Keota High School’s baseball coach resigns

Keota High School is currently looking for a new baseball coach after Tanner McClenahan resigned.

McClenahan is a 2011 graduate of Keota. He graduated in 2015 from Coe College with a bachelor's degree in Strength and Conditioning.

His full-time job is the Senior Material Handler for Schwan's Home Service Inc. in Washington. He manages everything on the warehouse side of operations.

Following is a question-and answer-session with McClenahan, who helps coach the Washington boys basketball team. In his five years as Keota's head baseball coach, he amassed a 41-70 record, which included 0-21 mark his first year.

How did you reach the decision to resign as head coach of Keota baseball?

I had to make a decision on whether or not I would sign my contract for next year. It is a standard year-to-year procedure for coaching. Just like any job, I had to turn in my letter of resignation when I made my decision. There are so many things that go into a decision like this. Obviously, coaching Keota baseball is and has been a passion of mine, which made this difficult. I had to also take into consideration many other aspects of my life that are affected by the time I put in with baseball. I had to look at all of the activities I am involved in and see where I could focus my attention more. I just felt I had spread myself pretty thin the last few years.

Why did you decide to leave as head baseball coach? With baseball, it was tough. This has always been my No. 1 sport. I've played and been involved with it since I can remember. When I took that coaching job, I pictured doing it for a very long time, possibly until I couldn't anymore. The things I am involved with now have spread me thin and I just felt I couldn't put my best effort forward doing all of them at once. I have loved taking care of the field as well, but it does take a toll on you. I had a lot of pride in it, but it would lead to spending hours after practice or on weekends at the field and pretty soon you have trouble balancing everything in your life. This decision isn't forever. I definitely see myself getting back into coaching baseball, but I think I need to take a step back for a while. I think this will help rejuvenate my passion for baseball. I had to look into the future as well. I could possibly be coaching my kids someday and I had to think about if this was helping or hurting that possibility. Also, this will allow me to be more available to cross-country and basketball kids in the summer for workouts or just advice on training.

What was the hardest part of the decision? The kids. I still want to be there for them, but it is more difficult not being their coach now. I just want them to succeed and I think they have the ability to do some great things. Another part was that I was hoping we could bring a South Iowa Cedar League title to Keota. We won the SICL East this year, which was great, but I still feel we could've won the conference. The team still has a great shot this year and the years to come. I just want to make up for the times I feel I let the kids down, but I also know I can't sit around and let that affect me.

Was there an easier part to the decision? Not too much about this was easy. I just kept thinking about how fortunate I was to get this job in the first place and I got to work with some great kids. We improved over five years and I felt we have taken another step for the program in the right direction. That helped me feel a little better about the decision.

Does your job help with coaching?

I took the job because it was something I was familiar with and it also allows me to coach. I work early-morning hours and can be off in plenty of time to prepare for coaching.

What was the hardest part of juggling the two?

The hardest part is the same for most high school coaches, which is trying to give your all to both. Whether that is teaching or working any other job, you have to find a way to focus on what you're doing at that time, but obviously you could have the other on your mind. There are a few things here and there that make some days more difficult, but I've always found a way to make it work. It's just like anything else in life where something pops up and now you have to find a way to make it work.

Did you play in high school? We had a few pretty good years. I had some success at the varsity level my sophomore year. I then had two really good years my junior and senior years. We won a playoff game my junior year and went 15-7 my senior year. It was definitely a lot of fun. You find out later that you never quite have an experience like playing for your hometown team. I also played basketball, football, and ran track and field.

Did you play in college? I played baseball for a year at Coe College and ended up not making it my second year on the team. I continued competing my junior and senior year in cross-country and track and field.

What kind of success did your teams have? Baseball was fairly successful my last two years (at Keota). Basketball has had a great run for quite a while now. I remember watching as a kid, then playing, then watching them after I graduated and there have been many great years. We won conference my junior and senior year. We made it to substate my senior year.

Football, we ended up in the quarterfinals my senior year, losing to Iowa City Regina. In track, our 4x800 team made it to state. In all of my sports, I was fortunate to be surrounded by great talent.

What was your favorite playing experience? I would say junior and senior year at Keota in general. Everything was fun. The games, the music, hanging out after games and the success definitely helped.

What was the worst playing experience? Losing our first-round playoff game in baseball senior year. That one definitely hurt and it was over just like that.

What have been your coaching jobs? My first coaching job was as an assistant baseball coach in 2012 at Keota. I did that for two years. That eventually led to being head baseball coach at Keota in 2014, then head cross-country coach, then head junior high boys basketball coach for two years. I did baseball and cross-country at Keota while also doing freshman boys basketball at Washington. I just finished up cross-country in the fall before basketball started. I would like to look at continuing cross-country at Keota.

Why did you come to Washington to coach? I live in Washington with my wife, Nicole, and my dog, Fiona. It is nice being in town for the coaching job. I also work in Washington which helps make time management easier. Those extra minutes and hours not spent traveling make a difference. I also wanted to get out of my comfort zone a little. I was from Keota and then coached there. I thought being in Washington would be a new challenge for me and being that they're a Class 3A school, I would see some different teams competing. I also help assist the junior varsity and varsity squads. I thought it would be a good experience for me to be an assistant for part of the year instead of just head coach year-round.

