Rogers given opportunity at Stanley County
By Chris Mangan
chris.mangan@capjournal.com
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, Feb 10, 2011 - 06:05:04 am CST
On Thursday, he will be recognized for his coaching as the former girls’ basketball coach and current football coach will be inducted into the Stanley County Hall of Fame.
“I was a 22-year-old kid 23 years ago that was given an opportunity to come to the small community of Fort Pierre and teach and coach,” Rogers said. “It was my first teaching and coaching position. Just having the opportunity to build a career was special. The 21 years that I coached girls’ basketball, there is a lot of fond memories there. I had the opportunity to coach a lot of good athletes that worked hard.”
While on the bench for the Lady Buffaloes, Rogers racked up a 302-153 record, which included 10 district championships, six district runner-ups and five state tournament appearances, including three fourth-place finishes at the state tournament.
“We had a lot of successful years,” Rogers said. “Five trips to the state tournament. It would have been icing on the cake if along there somewhere we would have won a state title. But just getting the opportunity to take kids to the state tournament and compete at the highest level was really nice.”
In 2009, Rogers retired from coaching girls’ basketball with family playing a major role in his decision. Rogers’ son, Josh, is a member of the Oahe Capitals hockey team and watching the final two years of his son’s high school hockey career helped Rogers decide to hang it up.
“The biggest thing is my son is playing hockey, that was the main decision,” Rogers said. “His sophomore year was my last year of coaching girls’ basketball and I missed a lot of games. I knew that I was never going to get those years back being able to watch him play.
“It was hard stepping away. I think if my son would have been in the eighth grade and wasn’t on his last two years of high school, I would probably still be coaching girls’ basketball. I didn’t walk away from the game because I was burned out; I just knew that I was going to get one chance to watch my son play hockey.”
The fire is still there for Rogers to be on the sideline and coaching basketball. If the opportunity presents itself, he may go back to coaching,m but there are some things he still wants to do before that.
“At the age of 45, which I am now, I want to try to do a lot of other things in my life, too,” Rogers said. “I’m not saying if another position came, I wouldn’t consider stepping back in and coaching again. There are some things I wasn’t able to do when I was coaching girls’ basketball.
“A lot of that is enjoying the outdoors. I love to fish, I love to hunt. I’ve always wanted to go elk hunting. My dad is an avid waterfowl hunter and I know I only have a few years, you never know when you’re not going to have your father around again. I want to spend as much quality time with him in the winter months as I can.”