HURON Longtime Huron cross country coach Roger Loecker was recently inducted into the South Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame during a ceremony held at the Highland Conference Center in Mitchell.
Also inducted at the event were Charlie Sizer of Miller, Ken Bonte of Beresford, Scott Ewald of Watertown, Rich Luther of Lennox and Joan Rachetto of Lead-Deadwood.
Loecker, a Yankton native, was the head cross country coach and an assistant track coach in Huron from 1969-2008.
During his tenure in Huron, Loecker guided the Tigers to three state cross country titles, while finishing as runner-up five times. His teams won seven Eastern South Dakota Conference titles and finished as the runner-up in the ESD nine times.
Throughout his cross country coaching career, Loecker had 88 all-state runners and 124 All-ESD runners. He was named the Girls Cross County Coach of the Year in 1985 and was nominated for the award five times, as well as being named as the Regional Coach of the Year four times.
In 2003, Loecker was named as the National Regional Cross Country Coach of the Year, after also being nominated for the honor in 1986 and 1988.
Loecker was elected president of the Cross Country Coaches Association when it was formed in 1990 and was the recipient of the ESD Conference Award of Merit in 2007.
In 2017, the Huron Invitational for cross country was renamed the Roger Loecker Invitational in his honors. He was elected to the Huron High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.
Loecker was also inducted into the Yankton College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018 and the South Dakota Cross Country and Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2020.
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