(Shelby) Before announcing his retirement this offseason, Frank Schnoes was one of only 10 active boys basketball coaches in Iowa with over 590 wins.
While he spent much of his career coaching in Northern Iowa, he got his start at Shelby-Tennant in 1974. “I was the head basketball coach, head track, and assistant football so I had a full slate of coaching duties when I first came out. That got my feet wet in sports and it just kind of took off from there…I don’t know if I left a big mark on Shelby-Tennant, but I sure learned a lot there.”
592-204 was the all-time record for this week’s “Why I Coach” guest. His motives for getting into coaching were simple. He loved the game of basketball and wanted to have a way to give back to the game. “There’s a lot of life lessons to be learned by coaching sports. It’s about how you carry yourself and how you interact and learn to become a team player. That’s really why I wanted to coach was to give back to the game I fell in love with.”
The bulk of years of service came at West Fork, or previous organizations of the Sheffield based school. That position opened for him after a brief stint coaching at the junior high level in his home town of Paullina. From 1979-2004 he was at Sheffield-Chapin and eventually SCMT. Eventually things kind of came full circle, so to speak. “I coached there for 25 years before going into administration.” Schnoes says, “After two years of retirement the job I left at Sheffield opened back up and I decided to give it a shot and get back into coaching again. I did that for nine more years until I decided to retire a few weeks ago. Time really flies when you are having fun and I really enjoyed the many years that I coached. I’ve coached hundreds of kids and was just grateful I was able to do it as long as I did.”
Schnoes led six teams to the boys state basketball tournament and finished as state runner-up in both 2013 and 2014.
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)
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
