Tom Stringer 1992-2006 Won 130 Lost 36 HOME May 16, 2010
TCJ Photo 2-22-2007 TCJ Photo 11-28-06
Coach Tom Stringer compiled a record as Hayden coach that far exceeds any of the previous records of Hayden football coaches. It is hard to imagine that any future coach will have the loyalty to stay long enough to match his contribution . Hayden can only hope that we have another like him.
Tom Stringer graduated from Hayden in 1979. He was a part of Hayden's resurgence in football and was named to the Topeka Capital-Journal's ALL CLASS ALL STATE Honorable Mention list in 1978.
Coach Stringer had an outstanding career as a player at Pittsburg State University. He earned 1st Team All-American honors as an offensive lineman in 1981 - the same year that Pittsburg State finished NAIA Division I National Runner-up. He was inducted into Pittsburg State's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.
After serving as an assistant coach at Hayden, he became Head Coach in the fall of 1992. His accomplishments in the football program were monumental. Hayden became a power in CLASS 4A and the Centennial League. Hayden was a semi-finalist in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2005. Hayden finished 2nd in 2003 and won the State Championship in 1998 and 2004. The 1998 team was Hayden's first State champion in football and first undefeated team since 1950. Coach Stringer's team won or shared the Centennial League title seven times.
He was known as the great motivator and was a prime mover in organizing the youth football program for Hayden in Topeka (Saints Football). Athletic Director Bob Taul said after learning that Coach Stringer would resign in 2007 that Coach had laid the foundation for the football program to be successful into the future.
He wanted to try some different things outside of coaching and wanted to follow the college career of his son, Nick Stringer, at Kansas State. "I worked every day to make this program something they wanted to be a part of and something they could be proud of," he told Rick Peterson (TCJ) about his players. "They believe they're going to win every football game whether they do or not and that's the stuff that I dig."*
* Topeka Capital-Journal 2-22-2007 Rick Peterson story