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Wayzata coaching change coming

By By David La Vaque, 07/25/16, 4:00PM CDT

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Former Maple Grove activities director Lambert Brown will succeed Brad Anderson

Wayzata, one of state’s elite football programs, is preparing for a change at the top.
 

Lambert Brown is leaving his activities director job at Maple Grove to become a health teacher at Wayzata and join the football staff as the assistant varsity head coach under three-time Prep Bowl winner Brad Anderson. He will succeed Anderson in the future, though Wayzata activities director Jaime Sherwood wouldn't speculate on the timeline.

"Like I told my players Monday, 'I'm not retiring,'" Anderson said. "I wanted them to know I'm here. But if you get the opportunity to get good people into your organization you do it and getting Lambert was a big coup for us."

Brown said: "I've got an opportunity to learn and grow. I can come in, coach hard and consult while working with Brad. We both feel comfortable where our roles align."

Anderson, the Trojans’ head coach since 1999, is a District Alternative Compensation Program Supervisor in the Wayzata district Education Services Center.

He is four years from hitting The Rule of 90, which allows early retirement with no reduction of your pension if the sum of your age and years and months of service totals at least 90.

"I can go longer as a coach," Anderson said. "Like I've told my AD every year for the past 15 years or so, 'I still love what I do but I'm only committing to one year.'"

Brown lives in the district and his wife, Lindsay, is a Trojan graduate. A 2000 White Bear Lake graduate, Brown played running back under Bob Jackson and earned all-conference honors.

Brown left coaching to become the Maple Grove activities director in 2014. Before that, he was considered a rising star in the coaching ranks. In 2009 he led Fridley to a share of the North Suburban Conference title. In 2013 he directed Chaska’s first state tournament appearance in 39 years.

Success will be the expectation at Wayzata, which rose to prominence under Anderson. The Trojans were Prep Bowl fixtures, winning big-school state titles in 2005, 2008 and 2010 and taking second in 2004 and 2011.

"I like that," Brown said. "I feel lucky to be at a program where the expectations are high. It's going to be a fun journey."

In an interesting twist, Brown is leaving a Maple Grove, where the football program got revitalized by former Wayzata defensive coordinator Matt Lombardi.

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