After playing minor league baseball, managing a bunch of high school students and staff should be a breeze, right?

 With the curtain drawing open on the 2019-2020 school year, Windsor High School has brought many new faces on board, including new Activities Director Ross Koenig. The new activities director is very passionate about seeing students succeed. He got into the education through coaching. 

Koenig said, “Whenever I was in school, I was involved in multiple sports–choir, band, newspaper, multiple extracurricular things, and went to a small school in Crystal City. We were involved in a lot of stuff, so I appreciate and understand the importance of what, obviously, goes on in the classroom, but also the extras.”

He was influenced the most by his parents who were both educators–his father was a coach and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. Koenig says that seeing adults walk up to his mom at the supermarket and gush about how they were her student forty years ago, and the fact that they still think about her, really pushed him toward education as a career. The positive effect his mother had on her students inspired him toward his new job. 

“(I saw) the importance that they were in my life and I saw how they affected other people,” Koenig said.

He did not always work in administration, however. After his junior year of college, he signed with the Detroit Tigers and pitched in their minor league system from 2001-03. 

After his playing career, he went on to finish his undergraduate degree in economics and then got a job with the St. Louis Rams radio advertisement group. He says this wasn’t his passion. During the off season, he worked in Crystal City schools as a substitute teacher and rediscovered his calling–the one he forgot from childhood–in the supermarket. 

Koenig said, “I was around it (the spirit of teaching). So I saw it in again, my parents, and I grew up with it. And it was just something that just came naturally to me. And again, something that I enjoyed doing.”

When he saw that Windsor was looking for a new Activities Director, the connection was immediate.

“I taught at Crystal City and Jefferson R-7, I actually took a step out of education the last school year and stepped out into the private sector. Then, this opportunity came (and) for me personally, it was a perfect fit for me,” Koenig said. 

The connection was also felt on Windsor’s side. Jason Naucke, who was the Activities Director before becoming Windsor High’s principal, is eager to see Koenig in action. 

“That’s what I’m excited about. Everybody getting to know him, just kind of seeing the type of person that he is and the quality of personality he is because we think we’ve got a really good one,” Naucke said.

Koenig takes the place of Tom Ludwig, who took a job in the Hillsboro School District at the end of the school year. 

Koenig’s understanding of all the extracurriculars pushed him ahead of the competition. 

“We went out and we looked at a bunch of different candidates and tried to talk to a bunch of different people. When Koenig applied and went through the interview process, he had experience being in administration. He’s got a big background in athletics. So he’s been a coach, he was a player; a professional baseball player at one point,” Naucke said, “So he brings a lot of different world experience to the job then besides just being in a high school. So we’re really happy and lucky that we got him.”

Koenig’s 12 years of experience should help him when problems arise.

“Stuff comes up all the time. So, you want to be as proactive as you can and look forward, wherever you can look,” Koenig said. “In some cases you look a year ahead and some things you’re looking just a month ahead, a couple months ahead. In some cases you can’t even prepare for it. It’s just something that comes up that you just have to work through whenever it happens.”

His main goal is to help the students be able to meet new people and see new things as they travel with extracurriculars, as it was very important in shaping who he is today. 

Koenig said, “I had the opportunity in sports to travel, to live in different places all over the country, to meet people from all over the world and to have these experiences with people. And that is, to me,  why extracurriculars are very important for kids growing up. To be able to have those experiences, some things you just don’t know until you been there.”