One loss we won't soon forget

In my time as a sports writer, closing in on 18 years in a few months, I had more than a few run-ins with Coeur d’Alene High and former Kellogg principal Troy Schueller.

No, I wasn’t called into the principal’s office.

Each time, it usually ended with a laugh or two.

WHILE I don’t remember too much from that first year — I’d started as an intern in Shoshone County as a sports writer and didn’t cover much Kellogg wrestling at that time — I do remember an incident that changed the course of the Wildcat wrestling team very well.

In 2001, as they were traveling to a wrestling tournament in St. Maries, the school’s bus driver had a heart attack and died, and the bus went off the highway and struck a tree. Without the quick thinking of Schueller, head wrestling coach at the time, and then-junior Damon Rowe, a wrestler on the team, it could have ended much worse than it did.

In 2002, the team embarked on a trip to the state tournament. That year, Schueller cut his team a deal.

Bring back a trophy from state, and he’d color his hair purple.

They did, then he did a few days later.

Granted, it wasn’t without a little bit of prodding from the district’s superintendent, but it happened.

From that accident spawned the George Wild Invitational at Kellogg High, named after the bus driver from the 2001 accident.

It was around that time that I really got to see just how dedicated of a guy Troy really was.

He’d coach his kids, because at that time, he was still the Kellogg wrestling coach. After he’d stepped down when he went into an administrative role, he turned his efforts to officiating matches in his free time. He was still involved with the tournament in Kellogg, doing whatever he had to do to make sure that things ran smoothly.

That even included printing out brackets for each weight class, team scores and whatever else the pain of a sports writer at that time needed to get the results in the paper.

Since the addition of TrackWrestling.com, that whole process has saved a ton of time and effort, as well as standing in front of a fax machine waiting on results to come in when he could have been spending time with his family.

WHEN I crossed paths with him again, it was usually at a wrestling tournament, whether it be the Tri-State Invitational at North Idaho College, or even the NJCAA tournament at the Spokane Convention Center when NIC hosted a couple of times in recent years.

He’d always greet me with a smile, handshake and help in whatever way he could.

Schueller passed away on Wednesday at the age of 42 from an apparent suicide. He is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter and a granddaughter. Memorial services will be Sunday, April 8 at 1 p.m. in Christianson Gymnasium on the campus of North Idaho College.

I had the opportunity to learn a little more about Troy last year in doing a profile on him for this newspaper. From his time as a teacher to his moving into the role of principal at Coeur d’Alene High, some of his hobbies and other things about him I didn’t realize.

Never did I think he was a fan of country music — at most wrestling matches he’d coached, they’d blast heavy metal music in the gym — but that was the case.

The impact Troy left on the sport of wrestling is obvious, with a handful of his wrestlers beginning to coach or officiate in the area long after their wrestling days.

His impact on people in this community and area, from Coeur d’Alene to St. Maries and into the Silver Valley has been felt as many have been remembering Schueller on social media in their own special way.

From his smile, to his genuine care of the students he had the chance to meet.

And that one time, when his hair was purple, for all the right reasons.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.