By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
After an illustrious career that spanned more than two decades, Southeast of Saline will say goodbye to a legend this spring as head cross country and track and field coach Wade Caselman announced his retirement from both coaching and teaching on Thursday.
Caselman will stay on to finish out the academic year in the classroom and will still coach both track and field teams this spring.
“After visiting with my family, it felt like this was the right time in my life to move on,” Caselman said. “I still love coaching and teaching, but I was ready for a change, and it felt like this was the right time to step away and seek something different.”
Coach Caselman’s impact at Southeast of Saline reaches far beyond the success his teams achieved and spans a time far wider than just his coaching career.
In 1983, as a freshman, Wade Caselman ran his first race for a relatively new cross country program in Gypsum.
In 1986, Caselman helped Southeast of Saline bring home its first-ever cross country state title.
When he returned to Gypsum over a decade later, he became the program’s first assistant coach, and when the head coaching position opened up, there was only one man for the job.
“With his love of the sport and the school, it was easy to turn the keys to the program over to Wade,” former head cross country coach and AD Wayne Sager said. “The program had already had a lot of success, and we always had full confidence in him to keep it going.”
Over the next 23 years, Caselman turned a successful program into an undeniable dynasty, securing ten more state championships between the boys and girls cross country programs. Through triumphs and setbacks alike, it was the growth of his runners that kept him motivated.
“Seeing the kids progress from their junior high days throughout their time here was always the best part of this job for me,” Caselman said. “I would get just as excited to see some of our kids break 20 or 30 minutes for the first time as I did when kids broke 16 or 18 minutes. I’ve been truly blessed to have such great young men and women come through here.”
While the high school program blossomed, Coach Caselman also oversaw the conception and development of a junior high team. That new addition helped increase interest in running at Southeast and got more young Trojans and Lady Trojans out on the trails.
“I take a lot of pride in Southeast of Saline and SES cross country,” Sager said. “We took a lot of pride in watching Wade continue our tradition and really grow the program from the junior high on upward. He’s done a tremendous job, and the results speak for themselves. The Southeast community is very proud of that program and very proud of him.”
In addition to coaching cross country, Caselman also took on the role of head track and field coach in 2010, leading the boys to the school’s first state track title in 2021 and repeating that in 2022.
“There aren’t enough positive things that you can say about coach Caselman,” SES AD Doug Minneman said. “He’s always been great at developing relationships as well as developing runners, and when you go to a cross country meet, it’s not just family members, you see a lot of former runners there supporting the program and the kids, that just goes to show what he meant to them.”
All told, Wade Caselman contributed in some way or another to 13 state titles at Southeast of Saline, and yet in all that time, you’d never know it just by talking to him.
“He’s as humble as can be, and he didn’t talk about state titles much,” Minneman said. “He only talked about the kids going out there and doing their best. There wasn’t an extra pressure of needing to win despite that becoming the expectation around the program, and that made our kids appreciate what they earned over time.”
Talk with Coach Caselman for any length of time and one thing will become abundantly clear: the joy of the memories, relationships, successes, and hardships has, and will always mean more than any legacy ever could.
Trophies will rust and banners will fade, but the relationships Wade Caselman formed with the young men and women who came through his program are built to stand the test of time.
At the end of the day, that is what set Coach Caselman apart.
“I’m going to miss the kids, that’s why we do what we do,” he said. “The alumni of our program also played a huge role, and having them reach out to us during the season was always great. I also want to thank all of my former runners; they’re all near and dear to my heart, and I hope they know how much the memories and relationships we built will always mean to me.”