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Former Buc now a Rebel

By Staff | May 1, 2016

Joe Keuchenmeister will be coming to United South Central as their new activities director and dean of students.

He was raised a Blue Earth Area Buccaneer, then went to college and became a Gustavus Adolphus Lion. He moved to LeRoy, Minnesota, and currently works at the Leroy-Ostrander K-12 school and has been a devoted Cardinal for the past three years.

And now, Joe Kuechenmeister is heading back to Faribault County to become a United South Central Rebel after accepting the position as activities director and dean of students for the USC School District.

Currently, Kuechenmeister is still at LeRoy-Ostrander until the end of the 2015-16 school year as the activities director, community education coordinator, and is also a health and physical education teacher. Oh, and he is the head coach of the L-O Cardinals volleyball team and the junior high boys basketball coach.

He is certainly a busy guy and it seems that will not be changing anytime soon as he prepares to transition to his new position at USC for the 2016-17 school year.

Kuechenmeister says that as the new activities director, he will be scheduling both athletic and fine arts events at USC and monitoring students athletic eligibility as well as making sure the participation at USC events stay up.

“That’s one of my main goals,” says Kuechenmeister. “I want to keep up participation numbers for USC. I have heard nothing but good things about both their athletic and fine arts programs and I want to continue seeing good numbers for participation and attendance.”

As far as being the dean of students, that is a new territory for Kuechenmeister. But, he knows what he is getting into.

Currently at USC, both the elementary school principal, Tracey Magnuson, and high school principal, Kelly Schlaak, are finding a hard time keeping up with all of their duties as principals, which is why the dean of students position was created.

“I’ll be helping the principals with day to day behavioral issues. We will work on behavioral goals for both individual students and USC as a whole to create a positive school climate for the students,” says Kuechenmeister.

He says he is very much looking forward to working with Schlaak and Magnuson as he has heard nothing but good things.

“I’ve only met them once, but in that first encounter, I got a very good impression from them and am very much looking forward to working with them,” he says. “Both Kelly and Tracy are very well-respected by people in surrounding communities.”

Kuechenmeister also says he is looking forward to getting back to the familiar territory where he grew up.

“USC has new facilities that anyone would be excited to work at. I’m very excited to join the USC staff and getting to know the staff, faculty, and students,” he says. “I hope to provide quality programs for the school district and hope to work effectively with both the students and the staff.”

As anyone in the area knows, there has always been a bit of friendly competition between the USC?and BEA school districts, and Kuechenmeister is well aware of that fact. He says it is no trouble for him trading in maroon and gold for red and blue.

“I have spent the last three years as a Cardinal, so if I can make it through being a Cardinal, I think becoming a Rebel will be no sweat,” Kuechenmeister.