Page 12 Fall Football Preview • Thursday, August 27, 2026 sailor. mnsun. com
BRECK MUSTANGS
New coaches look to guide young, ambitious roster
DOMINIC BISOGNO dominic. bisogno @ apgecm. com
Major changes on the sideline have Breck football looking to be a point of interest in Class AAA football this season. The Mustangs are young to the highest degree, but youthful energy combined with a coaching staff steeped in high school experience could prove to be a dynamic pairing for a program with its share of history.
New head coach Chris Goodwin, previously at Central High School in Norwood Young America, explained that he arrived at Breck with admiration for the school and excitement to get started.
“ We’ d had a lot of success at Norwood Young America,” Goodwin said.“ I lived in Edina and that meant there was quite a bit of distance, not quite the long-term connection I wanted. My daughters went to Blake, so I always knew of Breck and I’ ve always admired the school, many of the sports programs here. When I found out there could be an opening, I was interested.”
Breck football has seen three different head coaches from 2024 to 2026, leaving Goodwin with a core task of establishing himself quickly and effectively.
Goodwin added that while Breck is young this season, he is hopeful about the commitment being shown by its youthful roster.
“ We’ ve got a huge junior class of 27 and a lot of them got playing time last year. There’ s a lot of promise there, some college-level players in the mix.
( SUN PHOTO BY DOMINIC BISOGNO)
Kashif Tareen takes part in a recent pre-season practice for the Breck School.
They’ ve been doing their lifting and grown in general, so I think they’ re ready to step up.”
The Mustangs had a solid 2025 season, going 6-4 and ending their season with a loss to eventual state qualifiers Minneapolis North. It does stand out, however, that last year’ s junior class was just five strong, meaning that several key departures from the class of 2026 have left notable holes to fill.
Junior running back Al Klarfeld noted that two years of new coaches have brought their challenges, but added that the Mustangs are excited to work with Goodwin’ s staff and to prove a point.
“ At first, I think it was difficult to get used to the new scheme, especially because we had a new scheme last season,” Klarfeld continued.“ But, I think we’ ve all come to really love this coaching staff. They have a ton of experience. Last year, we had a lot of energy and we were good on discipline, even against teams that were bigger than us. … I think the way this team responds to adversity is a big thing. We’ ll be smaller, we might have fewer guys, but we’ ll trust each other going into every game.”
Junior lineman Kashif Tareen added that the Mustangs are focused on doing the hard work, and that their youthful roster is not as inexperienced as it may seem.
“ We have really great positional coaches this year. I think that’ s an area we’ ve gotten better in. Our goal is to go into every game like we have something to prove,” Tareen said.“ We want to keep the same intensity we had over the summer when we all committed to training. … We are a younger team, but I think a lot of us feel like we’ re older than we are because we’ ve had small senior classes, so a lot of us have been around the team or even played regularly for a long time.”
Breck looked for big moves in leadership this offseason and has found an answer. Goodwin shared that an extremely experienced coaching staff can be the key to guiding a solid roster in the right direction.
“ The first order of business for us was putting together a great staff and we did that. Collectively, we have 132 years of coaching,” Goodwin observed.“ We have one returning coach and the rest of us are new. There’ s a lot of wins, seven state championships, between all of us. The players understand what we’ re here to do and they can see that we know what needs to be done. There’ s been a ton of buy-in. The majority of the team came to summer practices and they ended up having some form of captains’ practice practically every day, with a big turnout. I’ ve never seen that before.”
QUICK HITS
Head Coach
Chris Goodwin First year
Last Year’ s Record: 6-4
Key Returning Players
Senior defensive back Charlie Gunn is a standout with 10 tackles in 2025. He is joined by linemen Jack Anderson, Kashif Tareen, and Holden Gilbertson. Several juniors, from running back Al Klarfeld to linebacker Ty Watson, bring small but vital portions of experience.
Schedule
Sept. 4: Harding / Humboldt Sept. 11: At Twin Cities Charter at
7 p. m. Sept. 18: St. Cloud Tech Sept. 25: St. Agnes Oct. 2: At Concordia Academy at
7 p. m. Oct. 9: At Brooklyn Center Oct. 14, St. Croix Lutheran Oct. 21, At South St. Paul at 7 p. m.
Game times 6 p. m. unless otherwise noted