SweetwaterNOW congratulates the Class of 2019 Rock Springs High School Hall of Fame inductees. We will feature each inductee throughout the week leading up the banquet on Saturday, September 7. Profile features are made possible by Tanner Family Dentistry.
Ted Schroeder – Outstanding Coach
Ted Schroeder started teaching and coaching in 1974 after graduating from the University of Northern Colorado. His first and last teaching job was at Rock Springs High School in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
He retired from that school in 2011 after 37 years. He coached football for 16 years, starting a computerized statewide statistics program in 1981 that is still being used.
A Track and Field Legend
As the head track and field coach, in 1977 he combined the girl’s and boy’s track teams. This proved to offer a program that utilized the expertise of coaches for the female and male athletes. He was the head girls and boys track and field coach for 30 years and he also started the cross-country program in 1978 and coached that for three years.
He will be the first to admit that he was blessed with athletes and coaches that were committed to excellence and dedicated to success while maintaining a healthy life style. He states that by “doing the right things, winning takes care of itself”.
During his term as head track coach there were 60 state champs and 95 runner-up champions and his teams placed second at the state meet on three different occasions and placed in the top four on 12 occasions.
Forty-five known athletes went on to the college level. He is quick to give a lot of credit to the 20 Assistant Coaches that he mentored along the way – many have gone on to become successful head coaches.
Inspirations and Honors
During his coaching tenure Ted was inspired by several people and programs. He always tried to implement education-based coaching – coaching with an educational lifestyle goal in mind – focusing on doing things that were right for students and coaches including character development and healthy lifestyles, realizing their personal lives last longer than their high school athletic careers. He was very active in the Wyoming Target Program, a program for drug and alcohol prevention among athletes.
Ted was a four-time Wyoming Coaches Association Coach of the Year, nine times Conference Coach of the year. He was inducted into the WCA Hall of Fame in 2006. He received the highest award of the WCA – the Bill Farthing Distinguished Service Award in 2009.
He was inducted into the National High School Coaches Association (NHSACA) Hall of Fame in 2016. Having a track meet named after him was especially humbling, however he is very proud that the Ted Schroeder Track Meet of Hope continues to raise thousands of dollars for Cancer Research, thanks to the efforts of the current coaches.
Just two of the many plaques on Ted’s award shelf. 
Board Service
He was probably most known for his service and leadership to the WCA. He has served their board for 22 years serving as president from 2002 through 2004. He has been on that Executive Board for 11 years and Executive Director for six years. He was the Track and Field Representative for nine years.
He looks at himself as a forward thinker – always looking for change. Volunteering brings the best out in people. He was co-chair for organizing National Convention in Jackson Hole WY in 2014.
He is currently the President of the National Coaches Association (NHSACA), continuing to strive for Education-Based coaching implementation in every state.
He was on the NHSACA Board of Directors for 13 years, first as Region 7 Director and the last 5 of those years serving the Executive Board as the State Executive Director Representative. What he brings to the national level, was all learned on the local level.
He is very proud of his accomplishments in the classroom. He started a totally computerized accounting program, and in 1995 was selected as one of twenty Apple Distinguished Educators from around the country. He was a Wyoming finalist for Teacher of the Year in 2010.
Ted (far right) first started coaching football under Denny Brown. 
He mentored many track and field coaches during his 37 years at RSHS.
He started TIGER V.I.P., a student run business that produced video productions, and was honored as the Best Practice Educator by the Wyoming Department of Education in 2005. Ted was instrumental in career academies coming to Rock Springs High School and was the Director of the Energy Resource Academy.
He is most grateful to his wife Renee, for all of her years of guidance and support and especially her mental training skills. He says “I was very fortunate to be able to coach my two sons, Darin and Todd, in track and field. Spending every weekend with them for six years was priceless – those memories will never be lost. He is very proud of the productive citizens they have become”.
