Steve Jorgensen elected into National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame

SUAMICO – When asked what his overall high school head football coaching record was, Steve Jorgensen, now a Bay Port High School assistant coach, gave a matter-of-fact response.

“I have no idea,” he laughed.

Those words sum up what being a head coach meant to the father of current Bay Port Coach Steven Jorgensen, who has led the Pirates to the last two WIAA Division 1 State Championship games.

With more than four decades of coaching experience, Jorgensen — the father of three boys, all involved in coaching — was recently elected into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“It was never about wins and losses,” he said. “I wanted us to improve as a team and help the kids become better adults. When you do something long enough and meet the criteria, things like this happen. It’s a great honor, but I’d rather see our teams get better as the year goes on compared to receiving individual accolades.”

Jorgensen helped lead Oshkosh North to its only State Title in 2000 before leading Kimberly to a pair in 2007 and 2008 — the first two of its eight State Titles.

He said his coaching career began as a graduate assistant at the UW-Oshkosh in 1984.

I’ve been coaching ever since,” Jorgensen said. “I went to college to become a teacher and coach because I enjoyed athletics in high school. I graduated from Oshkosh North, which then happened to be my first [high school] coaching job. I grew up two blocks from the high school.”

Jorgensen said the familiarity of Oshkosh North was a perfect landing spot for him before he moved on to Kimberly and helped build the Papermakers into a state powerhouse.

“After Kimberly, I was an assistant coach at Fond du Lac and then became head coach for a year,” he said. “We ‘knocked on the door’ there. Steven [Jorgensen] was the head coach at Fond du Lac during COVID-19 [in 2020] — that was a great team. Another year, we lost to Kimberly in the [Division 1] State Semifinals [by a score of 22-21].”

It was at Kimberly, Jorgensen said, where he had the opportunity to coach Steven and another son, Matt, who is currently the offensive line coach at Bay Port.

“After Fond du Lac, I spent two years at Neenah as its offensive coordinator,” he said. “Steven and Matt were both assistant coaches at Bay Port at the time. I was at Neenah when things started to turn around for them. That program is now flourishing.”

Entering his third season as an assistant coach at Bay Port, Jorgensen said he is most proud of how the Pirates improved during the last two seasons.

Bay Port won a Division 1 State Title in 2024 and finished runner-up last season.

“There are a lot of teams who play well early in the season, but the key is playing well late,” Jorgensen said. “Fortunately, in each of the last two seasons, we have done that.”

Now that he is no longer a head coach, Jorgensen said it’s nice to take a step back and let his son handle that part of the job.

“I never felt any pressure being a head coach,” he said. “I was never a meeting guy and didn’t like to be out front — I just liked to get out on the field and coach. As a head coach today, there are many duties, including fundraising. In today’s world of coaching, head coaches don’t get to coach as much as they did years ago. Assistant coaches can coach more.”

With his other son, Drew, as the head coach of the Stratford boys’ basketball team, Jorgensen said when it comes to his coaching apparel, you’ll either see him in Bay Port or Stratford clothing.

“That way, I can support all three of my sons at the same time,” he said.

Like many coaching trees, the Jorgensen boys have taken after their father.

For Steven, he said his dad has been a huge influence in his coaching career.

“I’ve gotten to see my dad go into the national hall of fame first as a ball boy and then as a player and coach under him,” he said. “I’ve seen the impact he has made at many different schools and different roles — but it’s all the same...the belief in hard work and getting young men to believe in a common cause. From my point of view, no one does it better. Not only is he a hall of fame coach, but he’s a hall of fame dad and a hall of fame man of Christ. I look up to him, and I’m very proud to do this with him every day.”

Sports editor’s note: As a head coach for 20 seasons, Jorgensen compiled a 164-58 overall record at Oshkosh North (1992-2003), Kimberly (2004-2010) and Fond du Lac (2018).

This included winning nine Fox Valley Association titles while receiving the league’s Coach of the Year award on eight occasions and State Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2007.