What do you like about Washington? I like that it isn't a totally different feel from where I grew up. I came to Washington a lot growing up, so it wasn't too hard of a transition living here. There are some good places to eat and shop. The location is great for heading up to Coralville, Iowa City, or places like that. It is still pretty close to my family and I have some in town, which is nice. There's a nice variety of entertainment as well, which we really enjoy.

What do you like about Washington's school? I like the facilities and the access kids have to tools to help them grow. It helps that the school is fairly new and everything from the gym, to locker rooms, to classrooms, to music rooms, etc., all are up to date and are great places to be in to learn and perform. I have enjoyed getting to know some of the coaches and teachers also. I like how helpful and focused the coaches and teachers are on helping and guiding kids. They're constantly working to make sure they're putting in the effort in the classroom and understanding what it is they're learning.

There are a lot of really good kids. They do the right things, surround themselves with the right people, and put in a lot of time to better themselves. I've enjoyed connecting with kids here and I hope to positively affect their lives.

What was the best part of Keota? I had a lot of pride being that I'm from Keota. I wanted to give back to the place that gave me so much. I have enjoyed the passion and pride of the community as well. Everyone wants to do well and shows up to support the school.

What do you like about Keota's school? The school and community have been working hard over the years on improvements and it is paying off. There have been some great projects finished in the last few years that really helped update the school and make the experience of learning, performing, or supporting that much more enjoyable. It's always great to watch how much people are willing to work hard and sacrifice for the school.

When I first went into coaching, I wondered what kind of an experience it would be with the kids. It has turned out great. I didn't know just how much I would truly care and root for these kids. I found I wanted to focus on more about them than just what kind of athletes they were. I wanted to know what kind of people they were, what their interests were, and I just wanted to be there for them for anything they needed. The kids at Keota do some awesome things that you don't always see. I've seen some kids go to state in athletics and drama or have great success in music and FFA and so on. I've always been really impressed by that.

Why did you decide to get into coaching? I've always been involved with sports, but I've also been interested in schemes and strategy a lot of my life as well. I remember watching games and analyzing what was going on. I felt I could pick up on certain things other people couldn't and I thought I could do well as a coach.

Was there a moment, incident, experience that you had that made you say, ‘I want to be a coach'? I think my experience in general helped pave my path to being a coach. As I grew in high school, I felt I was a pretty good link between my coaches and my teammates. Obviously, I felt more comfortable in sports I was better at, but I liked feeling like I was an extension of the coach to relay messages or help guys out on the field and court. I think that was what probably made me realize I would coach when I enjoyed giving pointers and I enjoyed seeing guys succeed after helping them. I used to enjoy helping JV baseball guys or JV football guys my junior and senior years.

What is the best part about it?

It was great to be around the games that I loved so much. I also liked feeling that I was making a difference in these kids' lives.

What is your favorite part about coaching?

I like competing and I like teaching kids. When I see a kid learn something and be successful it is great to watch. I just like knowing that I'm going to learn and grow every season too. You're going to go through some ups and downs in how the season goes, depending on how I respond and how my kids do.

What is your least favorite part of coaching? The worst part about coaching is just feeling like there's never enough time. That goes for just about everything in life, but I know in coaching I'm always wishing I had another 20 minutes here or 10 minutes here. You learn to value time and work to be more efficient from it, though.

What was your best moment coaching? This is such a tough question. Some of my favorite moments are kids' first hits, first baskets or watching a cross-country kid get a personal record.

I definitely have a few to name from each sport I've done so far. JH basketball Keota- eighth-grade boys in 2016 beating Montezuma after losing to them in 2015. HS baseball Keota- Upsetting English Valleys in the first round in 2015 and winning the SICL East in 2018. HS cross-country Keota- Turner Klein to state in 2016 and the girls having a team score in 2018. Ninth-grade basketball Washington 2017- Beating Fairfield in two overtimes after losing to them the first time.

What would you say your coaching philosophy is? I want to help kids learn about the games they love and teach them to be competitive. It is very important that we also learn valuable life lessons with regards to topics such as teamwork, sacrifice, commitment, and respect. I like well-rounded kids and I will encourage them to participate in other activities, sport and non-sport, too. I hope that every kid is passionate about what they're doing for the team from top to bottom.

What is something you have learned from kids? I have learned to be resilient, to be patient, to be confident, and to trust. I watched kids be mature and realize with baseball we weren't going to have overnight success. They knew it was going to be a process and were patient and trusted me. I have learned to also be more patient with kids and realize they are working hard even if the results are not instant. Great things take time. I have watched kids step up in tough situations and be confident with their teammates trusting them. There are so many more things I have learned from the kids but these are a few.

What is something you want everyone you have coached to take away from the sport? Obviously, I would love everyone to look to back and say how great their experience was, that they learned a lot, and that they enjoyed their time with the team. Honestly, I know that it is tough to have 100 percent of your athletes say that. I truly hope they do, but the No. 1 thing I want is that they take their experience and use it to better themselves or teach others what they found. It can be positive or negative. If you had a great experience, remember the great things you did, the hard work, the success and remember that in life. Teach others how to do it. If it wasn't great and maybe you didn't play a lot, things didn't go well when you did, maybe we didn't get along great, and you felt the experience in general could've been better, use that experience to make sure it won't happen again. Figure out what went wrong, what could you control, what couldn't you control, and how can you teach others to avoid this. Sometimes a gut-wrenching, losing experience can be just as valuable as a joyful, winning experience. It's all in how you react and what you take from the situation.