​2024 Armstrong Falcons Varsity Coaching Staff

2024 Freshman Coaching Staff
Jack Negen
Head Coach
Coaching Experience: Coach Negen is in his 11th season as the Head Coach at Armstrong High School. This will be his 30th year coaching football at the high school and 2 seasons at Bethel. Jack is the Special Education Coordinator at Armstrong High School and has worked at Armstrong for 18 years.

Family: Coach Negen is married to wife Chrissy and they have two daughters, Maddie and Kenzie and a new granddaughter, Parker.

College: Coach Negen graduated from Bethel University where he played football for 3 years.
Lee Spohn
Offensive Coordinator
Coaching Experience: Coach Spohn is entering his 9th year as a coach at Armstrong High School. He also teaches AVID at AHS.  

Family: Coach Spohn is married to his wife Jill and they have two sons, Cameron and Hudson.

College: Graduated and played cornerback at University of Wisconsin- River Falls
Konnor Goettsche
Wide Receivers
Coaching Experience: Coach Goettsche is entering his 6th year of coaching Wide Receivers at Armstrong High School where he also coaches basketball. He is a 2013 graduate of Armstrong where he played both football and basketball.

Family: Coach Goettsche is married to his wife Kayla.

College: Played college basketball at NDSCS and Dickinson State and graduated from Dickinson State.
Ben Mueller
Offensive Line
Coaching Experience: This will be Coach Mueller's fourth year coaching football at Armstrong, which will be his 13thseason overall. He has previously coached in Anoka, MN and Jordan, MN.

Family: Coach Mueller is married to his wife Kristen. They have one daughter (Lillian) and one son (Nolan).

College: Graduated and played offensive line at the University of St. Thomas.
Adam Hollerud
Offensive Line
Coaching Experience: Coach Hollerud has coached offensive line at Armstrong High School since 2019. Adam is a Special Education teacher at Armstrong, having worked there since 2018.

Family: Coach Hollerud is married to his wife Amy.

College: Graduated from and played offensive line at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Master's degree from St. Mary's University of Minnesota.
Alex Leitch
Defensive Coordinator 
Coaching Experience: Coach Leitch is entering his first year as Defensive Coordinator at Armstrong High School. This will be his 11th season coaching football at the high school and collegiate level. 
Rufus Bess
Linebackers/OLB
Coaching Experience:  Coach Bess is entering his 13th year of coaching at Armstrong High 
School.  This will be his 33rd year of Coaching High School football.

Family: Coach Bess was married to his wife Tina for 32 years (deceased) and has a daughter Brittany and a granddaughter, Tina and a grandson Kingston.

College: Graduated and played Defensive back / Punt Returner at South Carolina State University (MEAC).  He was an All- Conference  and Black College All- American football player.  Coach Bess played professional football for 10 years.  9 years in the NFL and 1 year in the Arena Football League.​
Tim Lloyd
Defensive Backs / Safeties
Coaching Experience: Coach Lloyd is entering his 25th year of coaching football at Armstrong High School. He has also served as the Head Golf Coach and an Assistant Hockey Coach at Armstrong.

Family: Coach Lloyd is married to his wife Teresa and has two children, Thomas and Kaitlynn who is married to Collin Franz.
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College: Graduated from University of Minnesota-Morris where he was on the varsity golf team.
Andrew Adair
Defensive Line
Coaching Experience:
​Coach Adair has been a Special Education teacher for 23 years and currently works at Hopkins High School.  He has coached Varsity Defensive linemen at Armstrong since 2011.

Family: Coach Adair has been married to his wife Tanya for 27 years and they have 3 children (Addyson, Ava and Trent).  Coach lives with his family in Maple Grove.  When not coaching or teaching, he loves spending time with his family at their cabin boating, fishing, and relaxing.

College: Coach Adair is originally from Dana Point, California.  He was a 1st team All-Conference Defensive Lineman at Dana Hills High School and went on to play college football at Orange Coast Community College and Whittier College, also both in California.​
John Davis
Defensive Backs / 
Safeties
Coaching Experience: Coach Davis (JD) is entering his 9th year as a football coach at Armstrong High School. His first 8 years were with the freshman football team coaching wide receivers and defensive backs, this year will be his first year on the varsity coaching staff coaching the defensive backs/cornerbacks.

Family: Coach Davis is married to his wife Randi and they have 4 sons Zachary, John Paul (JP), Jalen, and Isaiah and 2 daughters Safeara and Kyranai.

College: Played defensive back and special teams return specialist for Si Tanka University where he was an All-American defensive back. Bachelor of arts degree in exercise science from Concordia University St. Paul.

2024 Armstrong Falcons Freshman Coaching Staff
Ryan Sommers
Head Coach
Coaching Experience: Coach Sommers is entering his 15th season coaching for Armstrong. He has been the head coach of the 9th grade team for 11 years. He coaches linebackers and QBs. Sommers has been a science teacher at Armstrong for the past 20 years. He has a degree in Biology and a master’s degree in science education.

Family: Coach Sommers and his wife, Amy, have two kids. Eleanor (7) and  Clark (5).

College: Graduated from the University of Minnesota.
Kelly Jans
Offensive / Defensive Line
​Coaching Experience: Coach Jans is a math teacher at Armstrong and is entering his 31st year working with the Falcon football program.

Family: Coach Jans and his wife Karen and have four children and enjoy traveling and live music.

College: He earned his Bachelor's degree from St. Cloud State University and his Masters degree from Hamline University. ​
Ryan O'Connor
Assistant Coach
Coaching Experience: Coach O’Connor has been coaching 9th grade football for 10 years. He is also an assistant baseball coach in the spring. In the winter he and coach JD run the weight room after school. Coach O’Connor is the AVID coordinator and an AVID teacher at Armstrong.

Family: Coach O’Connor and his wife Abbey have three daughters ages 7, 5 and 2.

College: Saint John’s University B.A. Concordia University M.A.
University of St. Thomas Ed.S
Sam Hyland
Defensive Backs / 
Safeties
Coaching Experience:
Coach Samuel Joseph Hyland graduated from Armstrong in 2013. While there he was a participant in the Football, Wrestling, Track & Field, Swimming, and Choir programs. This is Coach Hyland's 4th year coaching football. He is also an Assistant Varsity Coach for the Track & Field Team at Armstrong.

Family: Coach Hyland is married to his wife Kara.

College: Played Offensive Line for Minnesota State University Moorhead. He finished his degree in Natural Resource Management from North Dakota State University. He also played two years of offensive line for the Fargo Invaders.
Eustace McGowan
Wide Receivers 
Coaching Experience: ​Coach McGowan is entering his first year as a freshman wide receivers coach and his first year coaching. 

Experience: Played wide receiver as Armstrong and played in college at Fergus Falls. 
"Play hard, play smart, play together!  We use the game of football to teach football players to play the game of football within the rules, to the best of their ability, with great sportsmanship, determination, a positive attitude and the willingness to understand that football is demanding both physically and mentally."   - Coach Rufus Bess