RILEY LOUKINEN

Coach Riley Loukinen has been a member of the St. Francis Coaching Staff since the 2022-23 season, where St. Francis Boys basketball was able to win the section championship and qualify for the state tournament for the first time in nine seasons.

Coach Loukinen had quite the playing career himself. A 2016 graduate of Little Fall High School, Loukinen was a 3x letter winner in both basketball and soccer, 2x all-conference basketball player, 3x all-conference soccer player, and 2nd-Team All-State selection for Soccer his senior year. After graduating, Riley went on to play both basketball and soccer at North Central University while attaining his degree in Mathematics.  On the soccer team, Loukinen earned two all-conference honorable mentions as a defensive anchor. During his 4-year career for the basketball team, Loukinen accumulated 63 starts while appearing in 90 games overall, and he was known for his 3-point shooting prowess. Coach Loukinen is the all-time career leader in 3-point field goal percentage for North Central, where he shot a blistering 43.4% from behind the arc. Loukinen also tied the record for most three-points made in a single game in North Central history, when he made 9 three-pointers against St. Scholastica during his senior season. During the 2020 season, Loukinen was also selected to receive the prestigious UMAC Scholar-Athlete Leadership Award.

After graduating from North Central in 2020, Coach Loukinen felt called to lead in youth ministry and became the Youth Pastor at Watermark Church in Stillwater, MN. After spending a little over a year at Watermark, Loukinen made the shift to The Bridge in 2022 - a local church located in Nowthen that serves many people in the St. Francis community. Loukinen has been the Youth pastor for The Bridge for a little over two years, and has also become the Varsity Assistant for the Boy's Soccer program under the leadership of his brother, Jake Loukinen. It is clear that whether Coach Loukinen is working with youth on Wednesday nights, coaching soccer players in the fall, or leading the lower levels of the basketball program in the winter, he cares deeply for St. Francis middle school and high school students.

Riley and his wife, Chloe, reside in St. Francis.