Wisconsin Track Coaches Association

Owen Jarrette has been a head track & field coach in Wisconsin since 2007. He is currently a head coach at Greendale High School, previously Muskego HS.  He works primarily with sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers. Before coaching, he was a football player and decathlete at Principia College in Elsah, IL and a 3-sport athlete at Nevada Union HS in Grass Valley, CA.

Owen currently teaches Physical Education, Health, and Specially Designed PE in the Greendale School District.  During the summer, he coaches club track and field for ages 5 and up.  Owen, his wife Lara, and daughter Sadie love spending time at Star Lake in northern WI.  Favorite activities include fishing, kayaking, paddle boarding, hiking, biking, metal detecting, scuba diving, sailing, and boating.  

Bill Richards has coached the throws for the past 15 years.  During that time he spent his first 10 years at Ozaukee High School coaching the Boys' and Girls' Throws.  The final six years at Ozaukee he was the Head Boys' and Girls' Track Coach.  The last six years have been at Homestead.  While at Homestead, Bill’s first year was as a volunteer Girls' Throws Coach and the last five years as the Boys' Throws Coach.  While at Ozaukee, Bill served as the District 4 Representative from 2003 to 2008.  Currently Bill is the Throws Chair and WISTCA President.

Coach Joel Block began coaching in 2002. As pole vault coach for Sun Prairie East boys and girls track and field teams he has coached the girl's school record holders and Big 8 boys and girls conference champions. Prior to this, he was the head track and field coach at River Valley HS (Spring Green, WI) for 9 seasons. While at River Valley, Coach Block was responsible for coaching both boys and girls pole vault school record holders and a state champion along with several conference champions. Coach Block has also been a speaker at the WISTCA clinic and is a national staff member for the UCS Reno Pole Vault Summit annually and creator of the pole vault coaching series YouTube Channel. 

Jon Schwantz started coaching Track and Field at Omro in 1989. He coached 32 years and retired from teaching/coaching at Omro in 2021. Took one year off and now is Head Coach at Shiocton High School. Jon was a District 4 Representative for many years and now has turned his attention to serving WISTCA as a Hurdle Chairperson.

John Dewitt has been the Head Boy's Track and Field Coach at Nathan Hale High School over the past 11 years, where he has primarily coached distance runners and sprinters. He also teaches math at Hale, most notably AP Statistics, and is an assistant coach in cross country.  Before being at Hale,  he was a volunteer assistant cross country coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College and the Head Cross Country Coach at West Milwaukee Intermediate School.  

John graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he was a math education major, along with being an athlete on both the cross country and track and field teams.  

John also is a 3 time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon with a personal best time of 2 hours 17 minutes and 13 seconds.  He most recently competed in the 2024 Trials, where he took 51st out of the 207 competitors.  

Ryan Ewing has been coaching the long and triple jumps since 2008.  He began his career coaching for the Sun Prairie Area School District and now leads a club team named The Warriors out of both Sun Prairie and Beaver Dam.  In 2017 he published a website (longandtriple.com) to help athletes, coaches, and even parents understand the jumps better.  Since its inception, the website has gained followers from all over the world.  In 2023 Ryan published "Long Jump and Triple Jump: From the Ground Up" a book that he had been working on for five years.  His passion for the long and triple jumps is something that drives him 365 days a year and he couldn't be more thankful to hold an Event Chair position in WISTCA to share his knowledge with others!