Loyal community remembers legacy left by longtime teacher and coach
Darrell “Lash” Laschen of Loyal (Dec. 11, 1936-Sept. 23, 2023) was a man of many accomplishments. For decades, he coached the Loyal softball and wrestling teams, leading the teams, and many individuals on them, to victory at the highest levels in high school sports. His accomplishments as a coach eventually led him to being inducted into the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. But Laschen’s legacy in Loyal goes far beyond the trophies, medals and accolades. It’s with the people, the bonds he made with his athletes and students, that truly made a difference to so many.
Lashen’s life started in Milwaukee, and it was there he discovered his passion for wrestling. In his years at Milwaukee’s Pulaski High School, Laschen learned the foundations of the sport, qualifying as a state runner-up before his graduation in 1956. He continued wrestling while attending college for three years at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, earning his degrees in English and physical education. After graduating from there, it was the closing of one door and the opening of another — a transition from a player to coach.
His first teaching position took him to the Peshtigo School District in 1962, where he also founded the school’s wrestling program, a program that continues there to this day. In 1964, he took a position at Middleton High School where he continued to coach wrestling and teach English until 1967, when the small-town life of Loyal came calling. He began teaching at Loyal that fall starting with teaching elementary physical education as well as coaching high school wrestling and baseball, and seventh and eighth grade football.
For over a decade, wrestling was Laschen’s focus. Almost immediately, Loyal’s wrestlers began to qualify for state competition as the athletes put in the hard work to do well. But it wasn’t just on the wrestling mat or in the weight room that Laschen worked with his athletes. Throughout his coaching career, he was driven by the motto of “build young men first, and the records will follow.” Acting as a mentor outside of the athletic sphere, Laschen bonded with many athletes who struggled in school and in their personal lives, being a much-needed anchor and supporter for those individuals.
“He was an athlete and loved playing sports, but he embodied the role of ‘coach’ simply as part of his personality,” said Parker Vivoda, a longtime friend and former student athlete who competed under Laschen. “He was never worried about the results. He cared more about growth, about guiding young athletes to a better version of themselves. It’s not that Darrell didn’t care about winning, because he did, but instead Darrell felt that teaching young athletes to be dedicated and hardworking young men and women came first, and then winning would be a natural consequence.”
Those “natural consequences” did come. In wrestling, Laschen had the opportunity to see many of his athletes succeed. During his coaching career at Loyal, which ended in 2006, the Loyal wrestling team earned 25 Cloverbelt Conference championships, three Bi-State Classic team championships, 14 regional championships and three sectional championships. More than 60 individual athletes went on to qualify for state competition, with many of those athletes taking first or second place. His coaching achievements in wrestling led him to being inducted in the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2001.
Wrestling was not the only sport in which Laschen had an impact. The Loyal softball program was a program he founded in 1978, and could be considered, “The program that almost wasn’t.” During the summer months before starting the Loyal softball program, Laschen had taken on coaching a team of female athletes that had been playing on the Miller’s Plumbing and Heating slow-pitch softball team in the Greenwood League. He saw their potential and went to the Loyal School Board, where he convinced them to purchase uniforms and other equipment for a team in the spring. After it was approved and Laschen started scheduling games to prepare for the 1978 season, he got a very unwelcome surprise.
“I was scheduling games when I called Marshfield because I figured they’d be about the toughest team around here,” said Laschen in a 1978 interview with the TRG. “They won the MAC tournament in Marshfield last year (1977) with Reigel Plumbing and many of their players were on the high school team. When I commented to their coach that they should be about the best team in central Wisconsin, he said, ‘Maybe we would be if we had a pitcher.’ I said to him he could train anybody and when he told me it was fast-pitch and not slow-pitch I was stunned. I even called the WIAA because I was sure it was slow-pitch.”
Laschen had second thoughts. “There’s no way I would have gone to the board had I known it was fast-pitch,” continued Laschen in the 1978 interview. “When I had a meeting with the girls and told them what was going on we lost about 10 players because it scared ‘em out. They figured it wasn’t our best shot. And I didn’t think we’d be that super at it. Throughout the year they kept asking if we’d vote for slow-pitch next year because that was kind of the assumption. But now, they don’t want anything to do with slow-pitch.”
After losing their first two games, the Loyal softball team found its groove, winning 3-2 over Merrill in the team’s first victory on April 27, 1978. Originally, Laschen’s goal in the team’s first season was to win half of their games and qualify for the regional. They got much further than that, never losing another game after winning in Merrill and taking the state title after 17 victories in a row.
