Rob Stoltz's Obit

Robert John Stoltz, Greendale High School football coach, teacher and local celebrity, died at his Milwaukee home Tuesday morning from unknown causes. He was 32.

The enigmatic Stoltz was born June 27, 1974 at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee. He grew up in Greendale, Wis., a small Milwaukee suburb. As a child, Rob was constantly involved in sports and playing with his two younger brothers Stephen, 22, and Ryan, 28, whom he was very close to.

Stoltz attended Greendale High School from 1989-92. While in high school, Stoltz received varsity letters in football and baseball. He was a first team all-conference football player and won all-area baseball honors. In 1991 his football team went undefeated in the regular season and won the Parkland Conference Championship, Greendale’s last football conference championship until 11 years later.

Stoltz went on to attend the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for six years where he majored in Special Education and utilized his remarkable athleticism by competing in two varsity sports, baseball (1993-94) and football (1992, 1994-96). In 1994 Stoltz was a part of Oshkosh’s last national champion baseball team. After the season Stoltz made a decision he would regret for the rest of his life, quitting the baseball team.

He then turned his concentration to playing football and schoolwork. Throughout his four seasons as a wide receiver on the Oshkosh Titans, Stoltz tried to emulate his childhood idol, Steve Largent, becoming one of the most prolific pass catchers in school history. Stoltz set school records in career touchdown receptions (24) and receiving yards (2,691).

In 1994 Stoltz received WIAC Second Team All-Conference honors, and followed it up with two first team all-conference campaigns the following years. In addition to his first team all-conference honors in 1996, Stoltz was also named a Burger King Scholar athlete, Academic All-American and WIAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

After Stoltz’s collegiate football career was over, he finished up school but still had a desire to play football. For the last two years of his college career, he took off the second semester and played professional football in Germany with the Frankfurt Knights for two years. When his two seasons overseas were over, he came back and finished up his degree at Oshkosh.
Stoltz then went on to pursue a teaching and football coaching career near his hometown of Milwaukee. In 1999 he landed a job at West Bend West teaching special education. While teaching at West, he began his high school football coaching career. In his first year at the school he coached the freshman football team. In 2000 he took over as the varsity football coach for one season.

On July 6, 2000 Stoltz married Jenny Kuehn, his girlfriend of eight years. Stoltz was contempt with his job and family life until he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. He was offered a teaching spot at Greendale Middle School and an opportunity to coach his younger brother Stephen as the head varsity football coach at Greendale High School.
“(Steve) is a great kid, and a great brother. If those two components were not in place, I probably wouldn’t be the coach here,” Stoltz said in a 2001 interview.

Stoltz was a young, energized and passionate coach who brought a little extra intensity and excitement with him to the field.
“I remember my senior year, it was Rob’s second year as coach,” former player Scott Podd, 21, said. “We were all screwing around in practice and lacked focus. Next thing you knew, Rob was screaming at us and kicked us off the field for the rest of the day. I would have much rather ran until I puked than have to sit and think about what our punishment would be the next day.”

Stoltz was a wildly intense coach, who also was able to have fun with his players. Stoltz occasionally liked to re-live his playing days and suit up and play against some of his players during practice. Although he was intense and demanding of his players one would be hard-pressed to find somebody who didn’t love to play for him.

“Rob was my favorite coach of all-time,” former quarterback Ryan Johnsen, 22, said. “He could relate to us, not only as a football player, but as a person and later in life as a friend.”

Stoltz maintained a close relationship with some of his former players, even after they had graduated from school. His brother, Stephen, was the same age as a lot of the players Stoltz first coached at high school and he got to know them as time went along.

Annually Stoltz organized a “Stickball” tournament which was attended by his brothers, friends from high school and some of his former players. Stickball is a game played on a fenced little league field, with fences slightly shorter than 200 feet, played with a thin wooden dowel and tennis balls which are lobbed into the hitter who must hit the ball over the fence or drop the ball into the outfield for a base hit. The winner of the annual tournament would receive a trophy called “The Doweler.” Rob was a two-time Doweler winner himself.

His brother, Stephen, remember his brother and Stickball fondly. “Stickball gained kind of a cult following while we played it. His old friends would come back from all over the state and even the country to play or just watch the game.
“It is one of the things I will remember the most about Rob. We had a time to hang out, spit seeds, talk and just be brothers for hours in the sun on those days. I don’t know if anything will be as fun to me as those afternoon days were.”

In 2005 Stoltz took a sabbatical from teaching and tried his hand in a career in financial planning. His new job, however, proved too time consuming and he gave up the job and went back to teaching in lieu of quitting his coaching job.
Stoltz could always be found on a Friday night after a football game at Jimmy K’s, a local bar. He and his fellow coaches would go out, enjoy a few beers and pizzas and stay until the bartender would kick them out. His passion for football was only matched by his passion for living.

Stoltz is survived by his wife Jenny, 31, mother Wendy, 53, of Greendale, his father Terrance, 55, of Milwaukee and his two brothers Stephen of Greendale and Ryan of Milwaukee. Stoltz was expecting a child in November.
Funeral and burial arrangements were not immediately known. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Rob Stoltz Memorial Foundation at (414) 421-6975.