Garrett Rogowski has a lot on his plate and wouldn’t want it any other way.
As administrator of the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District, a position he has held since 2009, he deals with budgets, staffing and overseeing a district that includes three schools in two communities.
He’s also in his seventh season of coaching the Chargers boys basketball team.
Throw in finding time to watch his kids compete on their college, high school and middle school sports teams, and it’s enough to make most parents’ head spin.
Rogowski, however, is committed to making it work.
He graduated from Tigerton High School in 1995, attended the University of Wisconsin-Superior and joined the Wittenberg-Birnamood teaching staff.
“I taught in Wittenberg from 2001 to 2004, left to take a principal job in Clintonville, and I was in Clintonville for five years,” Rogowski said. “This is my 17th year back in Wittenberg as district administrator. I had a really good experience as a teacher, so I felt really comfortable coming back here with the board and staff.”
It wasn’t long before Rogowski began coaching the boys junior varsity basketball team.
“I didn’t coach my first year here, and then for eight or nine years, I was the JV coach under Lon Ebel,” he said. “I really enjoy basketball and teaching the game to kids, so I was happy to just do that. Lon left and took another position (in 2018), and I moved into the head position after that.”
It wasn’t easy to take on the dual roles of district administrator and varsity coach, but Rogowski said he’d try to make it work.
“We didn’t have a lot of applicants and interest at the time,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that the program was continuing to move forward. That one year morphed into two and four, and here we are eight years later.”
The winter sports season is especially busy for Rogowski and his family.
“During the basketball season, from November to early March, it’s a lot of long days and nights,” he said. “It definitely does change your schedule. A lot of the things I would normally do from 3:30 to the early evening from a school standpoint, I have to manage and schedule at a different time either later or earlier. I have to work around them. It’s challenging, but at the same time, it’s rewarding, so that’s why I continue to do it. You have to find a way to find that energy to really continue to do both.
“I am really appreciative of my school board. A lot of districts don’t allow administration to coach. As long as you can juggle the two effectively – if that’s what you like to do – then I really appreciate the board for giving me the opportunity and allowing me to do that. I don’t know if you get that everywhere you go.”
Besides overseeing the school district, Rogowski also finds time to watch his daughter, Harper, a junior on the Chargers girls basketball team.
“I try to get to as many (games) as I can,” he said. “Tonight, she has a game, and we have a game. I’ll follow up and watch it with her afterwards.”
Rogowski and his wife, Beth, are also parents of Reese, a junior on the track team at North Dakota State University; Jett, a freshman on the UW-Superior men’s basketball team; and Portia, a seventh-grader on the Wittenberg Middle School girls basketball team.
“Most of (Jett’s) games are on Wednesday nights and Saturdays, so tomorrow, I’ll be running to Superior for a game,” he said. “On a late Friday night, I might be heading to Fargo and catch a track meet on the weekend.
“There’s a lot of scheduling that has to work for us. Prior to the start of the week, we need to know who’s going where and who’s picking up who. That’s just part of it.”
Rogowski has no idea how long he plans to keep coaching but admitted it’s a question he asks himself at the end of each season.
“For me, it’s always about reflection and assessment of how I’m managing all of that,” he said. “Right now, I’m so immersed in that, and I don’t give that a lot of thought until probably March. I’ll say, ‘How did I do with all this? Do I still have the energy and time? Am I still able to meet my family needs in terms of getting to see my kids play and still give the kids I’m coaching the attention they deserve?’ It’s a postseason decision for me probably every year now.”
In other words, don’t expect him to turn in his resignation letter anytime soon.
“I really enjoy it,” he said. “It’s kind of a nice reprieve from the office and a good way to connect with the kids in a different light. It’s been a good experience.”
