saying, ‘Don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole.’”

A business teacher at Woodbury High School and fan of the Green Bay Packers, Preller said he has always enjoyed a wide range of sports and also coached volleyball and baseball.

Preller said he’s been fortunate to have a good group of players each year who helped Woodbury remain a conference power. Only once did his team finish a season with double-digit losses.

Preller said he isn’t looking for a new coaching job at this point, but left the door open for the possibility of moving on—to a different sport or gender or level of competition. He said he wasn’t sure how he would react when the season comes around again.

“But I’m not looking for that right now,” Preller said.

Throughout his coaching career, Preller said the community has been very supportive, from parent volunteers to feeder programs like the Woodbury Athletic Association.

“I’m very thankful to the players for all the effort they put in,” he said. “And I owe District 833 for giving me a chance to do this. I owe a lot to the district for that opportunity in my teaching and coaching career.”

It’s likely that most players and Woodbury girls basketball fans feel that they owe Preller a debt of gratitude as well.