(Oakland) Riverside’s last appearance at the boys state basketball tournament came in 2013. The head coach for the Bulldogs at the time was Jason Shelangouski.
Shelangouski recalls finishing up his high school playing career and having his parents tell him he’d have to find something else to do with his time now that he wouldn’t be around the sport. “I said ‘No absolutely not. I think I’m going to teach and coach.’ From there it just grew as a passion of mine. The teaching part of it is a mega-passion, I kind of always knew coaching was just a byproduct of teaching, but it’s something I love to do. As I worked with the men’s basketball program at the University of Northern Iowa for a year and a half and then got into a local high school while I was in college it just kind of grew from there and sparked a fire that has not gone out for me yet and I don’t see it going out for me.”
The Illinois native went to college at UNI where he took advantage of an opportunity to be the basketball manager for the Panthers. Riverside was Shelangouski’s first job out of college. He was warned Riverside was a wrestling school and quickly found out how much it stung to lose. “It was not the easiest of starts. You learn quite bit. If I knew then what I know now it would make a world of difference. I was thankful to get the head coaching position when I did because we had a couple of stellar freshmen coming in at the time. We had some good returning pieces that just needed to have some discipline. That’s what I focused on was the discipline and then backed off from there. Those guys may not ever say I backed off, but it got us to a level that hasn’t really happened.”
He’s been happy to see the team return to some success this year, noting he followed closely their first winning season since he left. Coach Shelangouski describes his style. “There’s no way that anyone would say that I was pretty easy. I was demanding. Part of it was I had a few doubters in the back of my mind. I think every coach or every player has that mentality where you want to prove people wrong or you want to prove to people that you do know what you are doing. I was pretty demanding I think sometimes probably over the top. I think in this day and age it’s not taken as well, but there are kids that are out there that will feed off of that and do want to win and want to be a part of something special. That group that we had at Riverside definitely wanted to be a part of something special and they worked for it for sure.”
He never regretted starting his career at Riverside despite having no prior connections there. “And I had been offered a couple of other interviews after that, but since I had said yes to Riverside I honored that and I was glad that I did. Riverside taught me a lot. Great people, great families, great kids, and I was sad to leave.”
He sums up his time in Oakland. “It ended up being a great situation and I loved every second of it.”
He moved on to a Council Grove in Kansas where he’s been successful as a girls coach, but saying goodbye at Riverside was tough. “It’s the kids that you connected with and there were quite a few there. It was a pretty tough decision and pretty tough to do that. I’ve stayed in contact with people and I’ve had kids reach out to me even as adults and talk to me and catch me up on life. That’s why we coach, that’s why we teach, to build those relationships as much as we can.”
Council Grove won 111 games with four league titles and two state appearances in Shelangouski’s seven seasons. Shelangouski can’t imagine another career path that would have been more rewarding than the one he’s pursued. “Teaching and coaching in my opinion is the best job ever.”
This past season he joined the staff at Manhattan Christian College.
Previous Coaches
John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Dick Strittmatter, Atlantic native
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)
Warren Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Chris Stimson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Scott Yates, 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
Chad Harder, (Walnut Grad) Tri-Center
