Rice Lake makes new wrestling hire

A new head wrestling coach for the Rice Lake Warriors has been hired as the Rice Lake Board of Education approved the appointment of Mike Kelly during Monday's meeting.

Kelly will also be a health and physical education teacher at the middle school.

"We are excited about having Coach Kelly join us," athletic director Tim Lipke said. "He brings a wealth of experience over many years in the sport and we look forward to having his leadership helping to grow our wrestling program."

In May the board had approved the hiring of Braydon Johnson but he resigned last month. Kelly takes over after Joe Lammers led the Warriors for one season.

Kelly was most recently the head coach at Amery, where he led his team to Division 2 state championships in both 2021 and 2022. In 2021 Kelly was named the NFHS Wrestling Coach of the Year. During his seven seasons in Amery, Kelly had eight individual state champions.