(Atlantic) In 28 football seasons, Bob Younger compiled a 203-83 record. He guided Atlantic to the playoffs seven times and earned state runner-up finishes in 1974 and 1980.
Coaching was a natural career choice for Younger. “I’m mentioning the years that noone has heard of anymore, but back in the 50’s when I was in high school–I graduated in ’53–down in Missouri and there wasn’t a lot going on. You played football, basketball, and ran track, and baseball in the summer time and that was it. I guess I was just greatly influenced by my high school coach. He was a young guy out of Missouri Valley College down in Marshall, Missouri. He was just a great guy. I loved athletics and just kept going. I graduated from high school and went to college with the idea that I was going to be a football coach.”
Younger spent the bulk of his career in Atlantic, but made a couple of stops in Missouri and was coaching at Corning before taking over with the Trojans. Coincidentally, the Atlantic job wasn’t one that Younger jumped at to begin with. “The job at Atlantic opened and one day the Superintendent at Corning came to find me at the old armory and said Armon Schuler called and wanted to know if you’d be interested in interviewing for a job in Atlantic. I said, “I really like Corning.’ He said, ‘Hey listen, I’m telling you right now. Go for the interview.’ So I said ‘Okay.'”
Younger explains he signed the contract along the highway on the side of his car while on his way to a class in Omaha. “He called and said they’d like to offer the job.” Schuler asked if Younger could come up right away and sign the papers, “I said ‘I have to go to class’ he asked which way we went and he drove down and met us at corner, so that was how I got started.”
With Atlantic he feels he walked into a good situation. “First of all, Atlantic was a football town. They loved to play football and that’s what they lived for. The kids were enthused about it.”
He took over in the mid-1960’s right as the team had graduated star players such as Denny Turnure, Dan Duskin, and Ed Podolak. “We had some kids that had probably just gotten the snot beat out of them every practice session by the really good guys in front of them. Nobody knew how tough they were. These were kids that nobody had ever heard of and boy were they tough. The kids came in and we had just a great year because of how tough they were. They accepted coaching very well because they were happy to get to play since they hadn’t played before.”
He prided his teams over the years on their self-discipline. When he retired there were some things he did not miss and some things he did miss. “Chuck Burnett and I used to laugh all the time. The last couple years we said we couldn’t wait to retire so we didn’t have to get on the doggone yellow busses and drive. I love Friday nights. Preparing for the games was okay. It was fun, but Friday nights were a lot of fun. You knew that you had done everything you could do and you just hoped your kids were good enough to execute. It was so enjoyable to see kids succeed at what they had practiced to do.
For as much as he loved football Younger admits track might have been his favorite sport to coach. He also spent a portion of his coaching career as a basketball assistant. “Boy I met some great people. Great coaches, great fans, people in Atlantic were just super, super supporters. I really appreciate that. The players I see a lot of them outside now. I hardly recognize them because they are getting bigger and broader just like I did. I look back on it and say Atlantic was a great place to have a career start and end. It was a beautiful place to be.”
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)
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)
Chris Stimson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Jan Jensen, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum
Seth Poldberg, EH-K grad and Guthrie Center coach
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Angie Spangenberg, Harlan and Red Oak
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley
