Saint Peter Public Schools

Saint Peter High Schools’ Activities Office recently announced the hiring of Air Chantharak as the Saints’ new girls basketball head coach, replacing Bob Southworth who stepped down recently after 15 years in leading the program.

(PICTURED ABOVE) New Saints' girls basketball coach Air Chantharak (far right) is shown here with the team's captains for the 2025-26 season (l to r) Kylie Southworth, Rowyn Myhra, and Auden Anderson.

Chantharak, who most recently was the head coach for Mankato Loyola’s girls program for the previous four years, is no stranger to the Saint Peter school system as he has been a special education teacher at SPHS for the past six years.

Chantharak has 12 years of basketball coaching experience at the varsity to junior high level including a stint as head boys basketball coach at Tri-City United before taking a teaching position at SPHS. He also has five seasons of experience coaching both girls and boys in the AAU circuit as part of the Minnesota Rise program. He also was an assistant boys basketball coach for the Saints’ boys program, under Sean Keating, for three years prior to taking the Loyola head job.

Air and his wife, Whitney (Dirks), live in rural Kasota and have two children (daughter, Raegan, and son, Roscoe). Whitney is a 2008 graduate of SPHS and a former Saints girls basketball player. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and received his teaching and master’s degree from Minnesota State University (Mankato).

The new Saints’ girls basketball mentor took time recently to answer a few questions about his new role:

What are you most excited about in taking over the Saints’ girls basketball program? The chance to work with the student-athletes that I see in the hallways daily and create a positive connection of mentorship with them through basketball. I think I bring a strong culture-building background that relates well to today's athletes with a unique conceptual and analytical basketball coaching style; it will be fun to implement it with the St. Peter Girls Basketball program (youth through varsity).

What would you say your basketball coaching philosophy is? I seek to use the game of basketball to help athletes navigate the world before them by fostering an environment of growth and discipline both mentally and physically.  I have a mantra that I love to follow, compete, and coach by.  It’s called #BeDifferent.  The basis behind the mantra stands on 3 main principles.  Focus on getting better each day, be a servant leader, and don’t wait until tomorrow to do what you can today. The concept behind #BeDifferent is to understand what matters most is how we conduct ourselves in our interactions with others, creating positive habits that help us chase our goal(s), and to be learning life skills that help us become more resilient when faced with adversity.  I believe that if I can help athletes achieve these skills and habits, the leaders on the team will guide the team to a successful and rewarding season that isn’t based on wins and losses, but on understanding that the team was able to push and compete at the highest level it could and be satisfied with the outcome of each season knowing they gave their absolute best effort both on and off the court to come closer as a team and become better people along the way.

Have you had a chance to talk to any of the players yet? Teaching at Saint Peter High School for the past seven years, I’ve had the benefit of already knowing most of the athletes from youth basketball camps, activities such as student council, and passing conversations in the hallway or during lunch periods.  I’ve also been at many games to watch the girls compete over the last few years.  So most of them know who I am and we already have positive relationships. With others who I haven’t been able to get to know yet, I look forward to building that connection with them during the summer and winter seasons.

I’ve also had the chance to sit down with some of the captains and start the planning process of summer programming.  I’m pretty excited about it and summer programming is one of my favorite parts of head coaching where we get to simply focus on skills and program culture without having to worry too much about competition.

Another connection piece that I’ve been lucky to have is that I’ve also hosted basketball events for the younger athletes the last couple summers at Loyola that St. Peter girls came over and took advantage of such things as 3v3, mini-camps, and scrimmages; so it’s nice to know a few of the names and faces coming up already in the junior high/elementary levels and they should at least know who I am, hopefully!