Cloquet school board approves Jessica Youngren as girls basketball coach

The Cloquet school board reversed course and approved Jessica Youngren to lead the Lumberjacks girls basketball team in an early Friday meeting, ending a hiring dispute that began when the board rejected the recommendation at a May 26 meeting. The turnabout put Youngren, a former Barnum and Minnesota Duluth standout, back at the center of Cloquet’s basketball program.

Youngren brings deep ties to the school and the sport. She spent eight seasons as an assistant coach for the Cloquet girls basketball team and is the daughter of Barnum boys coach Rich Newman, a connection that adds to her familiarity with basketball in the region. The board’s decision means Cloquet will move forward with a coach who already knows the athletes, the staff and the expectations inside the program.

The reversal also shines a light on how the district handles extracurricular hiring. Board members first turned down the recommendation, then changed course days later and approved a candidate with an established track record in Cloquet. For a public school district, that kind of swing can affect confidence among families, athletes and would-be applicants who want to know whether hiring standards are being applied consistently.

Youngren was already listed on the Cloquet girls basketball team’s 2025-26 roster as an assistant coach alongside Katie Hughes, Katherine Rossetti and Madelynn Young. That detail underscores how closely tied she already was to the program before the board’s final vote. In a community where high school basketball carries real weight, the approval settles one immediate vacancy but leaves the larger question of process front and center: how Cloquet will explain, repeat and defend its hiring decisions the next time a coaching job comes before the board.