SOLON SPRINGS — During a road trip to Hurley in 2004, Solon Springs head coach Dale Rajala pulled one of his assistants aside and told him the time to pass the torch was nearing.
That assistant was Nate Ahlberg, a 1996 graduate of Solon Springs, then in his mid-20s, who had been on staff under Rajala for a couple of seasons after he completed a collegiate playing career at St. Schalotsica years earlier.
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“I was an assistant in 2003 and 2004,” Ahlberg said. “We were in Hurley in 2004 and he just said, ‘I’m going to be done after this year, and it’s something I want you to consider taking over.’”
Rajala had been on staff since 1995 and in the head coaching position since 1996, but he felt it was time to move on, plus, the ideal successor was already in his dugout.
“I knew Nathan had the ability to get his teams to where they are,” Rajala said. “I knew that he had all of the qualities to be a fantastic coach and run a phenomenal baseball program.”
When Ahlberg took over in 2005, it was the genesis of a head coaching tenure that has spanned two-plus decades.
The 2024 campaign was unquestionably his most successful, as he led Northwood/Solon Springs to its first state tournament. The Green Eagles finished with a 19-2 record, and one of the two losses came at the hands of Eleva-Strum in the Division 4 state championship game.
Ahlberg's success garnered the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s 2024 Coach of the Year distinction.
“It’s a great honor and I’m blessed to receive something like this,” Ahlberg said. “We’re a long way from the center of Wisconsin, so to be recognized for what our team did this year just proves that we have good baseball in this corner of the state.”
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Northwood/Solon Springs may have assembled its best season in program history, but that does not mean it came easy. Nagging injuries threatened to derail the season long before opening day last spring.
No injuries were more crucial than those of seniors Kaden Corlett, who missed the season recovering from a knee surgery he underwent after the basketball season, and Dylan Taggart, who had a nagging back injury that had him in and out of the lineup.
Losing Corlett left the Green Eagles without a Division I-caliber arm and their cleanup hitter. Taggart’s absence was a tremendous loss offensively, as batting was often too painful, which meant his contributions — although impactful — were only defensively.
“We were never 100% health-wise,” Ahlberg said. “What we accomplished without our best team on the field was a testament that we didn’t quit and kept pushing. The guys who played, they played awesome. That goes to show what kind of crew we had.”
That’s not to say Northwood/Solon Springs was without impact athletes. Senior Abe Ahlberg, who is Nate Ahlberg's son, finished his final campaign with a 0.54 ERA and 113 strikeouts while walking just 11 batters across 51 ⅔ innings. He also batted .460 for the Green Eagles last spring.
Maximizing talent at his disposal while finding a way to navigate injuries that could have hampered the season was something Nate Ahlberg learned from Rajala as a senior at Solon Springs in 1996.
“We don’t coach in the same manner, but I learned a lot from him about coaching and getting the most out of my players,” Ahlberg said. “He always got the most out of his athletes. That’s one big thing I took from him, getting the most out of what we have.”
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Nurturing that skill helped Ahlberg turn the program into a baseball powerhouse across the last two decades, particularly since the co-op began in 2021. In four years since joining forces with Northwood, the Green Eagles are 42-0 in East Lakeland Conference play.
Those seasons included four league titles, as many regional championships, a pair of trips to the sectional title game and one state tournament berth.
When Northwood/Solon Springs took the field on that hot June morning for the first state tournament game in program history, people from all over the Midwest flocked to the ballpark — mostly Solon Springs alumni.
One was Joe Wicklund, Duluth Denfeld’s head baseball coach who is a 1996 Solon Springs graduate. Wicklund was the pitcher to Ahlberg’s catcher for years — high school and college at St. Scholastica — and watching Ahlberg lead their alma mater to the pinnacle of the sport made him beam with pride.
“To be able to lead a team that was a formative part of your life to the highest level of success, there is nothing more special than that,” Wicklund said. “The place that raised you and was so influential to both Nathan and my life, he led those kids and that team to the highest level of success.”
While Ahlberg was a standout catcher at every level of the sport, Wicklund said that was only part of what made him a special player and coach.
“He’s so ingrained in the lives of everyone in that school, whether they’re his players or not,” Wicklund said. “That kindness, still expecting excellence, but that care and love he has for his students and baseball players, it’s genuine all the time and it helps.”
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When Ahlberg and Wicklund were at Solon Springs in the mid-1990s, they played for four different coaching staffs in as many years, the last of which Rajala led.
Ahlberg acknowledged the coaching turnstile didn’t significantly hinder success, but it also didn’t make things easier. That experience shaped him, and when he took over at Solon Springs he vowed to ensure his players would not experience the same thing he did.
“I think that had a huge influence on him,” Wicklund said. “There is so little continuity in your life at that age, to add in four coaches we didn’t have the same certainty as others. There is so much change in your life already, so to not have that one change is so big. That’s such a wonderful gift.”
Those in and around the program share the sentiment that having Ahlberg in place as a knowledgeable, caring head coach has been the gift that keeps on giving. Perhaps nobody is more proud of him than Rajala.
“I’m so proud of him,” Rajala said. “Nate has put so much time into his program. I’m happy for him and his family. To share it with his sons is just awesome. He has a legacy here, and he still has a lot of great years ahead of him. I’m excited to see where the program continues to go.”
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