Reusse: Derrin Lamker missed the ‘Friday night lights,’ so he returns to coach Osseo football team

We might be considered sad cases, yet there are a few of us who have as much interest in football at its lower levels as in the NFL and/or the power conferences of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

So, while the mass of millions that follow big-time football were shocked last December when Bill Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl champion as New England’s coach, agreed to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels, there was a considerable minority of us just as surprised by this:

Derrin Lamker, self-described as an “Auggie for life,” resigned May 21 after five years at his Augsburg alma mater and a month later returned to coach at Osseo High School.

Lamker was 30 when named as Osseo head coach the first time in 2006, and a decade later, on an amazing night at TCF Bank Stadium, his thrice-beaten Orioles won the Class 6A championship in astounding fashion, 14-13 over East Ridge.

He then brought sadness to the owners and loyalists at Duffy’s Bar and Grill (victory celebration headquarters) on Osseo’s cramped main street by moving on to Edina. Lamker was an assistant with the Hornets for one season and the head coach for three.

And then in 2020, the alma mater came calling. Augsburg had dismissed Frank Haege after 15 seasons and Lamker was an obvious choice to receive an endorsement from athletic director Jeff Swenson.

After all, Lamker was the all-time leader among Auggie quarterbacks for leading MIAC championship teams dating to 1928. As the century mark for Auggie titles approaches, those title standings remain thus: Lamker 1, all other Auggies quarterbacks 0.

Swenson was the coach that truly made Augsburg a wrestling mecca, and he remained a rock of the athletic department as the AD. His decision to step down as AD into an advisory role was likely to have an impact on the department, but Lamker guarantees there was no disillusionment at Augsburg.

“I missed the Friday night lights,” Lamker said Tuesday. “With the job here open, and if they wanted me again, it was a chance to get back to high school football.”

Amy Cooper, an assistant athletic director at St. Thomas, took over as Augsburg’s AD on June 1. She hired KiJuan Ware as Lamker’s replacement. He had been in the MIAC for a time before becoming an assistant at Shippensburg State in Pennsylvania.

“KiJuan was an assistant on my staff,” Lamker said. “He’s a good guy. It’s a tough job with Bethel and St. John’s up there at the top, but us Auggies … we never lose hope."

Lamker has a tougher job at Osseo — which opens its season Thursday night by hosting Coon Rapids — than when he started there the first time two decades ago. The school district partner, Maple Grove, was early in its boom then. And Andover and Rogers were still places to zoom past in the north suburbs.

“We had around 140 when I was last here,” Lamker said. “And our Osseo football association … the people involved put a lot of energy into it, but the numbers are low. We have work to do."

Yeah, but when Lamker was last here coaching a football game:

What a November night in 2015, with the Prep Bowl being played outdoors while Zygi Wilf’s new $1.15 billion playpen was being constructed, and every Osseo fan in the Gophers’ stadium was mumbling “hurry up” in those last minutes, other than the Orioles themselves.

Osseo had knocked off Lakeville North, 24-21, in the quarterfinals, while Totino-Grace was upsetting Eden Prairie’s dynastic Eagles. Then in the semifinals, trailing Totino-Grace 21-7, the Orioles made the big plays in the fourth quarter — including a two-point conversion — for a 22-21 win.

A week later, receiver Damario Armstrong said: “After that Totino-Grace game, we knew anything was possible. We knew we could make some plays.”

Kurah carried 43 times for 189 yards. The Orioles completed 11 passes and 10 of them were to Armstrong.

Fantastic.

Evan Williams, a junior tackle on that team, recently graduated from Mitchell Hamline School of Law. He was asked Tuesday by phone: “Did you ever panic on that last drive, when Prince kept running and the clock kept moving?”

Williams said: “Not really. Line up quick and run ‘26 Power.’”

What was the optimism during the three-game losing streak in-season?

“We still knew we had a good team.”

And the coach?

“Derrin Lamker is excited,” Williams said. “We’re all excited he’s back at our school. Tough times lately, but he’ll get the most out of his players.”

The most was everything in 2015. And Osseo will have a 10-year reunion and will reintroduce the champion Orioles at the Sept. 12 home game vs. Rogers.

“I’m curious as to how many of our guys will be back,” Lamker said.