MELROSE — Joey Arneson coached the Melrose-Mindoro High School girls basketball team to the WIAA state tournament three times during a 12-year tenure that includes a 173-117 record.
After spending five season away from the sideline, Arneson is heading back to take over the program again.
Arneson follows a five-year run by Chris Radcliffe, whose teams were 64-66 and completed a 13-14 performance last season.
Arneson said there was an immediate interest in the position once it opened, but the decision to pursue it wasn’t a no-brainer.
“I had to step back and make sure it was something I wanted to do,” Arneson said. “It’s quite a commitment, but after thinking about it, I certainly knew it was something I missed.”
Arneson’s time away from the varsity team didn’t mean he was away from basketball. He instead focused on youth basketball and running camps in the summer.
His passion, however, has remained within high school basketball. He coached the Mustangs to the Division 4 championship game in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Melrose-Mindoro lost the title game to Aquinas the first two years, then COVID-19 shut down the tournament after both teams qualified for the championship game again in 2020.
In a program that is facing issues with dwindling participation and one that used significant contribution from its senior class last season, Arneson has his work cut out immediately.
“Numbers-wise, we’ve never been lower, so that is a challenge,” he said. “And we will only have six players coming back. One of them will be a senior, and two will be juniors.
“We will be very inexperienced.”
Seniors accounted for more than 84 percent of Melrose-Mindoro’s scoring and 70 percent of its rebounding during 2025-26.
Junior guard Bristol Coats will be the top returning scorer after averaging 4.5 points. Sophomore Brynn Cogdill is next on that list after averaging 2.2 ppg. Cogdill played in all 27 games and Coats in 23, but no other returning player got on the court in more than 18 games.
“It’s going to be a challenge and a growing process,” Arneson said. “But I feel like I can build it back up.”
