Two Menomonie High School graduates who earned football All-Big Rivers Conference honors have made coaching their profession and are coaching with NCAA Division I programs.

Luke Schleusner, a 1997 MHS graduate, is in his second season at the University New Mexico as the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and Mark Sipple, a 1991 MHS graduate is in his first year as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Drake University.

Schleusner joined the University of New Mexico football program in December 2024.  He comes to New Mexico after a three-year stint with Idaho. Over his long coaching career, Schleusner has developed a reputation for his innovative offensive schemes and adaptability. In 2025, with the Lobos, Schleusner featured an offense that set a season record for completion percentage and ranked in the top 10 all-time for points scored in a season.

The Lobos are making noise nationally and made their first-ever appearance in the AP FCS Top 25 Poll last week, coming in at 22nd. Despite a dominating 31-3 win over Nevada Nov. 6, New Mexico slipped one spot to 23rd in this week’s AP poll. Schleusner’s offense leads the Mountain West Conference in scoring at 34.6 points per game and is averaging 362.6 yards per contest. Three times this season the Lobos hav tallied more than 400 yards in a single game and seven times have exceeded 300 total yards. New Mexico is currently 8-1 overall, with their only loss of the season coming to perennial football powerhouse Oklahoma in the third game of the season.

Schleusner spent three seasons (2022-24) as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Idaho, running an offense that made the FCS playoffs in all three seasons.

Schleusner spent eight seasons with the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (2014-21), where he spent six seasons coaching tight ends before moving to passing game coordinator and receivers coach for his final two.

Schleusner spent three years at North Dakota (2011-13), eventually serving as offensive coordinator at UND, his alma mater.  He also coached tight ends, fullbacks, and receivers, serving as the passing game coordinator for a season.  He helped the Fighting Sioux win the Great West Football Conference title in 2011. In those years, UND’s offense set school records for passing yards and touchdowns.

Schleusner started his full-time coaching career at Minnesota State-Mankato, spending six years with the Mavericks (2005-10). He served as Special Teams Coordinator and Recruiting Coordinator for four years, concluding his tenure with two seasons as Passing Game Coordinator and Wide Receivers coach.

Schleusner’s career began with a three-year stint at Western Illinois (2002-04) as a graduate assistant, starting as a tight ends coach for two years before adding the title of Special Teams Coordinator for 2004.

As a player, Schleusner was an All-North Central Conference performer for North Dakota in 2001 as a wide receiver, helping the then Fighting Sioux to the 2001 Division II National Championship. As a senior, he caught 57 passes, including a 58-yard catch on fourth-and-four with under a minute to go to set up the game-winning touchdown in a 17-14 win over Grand Valley State in the National Championship game.  All told, in 2001, he recorded 762 yards and eight touchdowns, and he was twice an All-NCC Academic selection.

At Menomonie High School the 1997 graduate was an all-state wide receiver and also earned basketball honorable mention all-conference honors.

Sipple began at Drake in February 2026 after Matt Walker, the head coach who claimed a 2025 NCAA Division III football national title at UW-River Falls, took over the Bulldog program. Former UW-Stout wide receiver and assistant coach Levy Hamer is also on the Bulldog staff.

Sipple previously coached at NCAA Division II schools Augustana University in South Dakota (2020-25) and St. Cloud State University (2014-19) as the Vikings’ and Huskies’ defensive coordinator. He was also defensive coordinator at UW-Eau Claire (2003-13) and Wisconsin Lutheran College (1998-2002) after starting his leadership career as a graduate assistant at the University of North Dakota (1996-97), coaching outside linebackers.

Sipple helped guide teams to three NSIC Championships (2021, 2023, 2024), three NCAA Division II Playoff berths (2021, 2023, 2024), was named 2023 NSIC Assistant Coach of the Year, and earned the 2007 WIAC Assistant Coach of the Year honor while at Eau Claire.

Individually, he coached Peyton Buckley, the 2024 NSIC Player of the Year. While at Augustana, the Viking defense led the nation in rushing yards per game (41.8) in 2021. His SCSU defense led the country in average yards per rush allowed (2.11) in 2019.

Sipple earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary math education from UW-Eau Claire before receiving a master’s degree in educational administration at North Dakota. At Menomonie, Sipple was an all-conference linebacker.

Menomonie Collegians is a regular feature of Menomonie News Net. The column is not limited to student-athletes, but may be a former Menomonie area student in a play, forensics, music or any type of collegiate competition. If you know of a Menomonie Collegian, please email [email protected].

The column “Menomonie Collegians” by Layne Pitt is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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