OUTSTANDING COACH

Induction Year: 2024

Roger William Culbertson was born in 1965 in Dayton, Ohio, to Jack and Lajoie Culbertson.The youngest of six children, he grew up in Enon and was a 1983 graduate of Greenon High School. He was a three-sport athlete participating in football, basketball, and baseball. He earned eight varsity letters, while being all-conference and earning MVP honors in all 3 sports.

Roger then attended The Ohio State University where he was an invited walk-on to the Buckeyes football team for one year, before transferring to Wittenberg and playing his last three years as a Tiger. He played both football and baseball while at Wittenberg, earning 6 Varsity letters in his 3 years there. In football, he played defensive back earning all-conference and All-American honors two consecutive years. In baseball, he played shortstop, earning all-conference honors and was a two-time MVP. He was honored to be a team captain of the football and baseball teams his last year at Wittenberg. He still holds a few records in both sports.

He graduated from Wittenberg University with a double major in Physical Education and Computer Science. His coaching stops before Tecumseh were JV basketball and football at Greenon, freshman football at Springfield North, taught Physical Education and coached basketball at Clinton Massie, volunteer assistant football coach at Muskingum College, before moving to Indiana where he was a graduate assistant football coach at Ball State University. In 1992, Roger came back to the area to teach Physical Education (32 years)at Tecumseh High School. In his first year at Tecumseh he was the head baseball coach and JV basketball coach under Coach Steve Macklin. While at Tecumseh he coached basketball for 29 years (21 as head coach / 8 years JV) and baseball for 20 years (16 as head coach and 4 as Varsity Assistant). He was a part of three championship teams, many runner-up finishes, 3 sectional finals, a sectional championship and a district appearance. He was honored several times as District 9 Coach of the year and Clark County Coach of the year. He coached in the Mizuno All-Ohio Baseball Game, is a member of the Greenon Athletic Hall of Fame, and is a member of the Clark County Baseball Hall of Fame.

Roger is thankful to God for the family he has been blessed with that afforded him the opportunity to do what he loved. Roger is married to his college sweetheart, Jennifer (Mak) Culbertson, for 34 years. Jennifer has worked in the Tecumseh Local School District for 28 years in various capacities of coaching volleyball and tennis, and teaching Special Education. They are the proud parents of 2012 Tecumseh High School graduate Chase Culbertson who played basketball, baseball, and soccer, and 2015 graduate Taylor Culbertson-Pritt (Kody -Tecumseh graduate) who competed in tennis, swimming, and track. After Coach Culbertson’s retirement this spring, he will definitely be spending a lot of time with his first grandson Maverick Pritt, born this past October 2023, and hopefully learning how to fly fish.

Coach Culbertson is honored and humbled to be inducted into the Tecumseh Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Culbertson’s teams may not have won as many games as many people thought they should, but he is proud of the fact that they were always prepared and played the game the right way. Coach Culbertson would like to thank all of the athletic directors, administrators, coaches, players, and especially his family for a great run here at Tecumseh High School - Go Arrows.