By Courtney Priest
Carbon County Comet Contributor
The Medicine Bow community and many around the state of Wyoming are mourning a great loss this week. Dario Soto passed away last week just a few months shy of his 90th birthday. I first met Dario Soto in the summer of 2013. I was new to Wyoming and ready to embark on my new adventure as secretary of Medicine Bow Elementary. Mr Soto was the first person to greet me on my first day. He met me at the door and said “You must be the new Sue (Sue Cowdin, long-time Medicine Bow secretary, who I was replacing after her retirement), you have big shoes to fill, but don’t worry we will help you”. At that time I had no idea that Mr Soto was a legend in his own right. I was just amazed that this man who looked well into retirement age was still teaching, and teaching PE of all things! I did not know him in his coaching and teaching heyday, but instead met him when he was not so good at retirement and had returned to school as a “part-time” PE teacher for Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain Elementary schools.
Over the years I would learn that he came from humble beginnings in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, that he worked hard as a teenager in a variety of jobs, and that even though he was self-described as “scrawny” he played a year of community college football, that he served his country in the United States Navy where he was a cook on an aircraft carrier who firmly believed enlisted men deserved as many mashed potatoes as officers and where he also learned Morse code and could tell you how to use it to swear, that he was a proud UW alumnus who regularly attended football games, and his first teaching job was in Fort Laramie, where he also had to drive the bus so his team could go to games.
He quickly became my right-hand man in the office. It did not take long for me to realize his love for the kids of Medicine Bow Elementary and Elk Mountain Elementary. He was paid for 6 hours a week but was around 6 or more hours a day teaching PE, taking recess duty, helping serve lunch, getting the Christmas decorations out, setting up chairs for programs, and cutting out laminated material. If it needed to be done he was always there to help. I would also soon realize that if he showed up with a donut or pastry it was “break time”, and if it was summer break and he brought you lunch, well there was certainly something he wanted you to do….like help him set up the badminton court and then play a few games to “test it out”. He never left for the day without tossing some sort of candy on my desk, and if you needed a piece of chocolate to get you through the day, guaranteed there was some stashed in his desk. New teachers would learn that if Mr. Soto showed up at your door, you were probably done teaching for the moment because your class was taking a “brain break”. His annual Soto Field Day with Medicine Bow Elementary and Elk Mountain Elementary students was more about fun, popsicles, a good lunch, popcorn and treats than it was about competition because he believed kids should have fun and it was the perfect ending to the school year. Those outside the walls of Medicine Bow Elementary School could not understand why he was indulged the way he was, but those inside knew he was special and that we couldn’t do it without him.
I didn’t fully comprehend who he was as a coach until my son started junior high basketball with Coach Soto. I had heard stories from back in the Bow-Basin days to his days at HEM High School, where he once told his players “You aren’t bad people, you just play bad basketball”. As we followed my son’s team around the county and state, I soon realized it was really the Coach Soto celebrity tour. He was recognized and revered at every stop. There was not a game that went by where he wasn’t stopped by a referee, opposing coach, table worker, or parent who knew him “back in the day”. I can still hear him say “You miss every shot you don’t take so, SHOOT THE BALL!” His coaching style wasn’t for everyone, but you can’t argue with the successes that he had both on and off the court as he greatly impacted many lives through coaching. If there is a basketball team in heaven, guaranteed, he is already coaching it.
Above all Mr Soto was a humble man. He did not like to be in the limelight and would always want to steer the conversation to his team, his students, or anyone but himself. He would never tell you he has been recognized with both state and national awards or is in the state and national Coaches Hall of Fame, that the basketball court at HEM is named Soto Court in his honor, or that his popcorn is famous in several states. He could never understand why “that newspaper guy” Mike Armstrong wanted to interview him and would just shake his head and say “Who wants to read about me” when the articles would come out.
Several Facebook posts announcing his passing were immediately flooded with words of praise for who he was as a coach, teacher, and most importantly as a person, showing that no matter when or where you knew him, Mr. Soto had a great impact on many lives not only in Medicine Bow but across Wyoming. He would probably be appalled at the attention his passing has attracted, but no one deserves to be recognized, remembered and appreciated more than him. We were honored to know him and should all strive to be half the person he was because if we were, the world would be a better place. Rest easy Mr. Soto, you deserve it.
