Former UW Oshkosh assistant football coach Luke Venne was named the head coach of the UW-Stevens Point football team on Monday.

“I’m very honored to have the ability to lead a group of men into a great sport of football and a great conference in the nation,” Venne said in a press conference Monday. “[This is] something that I’m extremely excited about.”

Venne, who also played for the Titans, coached at UWO for 19 years, including the last six years as Oshkosh’s offensive coordinator. He is a two-time winner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Assistant Coach of the Year award.

With Venne at the helm of the offense, UWO set school records in scoring, rushing, passing and total offense. He coached the two-time WIAC Offensive Player of the Year Brett Kasper and led the Titans to a school-record 550 points in 2015.

In 2016, Venne helped lead UWO to its first Stagg Bowl appearance as the Titans set a school record in rushing yards along the way. The offenses that Venne coached produced the three highest scoring seasons in school history.

Venne coached multiple national award winners during his time at Oshkosh including a Gagliardi winner, a Gagliardi finalist, a Remington Award winner and two Division III Offensive Player of the Year winners.

As a player, Venne was a four-year letter winner as an offensive lineman for UWO from 1998-2001. Venne also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UW Oshkosh.

Titan quarterback Kobe Berghammer said he was thankful to be able to spend time with Venne over the last few years.
“My time with coach venne was awesome and he helped me grow as a player as well as a person,” he said. “I am happy for him to be able to pursue this dream of his.”

UWO head coach Peter Jennings said that he wishes Venne the best of luck at his new position.
“Coach Venne deserves to be a head coach,” Jennings said in a meeting with his players Friday. “I know Coach Venne will be a great head coach.”

Venne takes over for Greg Breitbach, who stepped down as the head coach of the Pointers on March 10. Breitbach was just 9-21 in his three seasons at UWSP, and the Pointers did not win a conference game last season, going 0-7.