Matthew Kroetch

Head Coach

CoEd Cross Country

As a Coach

Matthew Kroetch enters his 5th season as the head coach for the Oakton High School cross country program.

At Oakton, Kroetch led the Cougars to back to back state cross country titles in 2020-2021 and the 2021-2022 seasons after finishing 2nd and 3rd in the prior two seasons. He has led countless athletes to All-District, Region, and State accolades while also overseeing a school record and All-American effort at the 2021 outdoor national meet in th 4xMile. Kroetch coached Arnav Tikhe to a new school record of 14:59 in the 5000 at the Outdoor Nationals in Spring of 2021. He oversaw Zach Morse win an indoor state mile title (4:16) and Numerou state runner-up finishes for the 2020-2021 school year. The Oakton girls saw vast improvement from 2018-2021 returning to the state meet for a strong 6th place finish in their first trip to the meet in his tenure during the 2021-2022 season. Kroetch was named the Oakton Coach of the Year for 2018-2019 and the Washington Post Coach of the Year for the 2021-2022 school year.

Prior to coaching at Oakton, Kroetch mentored numerous cross country and track and field All-State runners and has seen multiple school records broken while at James Madison High School. During his tenure the men’s 3mile, men’s 5000m, men and women’s indoor 1000m, men and women’s 1600 (both indoor and outdoor), and men and women’s 3200m (both indoor and outdoor) records were broken. Also during his time at Madison, Kroetch saw the men’s cross country team win their first regional and state titles in school history (2016), as well as the first women’s regional title (2017).
 

As an Athlete

• Kroetch was a high school All-American and is the Oakton record holder in the outdoor 5000m (15:04). 
• Was Footlocker All-South and Washington Post All-Met while at Oakton
• He is the 10K record holder at Longwood University (30:37)
• Was in the top 10 all time at Virginia Tech in the 5000m (14:18)
• Was All-IC4A East Region in cross country (Longwood)
• ACC point scorer in the 10,000 (VT)
• Conference Champion in the 10,000m and All-Region in Division II for the 10,000m (Calu PA)
   
   

Personally

A native of Herndon Virginia, Kroetch earned his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech in 2010 and went to California University of Pennsylvania to complete his master’s degree. He has been coaching since 2012.

He and his wife Stacey, reside in Clifton with their daughters, Maryand Mikayla.