Hovden wins Women’s Coach of the Year

Owatonna’s Gabe Hovden was recently awarded as the Women’s Coach of Year by MN/USA Wrestling for his contributions and achievements working with female wrestlers both locally and around the state.

His accomplishment not only marks the first time an Owatonna coach has earned the recognition, but also the first time the award has ever been won, period.

“I’ve never had anything like this before,” said Hovden. “It was such an honor. I knew they had a coaches award, but this is the first year they’ve had a women’s coach award. I don’t think only one of us deserves it because there are so many incredible coaches around the state, but it’s absolutely an honor.”

Hovden’s work inside of the sport includes being the head coach of Owatonna High School’s girls wrestling team, a coach for Minnesota Storm wrestling, and a coach for the MN/USA Wrestling girls program.

With over 20 years of coaching experience under his belt, he’s been a staple in wrestling rooms around the state and helped build a long resume of successful wrestlers.

However, for the majority of his career, Hovden has been accustomed to working with male wrestlers, as female wrestling was not as popular or common when he began.

In fact, his breakthrough and passion for coaching women actually came when he chose to step away from wrestling.

“I actually took a little hiatus from the sport to coach my daughter’s softball. There wasn’t girls wrestling when she was younger, and I wasn’t going to let her wrestle boys. So, I ventured off and coached her softball and helped out with Owatonna gymnastics as a volunteer. After she graduated, I got back into coaching wrestling, but it was all those years of coaching softball that really helped me understand how to coach girls,” said Hovden.

Despite having previously worked with top-flight Owatonna girls wrestlers like Aliah Fischer and Kayla Pastika a bit during their youth careers, Hovden has only technically been the varsity head coach for the Huskies girls’ program for one year.

In that year, he helped three Huskies reach state – two for the first time in their careers – and watched all three of his athletes reach the podium with a pair of fourth-place finishes and one fifth.

According to him, the part of coaching girls wrestling that he loves the most is their “hunger to learn.”

“At every girls tournament I’ve been to, I feel like 90% of the girls – whether they’re from the same town or not – are all hanging out, doing each other’s hair and chit-chatting. Then when they get out on the mat, they flip a switch and give it everything they have. The moment the match is over, they come back and usually their first question is, ‘What do I have to work on?’” said Hovden.