Your future, our focus
Ken Rochlitz may be officially retired from Northwest College, but he was still working.
Rochlitz, the legendary longtime head men’s basketball coach, helped track statistics during the Region IX men’s tourney at Northwest’s Cabre Gym last week. He sat alongside a few others at the scorer’s table, keeping a sharp eye on the game — which was being played on Ken Rochlitz Court.
“I just wanted to help out,” he said after the Trappers pounded Western Nebraska Community College 101-77 Thursday night.
Rochlitz, 73, did a lot more than that during his tenure at NWC. He was the head coach for 26 seasons while also serving as athletic director. He retired with a record of 529-337.
Rochlitz said he wanted to attend the tourney and get a good look at the current Trappers. He said the 2014-15 squad has the potential to set a standard for future NWC teams, and they may have done just that after winning the Region IX Tournament with a victory over Gillette College on Saturday.
“I think it’s probably as good a team as has been here in quite a while,” Rochlitz said. “The pressure is on them to see how good they can be.”
While he averaged 21 wins a season before retiring at the end of the 2005-06 campaign, Rochlitz never won a regional title or took a team to the national tourney. The Trappers played for a regional title twice during his tenure, he said.
Looking tanned, with his white hair standing out, Rochlitz was enjoying the tourney, which packed the gymnasium. He chatted with old friends and enjoyed the blowout win on Thursday.
“This is a great thing for the community and the college,” Rochlitz said. “The community has always shown great support for the college. And this is a great opportunity for the fans.”
After the Trappers’ championship win, Rochlitz addressed those in attendance at Cabre, giving words of praise and encouragement to the Trappers before sharing a congratulatory hug with current NWC head coach Brian Erickson.
Rochlitz played basketball at Carpenter High School near Cheyenne and was a four-year letterman at the University of Wyoming. After college, he coached at the high school level for three years before serving as an assistant at Casper College.
His first head coach job was at Western Wyoming College in Rock Springs. He coached at Valparaiso University in Indiana, taking the program to the NCAA Division I level while going 31-70 over four years, before coming to NWC in 1980.
He is a member of the National Junior College Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame. Around Powell, he’s still “Ken” or “Coach Rochlitz.”
Rochlitz and his wife Karla have been married for 47 years. They have homes in Powell and Arizona.
Sports is a family affair for the Rochlitz clan. The couple’s son Kevin is vice president of national partnerships and sales for the Baltimore Ravens and their daughter, Kim Niemann, is head coach of the Cody High School girls basketball team. Ken and Karla have four grandchildren, Riley Rochlitz and triplets Kamden, Kennedi and Reece Niemann.