Joint program 1 of most successful

KEOTA - One look into the Keota High School trophy case will reveal more football trophies than any other sport. The reason for that started with a man and a snake.

It was 1987 when rivals Sigourney and Keota, just 15 miles apart on Highway 92, signed a sharing agreement for each of their football programs to merge together. After some initial resentment, it has developed into a storied program that is the longest standing shared program in Iowa.

'Back then, 8-man football did not exist, so Keota had no choice except to join another school for football or not to have a program,” said Keota co-athletic director Rod Hill, who started teaching the same year Cobras were created.

Many co-ops have tried and failed: Highland/Lone Tree, New London/Danville, Collins-Maxwell-Baxter. It was just football to start but now there is shared wrestling, bowling and trapshooting as well as junior high football.

The culture of success speaks volumes about the athletes and every level of both communities, each knowing it is something special.

Lee Crawford has a unique view of the joint program as the athletic director and the head baseball coach at Sigourney. Many of the baseball players for the Keota Eagles and the Sigourney Savages are the same football players that are the SK Cobras.

'I don't see football as our school and their school. I compete against them, but also see them in the mornings at the weight room,” Crawford said. 'I talk to all the boys three times a week about how they did the night before and how their summers were going.”

It is a tribute to the head coaches and all staff over the 33 years but especially to the man who started it. Bob Howard is a Hall of Fame coach seventh in Iowa in football wins with a record of 341-102. After 27 years at SK and a record of 229-52, he left after 2007 to coach Webster City.

The two schools quickly found a connection under Howard, who made it feel like family from the first kids playing to now, each setting it up for the next group. Parents of kids now understand what it takes because they had Howard, who had high expectations and when the schools merged, they bought into him and his vision.

'The success we are having now is a direct result of the parents and the community all being a part of something bigger than itself,” current SK head coach Jared Jensen said. Jensen and his Cobras play Saturday in a Class 1A semifinal.

Howard also was the one who thought of the Cobra as mascot since there were none at that time, although two schools had been. Cambridge was the Cobras, but it consolidated with Huxley and Slater for the 1957-58 school year to form Ballard High School, and that mascot is the Bombers. Union-Whiten was founded in 1955-56 with the Cobra mascot, but it was merged into the BCLUW Comets in the 1985-86 school year.

Keota co-athletic director Dan Stout has a son on this year's team and son JD was the spinback on last year's team, so he has firsthand knowledge of friendships built between Eagles and Savages.

'The program has worked out really well,” Stout said. 'It is a positive thing.”

There are negatives. No varsity games have ever been played at Keota. Some kids don't want to travel to practice every day and Keota misses out on revenue that football brings as well as the awesome atmosphere Game Day creates in small towns.

”Winning always helps when changes are made,” Hill said.

The Cobras are winners with 21 playoff appearances, three state titles and an 18-1 ledger the last two years.

Every Thursday there is a supper for the team. Parents come with food and feed all the players from junior high too. They watch practice, witness to the effort, desire, work and care that flows from coaches to players and back.

'We have tremendous supporters,” said Jensen, in his 10th season. 'I think they understand what we do and how committed we are. They see coaches are looking out for their kids and we need to support them to the tilt.

'It's a special group and a special time.”