Levi Massey is leaving Menomonie H.S. He's been offered the job at Lakeland H.S. in Minocqua. The Lakeland School Board will vote on Massey's approval on Monday. Massey was Menomonie's head coach for the past three seasons. The Mustangs had one win in Massey's first year, but the team finished third in the BRC last season.
The Chippewa Falls boys will also have a new coach next season, as Luke Madsen is taking a year off from coaching to teach in Guangzhou, China. Madsen has been Chi-Hi's head coach since 2004. He says this is something his family had always talked about doing, and they decided the time was right.
"We've had some things happen in our personal lives," Madsen says, "some good friends of ours had some medical issues. That makes you really start to think about what we want to accomplish in our lives and think about the things that we've talked about doing, and haven't done yet. And this is one of them."
Madsen won't be completely giving up the game of basketball, however, since he has been asked to coach elementary hoops in China.
"That might be kind of fun," says Madsen, "a nice break from the stresses of upper-level (basketball) and just watching kids that are developing and playing because they love it."
Moving the family and spending a year in a foreign country will be a challenge for the Madsen family, but they're all looking forward to the experience.
"We don't know anybody there," says Madsen, "none of us speak any Chinese, at all. I think bonding with them in that environment is going to be cool. We're really looking forward to everything that the journey brings us."
Levi Massey
Luke Madsen
