It’s nice to get back to the collegiate level. It’s definitely different.”

Coach Bob Loshek

Different uniform -- red, white and blue instead of green and black. But it’s the same Bob Loshek out there at first base.

The same frequent smiles, the same pats on the helmet as players pass and the same sage baserunning, defense and hitting advice.

Loshek, who coached Park High softball from 2009 to 2024, is now an assistant coach at Saint Mary’s University in Winona.

“It’s nice to get back to the collegiate level,” said Loshek. “It’s definitely different.”

Still a teacher in the South Washington Country School District, in many ways, coaching a Winona softball team is a homecoming for Loshek. His father was a softball coach at Winona High school before passing away at a very young age. His mother and other family still live in Winona. Daughter Corinna, a former Park softball standout, attended and played softball at Winona State University.

Loshek was with the Saint Mary’s Cardinals in St. Paul Friday afternoon for a doubleheader sweep against host St. Kate’s, winning 16-0 and 13-5. Saint Mary’s improved to 15-3 on the season.

Loshek was hired to coach softball at Park in 2009, taking over from legendary coach Charlie Whitbred. Following that legend wasn’t easy, but Loshek had the chops to do it. His Park teams went 282-78, won numerous Suburban East Conference and three section titles and made three appearances in the state Class AAAA girls softball tournament. Park won a state consolation title in 2016 and went 24-2 and finished as the state runner-up finish in 2018.

Loshek came to Park after being an assistant at Woodbury for four years. He also coached a year at Mounds View, three years at the University of St. Thomas under John Tschida and two years at Winona Cotter under Pat Bowlin.

Asked what Loshek brings to the Saint Mary’s program, “Experience, right, he’s an old man now,” laughed Saint Mary’s coach Tschida. “He’s played the game at a high level, so he’s coached really good level softball right, Park Cottage Grove has always been really good. So, he brings experience. He’s here limited because of his distance and all that but when he comes, he knows what’s going on and he can just jump right in, so that’s nice.

And familiarity with the program as well. We go back years. He’s coached with us for a lot of years and has been around us, so he knows our mind set and that really helps a lot,” Tschida continued.

There are differences between coaching high school and college softball, said Loshek, who teaches social studies at Cottage Grove Middle School. 

“For one you always have the girls that want to play,” said Loshek. “They’re there to play softball. High school is great, a great atmosphere, there’s a lot of good stuff for high school ball. But college is, you’re there to play, you’re there to win, that’s just the way college is. With coach Tschida is about winning, it’s about to compete for a national title every year. There’s that mind set of you’re always after it, to get after it every day, versus sometimes in high school you’re not always going to be that way.”

The relationship between the coaches and the parents of team members is also very different.

“The biggest difference right now, the parents – the parents are the biggest difference,” Loshek said. “High school parents are just different now. It’s club ball. They pay so much money for club ball that club, that’s summer and fall, but then they get to spring, and parents get too involved and they kind of – today’s parents are starting to live through their kids. Most of them do.

“Back in the day our parents kind of kicked us in the rear end if we didn’t get after it,” Loshek continued. “Not if we didn’t play well, just if we didn’t get after it where nowadays it’s kind of like you pay this money the club does whatever and then they just expect their kid to play. Well, there’s 16 to 18 kids on a high school team. We have 34 on a college team. So, you can see not everybody plays, btu you always have to be ready to play and that’s the difference besides club everybody plays with 11 kids on the team.”

Loshek still lives in Cottage Grove and isn’t able to make the trip to Winona on a daily basis, and that’s another thing he misses about coaching at Park. “For one I miss being able to go every day. From work and from home it’s when I can make it.”

Loshek’s long relationship with coach Tschida has made the transition smoother. The two obviously share a mutual respect.

“I think what helps is Coach Tschida is so focused on so many different things that sometimes I can bring a little sense of reality and a little down to earth with the girls,” said Loshek. “And also, I’m not with them every single day so it helps that when I do get to see them it seems like they’re relived to see me when I do show up for practice and games. Now somebody who isn’t around softball every day, he’s in the community, he’s teaching, he’s with kids but yet he gets the game, he’s been around the game, he’s played the game his whole life and it’s just coach Tschida. He thinks the same way as coach Tschida but he’s not coach Tschida.”