“Why I Coach” with Audubon’s Dean Kiger

(Audubon) Dean Kiger came to Audubon in the 1960’s, fresh out of college and never left. He guided the Wheeler wrestling program and assisted in football and baseball.

The Fairfield native actually started in hoops before moving to the mat. “We didn’t have junior high wrestling where I was at. I played basketball in junior high and started out playing basketball as a freshman. Fairfield had a really good heavyweight that didn’t have anyone to work out with so the coaches talked me into switching over from basketball to wrestling and it became my best sport.”

His keys to success with the Wheelers weren’t overly complex. “Get a lot of kids out. Find kids that want to work. Find kids that were just plain tough enough to do it. We had a bunch of them. We had a bunch of them. We had a lot of good kids.”

Kiger didn’t have too much trouble getting the athletes to buy in to what he was trying to build. “If you got three or four of the kids that really loved the sport and you could get them to do it the rest would come along…I didn’t have trouble trying to get people here.”

Kiger gave up his head wrestling duties at a fairly young age in order to watch his two sons wrestle and each were state finalists. “That was a lot of it was how busy my wife and I were with kids at home. It wasn’t a tough decision for me. I knew my assistant coach had been a head coach before and could take over and do a good job.”

Meanwhile he kept coaching as an assistant in baseball. “It gave me a change to be around it. I wasn’t running the thing, I could just go to practice and do what the coach wanted me to teach. I didn’t want to get completely out of it.”

Previous Coaches

Colin Shawgo, ACGC

Cody Matthewson, ACGC

Shawn Danker, ACGC

Cory Bartz, Adair-Casey

John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum

Wade Anderson, Adair-Casey

Kelsey Muxfeldt, AHSTW

Evan McCarthy, AHSTW

GG Harris, AHSTW

Frank Nelsen, AHST

Jason Holst, AHSTW

Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon

Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)

Lee Saathoff, Atlantic

Tim Duff, Atlantic/CAM

Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center

Dan Vargason, Atlantic

Terry Hinzmann, Atlantic

Lynn Barnes, Atlantic

Kathy Hobson, Atlantic

Chad Klein, Audubon Native (Kuemper Catholic and Boone)

Dean Kiger, Audubon

Darran Miller, Audubon

In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Monte Riebhoff)

In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Steve Ahrendsen)

In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Scott Weber)

In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Curt Mace)

Molly Lange, Audubon

Sean Birks, Audubon

Monte Riebhoff, Audubon

Frank Howell, Audubon

Bud Legg, Anita Native

Dean Downer, CAM

Lance Lage, CAM

Joe Wollum, CAM

Dan Daugherty, CAM

Larry Hunt, CAM

Aaron Pelzer, C&M/Norwalk

Chris Stimson, Elk Horn-Kimballton

Jan Jensen, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum

Tony Petersen, Exira-EHK

Tom Petersen, Exira-EHK

Doug Newton, Exira-EHK

Terry Weisenborn, Exira-EHK

Seth Poldberg, EH-K grad and Guthrie Center coach

Cory Faust, Glenwood

Tom Moore, Griswold

Raymond Butt, Griswold

Kent Gade, Griswold

Chad Rodgers, Griswold

Chris Hamilton, Griswold

Peggy Hansen, Griswold

Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley

Brent Meier, Guthrie Center

Todd Bladt, Harlan

Mitch Osborn, Harlan

Doug Renkly, Harlan

Steve Daeges, Harlan

Joel Osborn, Harlan

Angie Spangenberg, Harlan and Red Oak

Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central

Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley

Dan Jameson, Nodaway Valley

James Larson, Nodaway Valley

Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley

Mitch Anderson, Riverside

Darrell Frain, Riverside

Alex Oliver, Riverside

Gary Wax, Riverside

Chris Conover, Riverside

Chad Harder, (Walnut Grad) Tri-Center

Jason Book, (Walnut grad) ADM

Bob Gross, Walnut

Denny Book, Walnut

Kevin Suhr, (Walnut Grad) Blue Valley High School, KS