(Brooklyn) Audubon graduate Jerod Burns has turned the BGM football program into a winner. The head coach of the Bears is our guest on the latest “Why I Coach” feature.
Burns had a clear cut answer when asked what led him into the profession. It was an opportunity to coach at Newell-Fonda with Brian Wilken, “He’s a really passionate guy and he really turned me onto coaching. I knew I wanted to coach, but I didn’t know I wanted to be a head football coach at that point. I got on his staff and he really kind of lit the fire under me. It was a lot of fun coaching with him. He’s a passionate guy that really loves his kids. He turns out quality young men. I just knew that was what I wanted to do from that point on.”
Coach Burns played minor league baseball before getting into teaching and coaching and has coached baseball, track, and golf at BGM, but football is the one that has stuck. “I really loved baseball and I loved playing it, but once I got coaching football it’s just different. It’s a lot more involved. You’re with the kids a lot more and there’s a lot more detail entailed in coaching the game of football. It really kind of grabbed me.”
Burns admits he looked into the Audubon job the last time it was open. “I just didn’t feel like it was the right fit for me to go back at that time. I don’t know if it was the teaching I was going to have to do or just the feeling of being back where you grew up. I really like it out here, my wife likes it here and we just made the decision that this was our home and this is where we are going to raise our kids.”
There’s a long list of Audubon coaches that Burns remembers fondly including Greg Darling, Jason Lange, Jim Willet, Randy Spies, and Steve Dvorak. They inspired him to be a coach and he encourages all of his players to get their authorization to come back and help. “If you’re going to do it it has to be all or none. You can’t do it half heartedly because #1 you aren’t going to succeed and #2 you aren’t going to do the kids any favors when you don’t go whole hog.”
Under Burns’ direction the Bears of BGM were a state runner-up in 2013 and also made it to the Dome in 2012. The school has qualified for the playoffs in 11 of the past 12 seasons.
Previous Coaches
John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Chad Klein, Audubon Native (Kuemper Catholic and Boone)
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley
