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Success for Olentangy Orange Coaches Calo, Schroeder Started at Owens

Anthony Calo, left, and Wes Schroeder pose with their OHSAA Division I state championship trophies at Olentangy Orange High School

Wes Schroeder and Anthony Calo grew up in different parts of Ohio — Schroeder in Leipsic and Calo in Westerville — but the seeds for their future success both started as students at Owens Community College.

Nearly two decades after attending Owens, the two once again found the ultimate level of success in the same place, as high school head coaches at Olentangy Orange in suburban Columbus.

In March 2025, Calo led the Pioneers boys basketball team to an Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I boys basketball state championship. Seven months later, Schroeder guided the Orange football team to a Division I state title.

Wes Schroeder

 

Anthony Calo

“We joke all the time with your slogan on the billboards, ‘Your Success Starts Here,’ the perfect billboard would be me and Wes holding our state title trophies because (Owens) is where it started,” Calo said. “The truth is, neither one of us planned to be there but it was perfect for us. It’s what we both needed, kind of a kickstart and allowed us to get our feet under us.”

Both Calo and Schroeder admitted they weren’t the most serious students in high school. Calo was more focused on playing basketball for his father, Ed, at Westerville South. The girls basketball coach at the school knew former Owens coach Jim Welling and encouraged the younger Calo to try out for the Express.

Not only did Calo make the team, he earned a scholarship as well. He received his associate degree and went on to earn a bachelor’s from Ohio State University, a teaching certificate from Ashland University and a master’s from University of Missouri.

Calo credited Owens with helping him grow up and learn better habits, contributing to his success as a student and throughout his life.

“I tell everybody that my two years at Owens weren’t my favorite two years of my life, but they were definitely a very necessary two years to set me on the right track,” Calo said. “It was nothing against Owens; I liked my professors, I liked my coaches, I liked my teammates, I just had to learn how to grow up a little bit. It was truthfully the perfect start for me.”

After graduating from Leipsic, Schroeder went to the Owens Findlay-area Campus, where he went through a similar development as Calo. He went on to receive his bachelor’s from University of Findlay and master’s degrees from both Bluffton University and American College.

“It was the best fit for me financially and just where I was academically,” Schroeder said. “It gave me the confidence and belief in myself that I never had before. I started going to class and started doing the work.

“I wasn’t a 4.0 student or top of my class (in high school), but Owens gave me a path. Once I got done with a couple of classes and saw a curriculum map, I started to see it wasn’t crazy and that I could do it. I started showing up and got a plan in place. The biggest thing is it gave me some belief in myself.”

Their paths have allowed Schroeder and Calo to better connect with their students and athletes. Calo is a special education teacher in the Olentangy Local School District, and Schroeder is a physical education teacher.

“Recognizing myself in other people, like, ‘Hey, you’ve got potential, but you’re going to have to fine tune your habits, you’re going to have to learn how to work, how to be resilient,’ because I didn’t know those things,” Calo said. “I look at people the way I would have wanted someone to look at me when I was that age, in the way Owens professors looked at me.”

Both Calo and Schroeder called winning state championships “surreal.” Schroeder’s team put together the first perfect season in Division I football in 15 years while Calo joined his dad as a state championship coach after Ed won a title in 2016. Schroeder has won 81 percent of his games in eight seasons as a head coach at Orange, Granville and Lafayette Allen East. This year, Calo won the 200^th game of his 13-year coaching career.

And true to the slogan, their success started at Owens.

“It was at Owens where it clicked and I knew I could actually do something with my life,” Schroeder said.