Wood River High School boys' varsity basketball coach Fred Trenkle has applied for the head coaching job at his alma mater, NCAA Division 1 four-year school Idaho State University in Pocatello.
Trenkle, 56, said, "Wood River is a good training ground, but I felt I had some more college coaching in me and my #1 priority was to go where I've played basketball."
The ISU coaching job opened up Jan. 23 and should be filled by April. Trenkle just completed his third year as Wood River's cage coach with an 8-14 record after Thursday's 46-41 Great Basin Conference West tournament loss to Minico, in Rupert.
Said Trenkle, "ISU needs a coach's coach and that appeals to me. I think I'd do a great job for them. Time will tell. But I'm not closing the book on returning to Wood River if I don't get the ISU job."
Eighth-year ISU men's basketball coach Doug Oliver announced Jan. 17 that he will step down as the Bengals coach at the end of the 2005-06 season. Oliver (86-132), ISU's head coach since 1998, is the 19th coach in Bengal history. He previously spent 17 years as an assistant coach, starting in 1976 at Boise State University and mostly at Stanford University.
Oliver's current Bengal squad (11-13, 3-9 league) with three seniors, six juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen is making a late push for a berth in the March 4 Big Sky Conference tournament. But Thursday's 70-67 home league loss to Portland State (9-15, 2-9 league) in the 3,040-seat Reed Gym was a step backward.
When coach Oliver made his announcement in January, ISU director of athletics Paul Bubb said he hoped to have a new head coach named before the basketball season ends.
Frank Mercogliano, ISU assistant athletic director for media relations, said Thursday that the committee to pick a new coach has met twice and has about 50 applications—but no announcement will be made until the middle of March to the end of March.
Trenkle's application has been received, Mercogliano said, but the committee has yet to narrow down the field to a list of final candidates. Trenkle is employed by the Blaine County School District as a teacher at Wood River Middle School.
After playing junior college basketball at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Trenkle played two years of Division 1 basketball at ISU from 1968-70. He graduated from the Pocatello college in 1970 with a degree in social science and physical education.
Shoshone native Trenkle started his 32-year coaching career at Wood River High School, where he had a 100-58 record during the 1970s.
Subsequently he was an assistant coach for Eddie Sutton at the University of Arkansas. Trenkle then became the most successful coach in College of Southern Idaho basketball history from 1984-93. At CSI Trenkle had a remarkable 329-36 record in 10 seasons and one national NJCAA championship, in 1987.
His first Division 1 head coaching stint at San Diego State University was less successful.
Trenkle was head coach there from 1994-99 and was asked to resign. He returned to Idaho after San Diego State bought out his final contract year. Trenkle was one of three finalists for the CSI coaching job that went to 39-year-old Guy Beach in Aug. 2001. Beach (52-12) lasted two years at CSI before moving to Fresno State as an assistant.
Concerned with fulfilling family obligations in Shoshone and always mindful of the health of his wife Juanita, Trenkle picked up the pieces and started teaching at Wood River Middle School. He was hired as Wood River head coach in Sept. 2003, replacing Jeff Larson (15-74).
In his first year of his second stint at Wood River, Trenkle guided the Wolverines to the State 3A tournament and an 11-14 record in 2004. Wood River moved up to the tougher 4A classification the next season and Trenkle's cage teams have gone 2-20 and 8-14 since.
In 10 seasons covering two separate stints at Wood River, Trenkle has a 121-106 record.
