Pekin football has new coach with Weber replacing Blakely

PACKWOOD — While the Backyard Brawl will not be played for the next two years, the next game will have new meaning.

Sigourney-Keota assistant football coach Klynt Weber has accepted the job of head football coach at Pekin. Brent (Bud) Blakely resigned the position as well as his role as activities director. Blakely had a 24-20 record over the last five years with an 8-2 mark his best season in 2017.

“I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but I have some options I’m looking at,” Blakely said. “A decision has been wearing on me all year, and it was time for a change of pace.”

Weber said he is ready to get started.

“I'm excited to build a new era of a program that has such a rich history,” Weber said. “Success isn't built overnight. Our focus will be on the things that not only will get us there, but keep us there.”

"I have a wife and kid I don’t get to see very much with being coach and AD and given the last year’s happenings plus COVID, it was just time to be home a little more,“ Blakely said. ”I want to cut back and get a breath of fresh air. I wouldn’t say COVID was a big factor, it just didn’t help.“

As an AD, Blakely would have had input about hiring a coach, but he distanced himself from it in this situation, while remembering “great kids, great people, special individuals. I was a blessed man. The good outweighed the bad, but we didn’t do as good as we wanted to. We will see how long I can sit still.”

Weber has an advantage that doesn’t usually happen with a new job: no headaches of moving, no searching for another job for his wife.

Pekin is only 14 miles from Sigourney where Weber is the K-12 Talented and Gifted teacher while running the strength and conditioning program before and after school. At Pekin, training will be his full-time job.

Weber was the defensive coordinator for the Cobras this past season when they made an appearance at the UNI-Dome for a semifinal football game. He has been an assistant for Sigourney-Keota since 2011 after playing for the Cobras from 2002-2005 as a cornerback and place-kicker. The 2005 Cobras were state champs.

“Leaving SK was a tough decision, primarily because of so many great people in both communities,” Weber said.

A motivating factor for Weber was to have “somewhere that I could call my own.”

The two programs meet regularly on the field in a titled game called the Backyard Brawl, won by the Cobras this past season for a 19-12 advantage in the series.

“As our rival, it's probably good that game won’t be played this cycle,” Sigourney-Keota head coach Jared Jensen said. “It would have been emotional on both sides of the field for different reasons that normal. ”

The most important thing Weber will address upon his arrival in June is creating culture. That will start with his passion for training, getting “buy-in with strength and conditioning, building excitement and roster numbers and creating a coaching staff all on the same page.”

As a defensive coordinator, Weber knows what makes offenses hard to prepare for so there is not a set plan for the Panthers future attack.

“We will first evaluate personnel and begin developing physicality and toughness so that we have a few options,” Weber said.

Having the school day to work with students on speed training, strength training and the like as part of a performance PE class will emphasize athletic development and wellness.

“This is a good thing because Klynt has a chance to run a program and take that challenge down at Pekin,” Jensen said. “He also gets to coach performance PE which is what Klynt really is passionate about.”

It is an interesting move for anyone from the Sigourney-Keota family, but an opportunity with Weber’s aspirations that “was too good to pass up,” Jensen said. “Now going to our rival throws a wrench into it, but Klynt saw an opportunity to take another step in his coaching and teaching career.”

Weber has supported Jensen’s career as his “right hand,” working his way up from coaching defensive backs, JV head coach, to defensive coordinator, then head varsity assistant. “He has helped mold this program back to what it was.”

“I have nothing but love for Klynt and what he brings to the table,” Jensen said. “I am appreciative for everything he has done for the SK football program, weight training, teaching and all the projects he has helped with making our school a much better place.”