• Roethke, Ed - 2026

Ed Roethke was born in Minneapolis where he played youth hockey and then high school hockey for Minneapolis Edison.  In 1991, he and his wife moved to Menomonie so that he could complete his undergraduate degree at Stout State University, now UW-Stout.  After finishing his degree at Stout, he began his first teaching job at Menomonie High School in 1972.  In September of that year, there was a meeting of people primarily from Stout who wanted to start a youth hockey program for the kids in Menomonie.  Roethke contacted WAHA Registrar Don Clark who provided him with the materials needed to become a WAHA local association. 44 players signed up from Mite age through Bantams, and Roethke coached most of them as the years passed.  Since many of the youth coaches were Stout players, when the team was on the road, Roethke literally coached every team.

The program itself became the Dunn County Hockey Association (DCHA) and Roethke served as the first President and held that position for a number of years.  He also served as the Vice-president and scheduler for the Western Wisconsin Indianhead Hockey League.  Roethke coached in the DCHA from 1972 – 1985.  His first group of players became the WAHA Squirt C State Champions in 1975, the Bantam B State Champions in 1979 and the Midget B State Champions in 1980.  This group would then move on to Menomonie High School and become the first WIAA team to represent the school.  His next group of players were Mites when the first group were Bantams, and this second group laid the groundwork for a WIAA State Championship in 1991.

Roethke was hired as the first Menomonie High School head coach in 1980 and held that position for the next 16 years or 326 games and was the Big Rivers Coach of the Year in 1988. During his 29-year teaching career, Roethke not only coached hockey but was also an assistant football coach for two years, an assistant track coach for two years, a head track coach for seven years and a head cross-country coach for ten years.  He had been an assistant coach for the club hockey team at UW-Stout for three years (1988-1991) and after retiring from teaching became the goalie coach for UW-Stout under Terry Watkins.  He coached two All-American goaltenders and many others who were awarded All-Conference honors.  His teams made it to the NCAA Division III National Tournament in 2008 and 2009.  Roethke retired from coaching in 2011 at age 70 after coaching teams from Mite through college in over 1,000 games.

Ed Roethke served his country in the Army National Guard.  He and his wife reside in Menomonie and have two children, Ed and Leigh.