Rick Koceja participated in Cross Country, Basketball, and Track & Field at his alma mater, Milwaukee Boys’ Tech High School (Class of 1972). Rick qualified two years for the WIAA State Cross Country meet, helping the team to a second place finish in 1970. He also played point guard on the State-qualifying Basketball team. Rick held school records in Cross Country, for the mile, and the two mile.
Rick attended UW-Oshkosh and UW-Milwaukee, earning eight Varsity letters in Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track. He graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a teaching certification in Physical Education, Adaptive Physical Education, and Health. He earned a Master's Degree from UW-Whitewater in Adaptive Physical Education. Rick began his teaching and coaching career in Amherst, where he started a girls’ Cross Country program and also coached Basketball and Track & Field.
As a teacher and coach for Burlington High School, Rick coached Cross Country, Track & Field, and Girls’ Basketball. He led Cross Country teams to seven Conferences, thirteen Divisional, and ten Relay Championships. He had ten individual Cross Country conference champions and sixty-nine 1st Team All-Conference runners. He also helped twenty-two individuals and two teams to qualify for the WIAA State Cross Country Meet. Rick’s Track & FIeld teams won three Conferences, four Divisional, and five Relay Titles. He coached sixty-one distance runners to the WIAA State Track & Field Meet, with State Champion Lee Zubrod winning the 1600 and 3200 meter. Under his tutelage, he saw forty-three track athletes advance to the WIAA State Meet in various events. Rick served as Girls’ Assistant Basketball Coach for twenty-five years under Diane Hanson and Lyle Foulke. The Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association selected him as District 6 Non-Varsity Coach of the Year.
Rick is active in the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association and the Wisconsin Track Coaches Association, for which he served as Cross Country President and Vice-President. He is also on the Cross Country Hall of Fame Committee. He has been on the WIAA Cross Country and Track & Field Rules Advisory Committee, the Clinic Committee, and served as District 6 representative. He has been voted District 6 Coach of the Year three times and Racine County Coach of the Year twelve times. A life-long runner, Rick has been on the East Bay and Wisconsin Runner Racing Team. He was inducted into the Racine Lighthouse Ten Mile Hall of Fame in 2009.
Rick and his wife, Nancy, a retired Mukwonago teacher, reside in Burlington. They are proud parents of James (Erin), and John and the grandparents of Sofia Grace. Rick had the honor of coaching James and John in Cross Country and Track & Field at Burlington High School.