(Atlantic) A one of a kind coach from Atlantic joins the “Why I Coach” series. Don Jenkins achieved success in four sports during his Hall of Fame career with the Trojans. Practices under coach Jenkins were not known for being easy. “I expected the kids to play hard, but boy they had to practice hard. Somebody told me ‘You’re kids sure seem to be motivated.’ I said ‘Well the ones that aren’t motivated quit a long time ago.'”
Jenkins says it was an easy choice to become a teacher because of his love for history and he also loved sports so coaching came naturally. The Red Oak native began his career at Glenwood, but his stint with the Rams was brief. He recalls the set of events took him to Atlantic. “Here comes this burly guy walking down the sidewalk and I looked at him and thought ‘Geeze I think that’s the Atlantic AD.’ He comes walking over to me and I was grilling hamburgers. He says to me, ‘Are you going anywhere?’ I said, ‘Well no my burgers aren’t done.’ He says, ‘No. You’re not going to another school are you?’ I told him I wasn’t and he told me ‘You’re coming to Atlantic to be my girls basketball coach.’ So Rollin Dyer is the reason I’m in Atlantic.”
He calls Rollin Dyer and Bob Sweeney two of the greatest AD’s he could have ever worked for. Jenkins loved coaching, but jokes that past guests on “Why I Coach” have neglected to point out one key thing. “I always tell people coaching is about 10% of your pay and about 90% of your problems, but one of the things some of your coaches have failed to mention is…I had four children. That extra coaching all those years and those extra paychecks came in really handy.”
Jenkins is likely best known for his time as a basketball coach, but he was instrumental in Atlantic’s six state volleyball tournament appearances from 1979-1989. Dyer pulled a fast one on him by slipping in the volleyball contract during Jenkins interview for the basketball job. “All of a sudden he slid over a sheet of paper. I said ‘Volleyball?’ He goes, ‘Oh yeah, I knew if I told you you were going to coach volleyball you’d never show up for the interview.’ I said ‘I don’t know anything about volleyball.’ He said, ‘You’ve got three months to learn and I expect a good coach when day one starts.'”
Apparently he learned quickly because they went to state right away in his first season. “The kids took me to state I should say. Lots of times at practice I’d ask players why they did something and they wondered what they did wrong, but I just wanted to know why they did things. Geeze I had a lot of fun. They always think of Don Jenkins as a basketball coach, but we had as much success in volleyball as basketball. It’s just unfortunate at the state level we were always drawing Dubuque Wahlert or North Scott. It was a two class system and we were always the smallest school.”
In basketball he guided teams to state nine times including a state championship in 1990. Jenkins admits the early years of his career were spent trying to emulate other coaches before he realized he had to do what was best for him. It turned out what was best for him was to demand a lot from his players. “The number of kids that dropped out of the program because they did not want to work that hard always bothered me. There were times I’m sure we had better kids that dropped out of the program walking the halls than we had on our teams. And these teams still were very successful and went to state. I just felt sorry they did not have that fortitude. I guess if there were any regrets it would be the kids that did drop out of the program.”
One night after a disappointing loss Jenkins turned to an unconventional method to teach his team a lesson. It happened on a Tuesday night at Creston with a group of kids coach Jenkins says were really good. “They were getting better every week and we went over there and laid an egg. I figured we’d win by 20-25 and got beat by six.” Generally kids were allowed to ride home with their parents, but not on this night. “I went in and said everybody rides the bus tonight. It was so cold you can’t believe it. I think we got to Orient and Dick Cassady, a great assistant coach, says the heaters aren’t working. Well it was working fine where I was sitting.” Jenkins says by the time they got home all the kids were in the first three rows and there was ice on the windows. “It wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done. The next morning I had a message that Mr. Dyer wanted to see me. I got there and he lit into me and I had to go in two more times during the day and he yelled at me.” Another trip to the AD’s office came right before practice when Dyer told Jenkins he needed to apologize to the kids. Dyer says, “Stupidest thing I’ve ever heard a coach do!” Right before Jenkins walked into the gym Cassady warned him something was up. “I walk in the gym and here are girls in their Carhartt’s, mittens, boots, I wish I had a video of this. A couple of seniors popped up and said, ‘Coach we want to apologize for the way we played last night. It will never happen again.” Jenkins told them to get that stuff off and get to work. When Dyer followed up with Jenkins to ask about an apology, Jenkins simply replied, “There were apologies given.” Years later he told the AD the full story and Dyer exclaimed, “I should have known better!”
Jenkins was also a key part of Atlantic’s girls track success at the state level on a great staff with fellow assistant Barb Olsen and head coach Bruce Henderson. He was head softball coach at Glenwood in his early years, spent some time under Joel Simms as an assistant for softball in Atlantic, and eventually became the head coach for the Trojans late in his career.
https://soundcloud.com/hyoach/don-jenkins-why-i-coach
Previous Coaches
(Click to listen)
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)
Jason Mehrhoff, Anita Native (Carlisle)
Eric Hjelle, Elk Horn-Kimballton grad (Underwood)
Brett Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum (Waukee Northwest)
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
Marc Bierbaum, Griswold grad and Iowa Western track/cross country assistant
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Curt Schulte, Harlan graduate (Glenwood)
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
