HURON — At Monday night’s School Board meeting, the Huron Board of Education honored Coach Roger Loecker for his 41 years of coaching at Huron from 1967-2008 including the Junior High, Head Cross Country and Head Assistant Varsity Track. Superintendent Terry Nebelsick presented Loecker with a Declaration of Appreciation, which listed Loecker’s accomplishments for the district.
Loecker led more State Championships than any Tiger coach in the more than 100 years of Huron High School history, his cross country teams won three state team titles, five state team runner-up finishes, seven ESD conference team titles and nine ESD team runner-up finishes. Loecker coached 88 all-state runners and 124 ESD winners, he was named Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1985 and National Regional Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2003.
Loecker’s girl’s cross country team was chosen by South Dakota sportswriters as “High School Team of the Year,” in 1980 the same year he was named Assistant Coach of the Year.
In 1990, when the South Dakota Cross Country Association was formed, Loecker was named Charter President, in 2007 was awarded with the ESD Conference Award of Merit and in 2009 was included into the Huron High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
Finally, the board declared that the “5-Star Cross Country Meet,” will now be named the “Roger Loecker Invitational Cross Country Meet.”  

Mike Radke, High School Principal, gave a good news report to show how the beginning of the school year so far has been. Radke started with the success of the Freshmen Night, which 164 of 181 freshmen attended and two presentations were given for translation purposes for the first time. Other back to school events included Freshmen Orientation and first day of school class meetings to prepare students for the coming year and, eventually, graduation.
Homecoming coronation took place Monday evening, Radke listed homecoming events that will take place this week and Friday will be the early release day with the homecoming parade at 2 p.m., there will be a Tiger Roar Club Tailgate, football game against Mitchell and a dance to end the evening.
The Huron Middle School and Washington 4-5 Center were congratulated for raising test scores above “Focus” status, “that is something to be exceptionally proud of, the board has had student achievement at the top of their board goals for the last five years,” said Nebelsick.
Congratulations were also given to the Huron Cheer Team for earning first place in the cheer competition held on Tuesday, Sept. 19, to junior high student Caleb Adermann for being selected to be on a High School Unified Special Olympics Basketball team (he will attend the 2018 USA Special Olympic Games in Seattle, Wash.), also to Amanda Katzenberger, Huron Special Olympics Coach, for being named the assistant coach for the HS Unified Basketball Team that will also be attending the 2018 Special Olympic Games.
This year the administrative team will have a book study entitled “Uniting Academic and Behavior Interventions,” to research ways to intervene with students to help them succeed in the classroom.
In new business, President of the Board, Tim VanBerkum was elected Legislative Action Network Representative and Garret Bischoff was elected Delegate Assembly Representative for the Delegate Assembly later this year.
The board wrapped up the meeting and had a short recess to prepare for the Goal Setting Session with the administrative team. Tuesday, Oct. 10, will be the next Board of Education meeting at 5:30 p.m., as Oct. 9 is Native American Day and there will be no school.

Photo:

At right, Superintendent Terry Nebelsick presents Roger Loecker, left, coach of 41 years at Huron, with a Declaration of Appreciation at Monday evening’s board meeting.

Photo contributed