In both 1979 and 1980, the Loyal softball team returned to state and won the title, being one of only five schools in the state to have ever won three consecutive state championships. By the time Laschen retired from
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coaching softball in 2007, Loyal had created quite a legacy: returning to state six more times — taking runner-up in three of those appearances — and winning 17 Cloverbelt Conference championships. Laschen was inducted into the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame just two years later, being the first coach inducted into the Hall of Fame to have 500 wins. His record was 508-123 as Loyal’s head coach, and he attributed his success on the field to all the hardworking athletes who played the game and fought to win.
“If you don’t have the horses, it’s going to be awfully tough to win; I don’t care who the coach is,” Laschen said in a 2007 TRG interview following his 500th win. “We don’t expect less than the best. If you don’t expect a lot, you don’t get a lot.”
The impact Laschen had on athletics at the Loyal School District is made abundantly clear when walking past the trophy case located near the high school entrance of the school building. In the past week, all the trophies that were ever won by a team Laschen coached were taken out of the case and placed in a special display to give credit to the man on whose shoulders the legacy of the school’s most successful programs were built.
“It’s obvious when you look at Mr. Laschen’s teams’ titles, state appearances and trophies over the years, he had an immeasurable impact on Greyhound student athletes,” said Mike Rueth, the elementary and middle school physical education teacher at the Loyal School District. “As a varsity coach for over two decades, I can appreciate his unbelievable record. No coach in our school history has ever come close to his accomplishments, and it’s hard to imagine that anyone ever will. He truly fits the term legendary.”
“He was a longtime phy. ed. teacher here, Hall of Fame coach in wrestling and Hall of Fame coach in softball – just an icon,” said District Administrator Chris Lindner in comments at the Sept. 27 school board meeting. “Our phy. ed. teachers put all his (Laschen’s) trophies out on a table – his conference champions and state trophies – and now the trophy cases are bare. When we moved them a few years ago, there was a student that said, ‘Holy cats, if Coach Laschen wasn’t here we wouldn’t have a whole lot…' so like I said, an unbelievable person, coach and teacher.”
Through his experiences with the students, athletes and community, Laschen truly found his home in Loyal, creating bonds and fond memories with all the students who came through his doors in his 30 years of teaching, and in the years afterwards as he continued coaching wrestling at the Stratford and Granton school districts. After his passing, many of those whose lives were changed by Laschen took to the internet to share memories and express their gratitude for a man who did much for the community of Loyal.
“He was my head baseball coach my senior year 1968,” said Mark Needham in a comment on Facebook post sharing the new of Laschen’s passing. “My relationship and friendship with him continued to present day. He passed away on the very day of my 55th class reunion. I am honored to have known Lash. The mold was broken in a very good way!! Rest in peace Coach Laschen.”
“My first year of teaching I got suckered into driving the wrestling cheerleaders down to the state tourney and chaperoning them,” shared Michele Gorke in another Facebook comment. “It apparently was very last minute, and Darrell was only able to get us into a very seedy hotel. I didn’t even let the girls unpack. When we got to the tournament, I told Darrell of our plight; without a second’s thought, he offered us his room at the Sheraton, and he found somewhere else to stay. That was Darrell in a nutshell - maybe not always the most organized or far-sighted, but always compassionate and wanting to fix a problem.”
“Darrell was an exceptional man in many regards,” said Vivoda. “He was kind, and really cared about people. He had a sense of humor and loved playing pranks to get a laugh. Darrell’s commitment to helping young people never wavered. Even when he had retired from coaching, he was still organizing summer softball tournaments for youth in Loyal, for example. I believe he was one of a kind. He was selfless. He appreciated the simple things in life. He helped others when he could. He easily connected with people, students, families, colleagues and other coaches. His many professional and athletic successes, although impressive, are not his only legacy; his ability to make a lasting and positive mark on young people during their formative years is equally important. Darrell really was something special.”
Above left, Darrell Laschen celebrates with his girls softball team in June 1980 as Wally Szymanski awards him the “key to the city.” The welcome-home ceremony took place upon the team returning home after winning their third consecutive state championship. Above right, all the trophies won by teams that Laschen coached are displayed proudly in the Loyal High School foyer, showing what an impact he had on Loyal athletics.
FILE PHOTO AND BY CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF
