Baseball coach resigns, board talks superintendent position
By Ted Pennekamp
The resignation of Mark Pedretti as Prairie du Chien High School baseball coach was accepted at the Prairie du Chien School Board meeting Monday night.
Pedretti served 28 seasons as head coach (1984-1998, 2007-2019) joining Andy Banasik (this upcoming season being his 27th) and Paul Bebow (26 seasons) as the only coaches in school history to have been a varsity head coach at Prairie High for more than 20 seasons in one sport.
Pedretti owns a career record of 430-177-2 overall and 248-62-1 in SWC/SWAL conference games. Pedretti was inducted into both the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (the first ever inductee from Prairie du Chien) and the Prairie du Chien High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.
A more detailed and thorough article about Pedretti’s coaching career will be published in an upcoming edition of the Courier Press.
In other business, the school board discussed the district administrator position in closed session. The position will be vacant after Sept. 13 with the resignation of Robert Smudde. The district will conduct interviews for the district administrator position on Sept. 11. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards gave the district the names of four candidates.
In further business, the board accepted several donations. The Eagles Club, 3M and People’s State Bank donated school supplies. Christine Panka donated refreshments to the B.A. Kennedy staff. Elroy and Linda Sondreal made a financial donation to the B.A. Kennedy Club account. The Eagles Club made a financial donation to the B.A. Kennedy Club account.