West Bend, WI – The West Bend Baseball Association will hold its 2026 WBBA Hall of Fame Induction on November 14 2026.
“We’re bringing back our traditional event after seven long years of fundraising and rebuilding Carl M. Kuss Memorial Field,” said WBBA President Willie Mueller. “We’re excited to sit down and celebrate all the people who help make this game great here in West Bend and across Southeast Wisconsin.”
More than a dozen awards will be presented. This week we will highlight some of the recipients including Curt Schroeder, who holds a singular distinction in West Bend baseball history. He is the only person to have been part of three West Bend East WIAA state championship teams.
A gifted player, respected captain, culture standard bearer, and outstanding assistant coach, Schroeder has given as much to the game as it gave to him. A member of the class of 1995, Schroeder was a four-year starter and captain at West Bend East, winning a state championship in 1993 under WBBA Wall of Fame coach Gary Perkins. As the starting shortstop, he led the Suns to two conference championships and built a career resume that still appears in the school record books for hits, runs scored, and RBI.
He remains one of the finest players developed by the powerhouse program that Perkins built, Gonring sustained, and Schroeder led and modeled that culture. After West Bend East, Schroeder continued his career at Madison Area Technical College under legendary head coach Leo Kalinowski, helping lead one of the most successful teams in Madison College history. He won two national championships with the Wolfpack and finished there with a 72-19 team record.
He left Madison ranked among the program’s all-time leaders in hits, runs scored, and fielding percentage. His 984 fielding mark still stands as a program best. His success earned him the opportunity to play at the NCAA level for the University of Nebraska Omaha under head coach Bob Harrell.
Following his collegiate career, Schroeder stayed connected to the game through the adult amateur ranks, playing for Bob Bothe and Dave Donath with the Kewaskum A’s, one of the Rock River League’s most respected franchises and a longtime affiliate of the WBBA. Schroeder retired from playing after the 2002 season. For as remarkable a playing career Schroeder had, one could argue, his true calling was coaching.
As an assistant coach under Doug Gonring at West Bend East, Schroeder was on the bench for the Suns’ 99-2002 WIAA State Championship teams, teams that went 32-3 and 28-4 respectively, and a combined 31-1 in the North Shore Conference. Over his tenure as an assistant, West Bend East compiled a remarkable 168-38 record. His steady, knowledgeable presence in the dugout helped shape a generation of players, including two-state player of the year shortstop Ryan Rohlinger and Zach Walter.
