Dan Lefebvre – St. Michael-Albertville

Dan Lefebvre was born and raised on a dairy farm near Otsego, Minnesota. Dan had four brothers, three who wrestled, along with a sister who was a wrestling cheerleader. Dan started wrestling in kindergarten and graduated from St. Michael-Albertville in 1982. Lefebvre was a four-year varsity wrestler for three different head coaches – Dave Johnson, Scott Gehl, and Gregg Greeno. All three had a significant influence on Dan, along with Dick Pullen, who was the Head Coach at STMA when Dan was a kindie-beaner in the STMA Youth Wrestling program. Dan placed fourth at State as a Senior and was fortunate to have the opportunity to wrestle on a Minnesota Cultural Exchange Wrestling trip to Morocco, Africa, that summer on a Team of Minnesota Wrestlers coached by Brian and Bruce Aarvold.

After graduating from STMA, Lefebvre attended Willmar Community College and wrestled for one year under Roy Minter. After that year, Dan came back home to be a dairy farmer with his dad and two brothers. Lefebvre went back to school the following year and attended the University of Minnesota, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education.

After one year of assisting Ken Droegemueller at Osseo, Dan was hired to teach 6th Grade and coach Wrestling at St. Michael-Albertville in 1989. Lefebvre went back to get a Master’s Degree in Education at Hamline University, finishing up in 2000.

Lefebvre served as Gregg Greeno’s assistant for seventeen years, during which time STMA became a dominant program, qualifying for a slug of State Tournaments with many individual place-winners and six State Team Titles. Gregg and Dan served as Co-Head Coaches for two years before Dan took over the reins. In Dan’s twelve years at the helm, STMA had 67 State Place­ winners and 21 Individual Championships. The STMA Team placed all twelve years with 3 Team Titles and 5 Runner-up finishes. Lefebvre was named the MWCA Assistant Coach of the Year in 2006 and garnered MWCA Head Coach of the Year honors in 2010 and 2013. Dan also had the honor of serving as the Head Coach for Team Minnesota in the 2016 Cliff Kean / USA Wrestling Dream Team Classic. Dan received the USA Wrestling Cliff Kean Master of Coaching Award in 2018 and was inducted into the “CLASH” Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2020. Lefebvre was inducted into the Dave Bartelma Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022.

Lefebvre retired from teaching after 34 years in June of 2023. Dan has continued to coach wrestling and currently serves as the STMA Head Girl’s Wrestling Coach. In their inaugural season, the STMA Girls’ Wrestling Roster consisted of 21 girls with six State Qualifiers and

two State Place-winners. This year, Dan currently has 50 girls on his wrestling roster.

While in college, Dan and Karen were married. Karen was a wrestling cheerleader coming from the Becker wrestling family. All of her brothers wrestled with two of them (Jeff and Brian) winning State Titles. Karen, who Dan describes as the “rock” of the family has been a super support system for Dan and the family and works as an administrative assistant at a local law firm.

Dan and Karen have three children – Nathan, Rebecca, and Ross. Nathan was an All-State wrestler at STMA and wrestled for four years at St. John’s University, and serves as a wrestling official. Nathan and his wife, Amy, have two children – Helena and Zara. Daughter Rebecca served as a wrestling statistician throughout High School and currently teaches 6th Grade Science and coaches Tennis at STMA. Rebecca and husband Tim have three children – Charlotte, Bryce, and Vaughn. Bryce and Vaughn are both in their first year of Wrestling in the STMA Youth Program.

Son Ross was also an All-State Wrestler for STMA and wrestled at both UW-Eau Claire and St. Cloud State. Ross currently teaches Physical Education and Health in Wake Forest, North Carolina.