Vikings’ coach Panka: ‘These girls are great at making me look good’

After the Minneota girls' basketball team earned its sixth straight trip to the Class A state basketball tournament by winning the Section 3A title Friday night, Al Panka immediately began filling out all the required paperwork and getting things organized for the trip to Minneapolis.
"I'm usually a big procrastinator," he admitted. "But I don't really have a choice with all this."
One of the things required by the Minnesota State High School League for all state participants is a biography of the coach and his players. Things like the season record, season schedule and results, a roster of the players and their season statistics and more.
When it came to filling out the portion about the coach, the MSHSL requests the number of years coaches, the name of the school(s) and his/her career record.
"It was a little painful going down memory lane," Panka said with a laugh.
While this season has gone better than most expected with a 21-8 record with four new starters and a new coach, the wins didn't come at a premium when he was the head coach of the Ivanhoe girls; basketball team for seven seasons.
"It is what it is," he said. "I'm not ashamed of it because It's all a part of me and my life. I'm the type of guy that doesn't care what people think. But I do admit that it was a little painful putting those numbers down."
What Panka was referring to was his career mark of 27-132 in those seven seasons.
"We are 21-8 this year, so that boosts my record up to a whopping 48-140," he said, again followed with a chuckle. "The girls played hard for me in Ivanhoe, just like this group does. We just didn't have the same skillset or depth that Minneota has had over the years. That's why I'm not embarrassed about the record."
He then became an assistant coach at Minneota when Ivanhoe closed its high school 10 years ago. He took over as head coach for Chad Johnston, who accepted the vacant boys' basketball coaching position after coaching the girls for 21 seasons. Minneota's "B" team went 21-5 last season with Panka as coach.
Panka, 44, also taught match in Ivanhoe for 13 years and is in his 10th year teaching in Minneota.
Some of Panka's former players at Ivanhoe that he coached from 2008-2014 texted him congratulatory remarks after hearing that Minneota earned a berth in the state tournament in his first year as coach.
Minneota upset Southwest Minnesota Christian School 60-51 in the Section 3A title game Friday at SMSU in Marshall. That win avenged a 61-49 loss to the Eagles on Feb. 9.
"I didn't get much of a chance to talk with the girls after the game with all the interviews and talking with fans and things," Panka said. "So, on my way back to Minneota I sent a text to all the girls and told them 'nice job' and that they do a great job of making me look good."