After decade overseas, Wrzesinskis glad to be home

On a crowded street in Shanghai one day a few years ago, a couple of Montana high school football coaches ran into each other.

Jon Wrzesinski recognized Jack Johnson.

“He was the only one with a big cowboy hat on,” Wrzesinski laughed. “And wearing cowboy boots.

“It was unbelievable.”

Wrzesinski, a Stanford native and former Harlowton football coach, was working in China. Johnson, the legendary Great Falls figure, was visiting family.

Wrzesinski spent 10 years in Harlowton, leaving in 2003. He and his family then moved overseas for 10 years, living in Pakistan for two years and eight in Shanghai, China.

Johnson’s son, Mark, also taught for years in China.

“We saw him all the time,” Jon said. “Pretty good coincidence.”

Both families have returned to the United States. Mark Johnson is now a professor at the University of Notre Dame and Wrzesinski is the superintendent at Baker in eastern Montana, where his children are star athletes for the Spartans.

Wrzesinski, 50, is from Stanford. His wife, Michele, is from Harlowton. She was a highly successful track coach for the Engineers back in the day and is an assistant track coach in Baker these days. Not so long ago, the two were highly successful coaches in Harlowton.

“We just needed a different challenge and something new,” he said. “We thought we’d try it for a couple years and all of a sudden we were there 10 and our kids were in school. Our experiences in Montana are pretty valuable to us so we wanted to get back home.”

After two years at Ennis, where Wrzesinski served as principal, the family is now in Baker.

“Baker’s got some pretty good things going on, facilities-wise and people-wise,” he said. “We like it.”

The family includes Cleet, a senior, and Wrenzi, a sophomore. Both are standout athletes.

Just like the old man?

“I wasn’t too bad,” Jon said with a laugh. “But I wasn’t that good.”

Jon and Harry Clark grew up together in Stanford. Clark moved to Cascade and found fame as a track athlete, eventually at Montana State. Jon went to the University of North Dakota and was a decathlete and football player.

Cleet Wrzesinski, a 6-foot, 170-pounder who has the top times in the state in the 110 and 300 hurdles this spring, was heavily recruited by several Treasure State schools and has decided to play football and run track at Dickinson (N.D.) State.

Wrenzi is also a multiple-sport athlete at Baker, participating in volleyball, basketball and track. She also is among the best sprinters and hurdlers in Montana this spring.

“They work hard at it and have been involved in it since they were old enough to run,” Jon said. “It’s nice to seeing the work pay off.”

Clete wasn’t the only star athlete to move away from Ennis following last season. Wade Luly has transferred to his hometown of Shelby for his season senior. Both were members of a record-setting Ennis 1600 relay team last spring.

Will the Wrzesinski family be in Baker long-term?

“We’ll be here until Wrenzi is out of school for sure,” Jon said. “We enjoy it.”

Then he laughed.

“I guess we’ll be here as long as they want us to be here,” he said.

Jon said he misses coaching football.

“I do,” he said. “But it’s changed. The parental influence and specialization and stuff has changed it. I don’t think I’d enjoy that at all. But I do miss the X’s and O’s and camaraderie with the coaches. Montana is unique, as you know, because it doesn’t matter what classification you’re in, all the coaches know each other and help each other. I do miss that part of it.”

American football isn’t offered in China.

“They play rugby,” Jon said. “Cleet had never played football until we moved back here.”

He said living overseas was extremely rewarding for his family.

“The schools are highly, highly academic-oriented,” he said. “Also what my kids gained out of it was the travel opportunities that we had. Both my kids speak Mandarin (language). They’re fluent in Chinese. That’s valuable.

“We traveled all over the world and that was a neat experience. There was 57 different nationalities at our school, so they got to meet kids from all over the earth.”

Jon’s father, John, coached many years in Stanford and lives in Harlowton now with his wife, Joyce. To be closer to the grandparents is one big reason the Wrzesinskis wanted to come back home.

And they’re glad to be back.

“Absolutely,” Jon said. “We’re extremely glad to be back here. It’s something we knew the whole time we were over there. We were just waiting for the right timing to get back and everything’s seemed to work out good.”