Professional ball players talk about “feelin’ the love” of fans, coaches and teammates in their decision to commit to a certain team.
Iola’s Ryan Coffield can relate.
In weighing a decision to return home to practice dentistry, Coffield was wooed, courted and pursued over the course of six years.
Coffield’s parents, Glen and Mary, dropped hints. Dr. Vernon Lee made calls. David Toland of Thrive Allen County put a bug in his ear. First in one, then the other.
That all helped, for sure.
“It made me feel wanted,” he said of the courtship.
But it was girlfriend and fellow Iolan Ceri Loflin that pulled the lever.
“Ceri had a lot to do with it,” he admitted to breaking the spell of Devils Lake, N.D., where Ryan worked as a dentist on a nearby reservation. The Lakota name for Devils Lake is Ble Waka Sica — Lake of the Spirits. A map of the lake district — “150,000 acres of water,” notes Ryan — is mounted on their living room wall.
Once their friendship turned into more, the desire to be together was strong enough to break the lakes’ hold, plus “those 12-hour drives,” from Kansas to North Dakota, “began to take a toll,” he said.
In 2011, Ryan moved back to Iola to join Lee in his dental practice, purchasing it in 2013.
By then Ceri was in graduate school in Kansas City.
The two were married in 2015.
“I thought we should live in the same corner of the state, the same zip code, for a year before I proposed,” he said.
For Ceri, the move back home was always in the back of her mind.
In fact, she was the one who kept dropping hints at Greenbush Learning Center in Girard that she would be a good fit.
“I knew I wanted to work with kids and that Greenbush would be the perfect place for me,” she said. “About two years before I was to graduate I contacted them and said ‘Hi guys, I’m thinking of coming here.’”
“Finally a position opened up,” she said. And yes, she loves her job there as a speech pathologist.
“It’s such a unique program in that it includes Birth-to-3 programs, home visits, as well as visiting schools,” all across the four-county district of the ANW Cooperative that includes Allen, Anderson, Neosho and Woodson counties.
BOTH Ryan and Ceri have doctorates in their respective fields.
After graduating from Iola High School in 2001, Ryan attended Allen Community College and then the University of Kansas for his undergraduate degree. Because Kansas has no dental school he looked afield, and was accepted into the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Dentistry, graduating in 2009. From there he moved to North Dakota to work for the U.S. Public Health Services Clinic.
Ceri, a 2005 IHS gradute, also attended KU, graduating in 2009 with a communication science and disorder degree. From there she attended graduate school at KU’s Medical School for a doctorate in audiology, graduating in 2013. During her fourth year of the program she worked at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City.
When she completed her formal education she headed home to Iola, knowing she had a job at Greenbush lined up.
And yes, there was Ryan, who by then had been a steady boyfriend for five years.
The two met in 2008 when Ryan was in dental school in Nebraska and Ceri was a junior at KU and both had come home for the Thanksgiving holiday.
“It was like a mini-high school reunion,” Ceri said of a gathering at the North Community Building. A local band, DB Cooper, was performing.
Ceri and Ryan didn’t know each other growing up, when a four-year difference in age can seem like a generation.
As their relationship took on a more serious direction, so did their decision to make Iola their hometown.
Knowing that their skills would allow them to live anywhere, choosing to live in Iola was a conscious decision, they said.
To them, Iola had everything they needed: Good jobs, family nearby, outdoor opportunities and not too far from metropolitan areas or to the other extreme, camping in Arkansas.
“We chose to live here because Iola is a great town,” Ryan summed up.
“I had a good opportunity to work with Dr. Lee, we knew we wanted to have a family someday and Iola is a nice, safe place.”
In the time he has been in Iola the practice has doubled in volume, he said.
At the time of this interview Ceri was 8½ months pregnant. Their daughter, Marin, was born Aug. 6.
Her position at Greenbush allows for a 12-week maternity leave.
In addition to Ryan’s parents, Ceri’s mother, Carmen Shafer, lives in the area and both have siblings in town.
Ceri and Ryan said they like the direction Iola is taking.
As outdoor enthusiasts, the couple appreciates the developing rail trail system.
“I can’t imagine living here without the bike trails,” Ceri said. Both are avid bikers.
During her pregnancy Ceri had begun a routine of walking the trails in the early mornings, “where I always see a friendly face,” she said.
They remarked on the wide range of generations they meet on the trails, from parents with babies in strollers, to high school and college athletes, to senior citizens.
“We’re so thankful to Thrive for building the trails,” Ryan said. “They’ve created some more opportunities for getting outside as well as getting more involved in the community.”
Has Iola changed?
“You see it differently as an adult,” Ryan, 34, responded. “We’ve got some good things going on here and we would hope to see that continue.”
On the eve of becoming parents, they expressed the wish that other young couples would move this way and that the community can hold on to those who are here.
They listed as perks the close proximity to cities such as Lawrence, Kansas City and Wichita, and the fact that they don’t have the hassle of traffic.
Ryan’s commute to work is a three-minute drive. ”It’s pretty fantastic,” he said. “Commuting sucks up so much time and energy.”
Ceri’s drive to Greenbush headquarters outside of Girard is close to an hour, “but I only have to be there twice a week,” she said. “Plus there’s no traffic to deal with. It’s a pleasant drive.”
Iola’s rural setting suits their lifestyle, they said.
“We’re pretty active people,” Ceri, 31, said.
In addition to the rail trails they enjoy kayaking and they have a fishing boat.
They also like the fact that southeast Kansas is an affordable place to live, noting the difference in real estate prices for their friends who live in cities such as Houston, Portland and Kansas City.
“You could get some of the nicest houses in this area for what they have to pay for a bungalow in the city,” Ryan said.
Ceri added, “We kind of beat to our own drum. The things that we like maybe don’t appeal to others. We don’t have a huge drive to attain material things. We like to travel. Living in Iola affords us these things.”
Although it wasn’t exactly popular with their parents, Ceri and Ryan chose to eschew a wedding ceremony and instead were married in Big Sur, Calif., followed by a week of driving along the coastal Highway 1.
“It worked for us,” they said, expressing “no regrets.”
Ryan and Ceri said the majority of their close friends live in cities.
“It’s kind of hard to leave the luxuries,” of a city, Ceri admitted.
“Many of our high school friends have talked about moving back, if they could find jobs that suit them. Sometimes their spouses — if they’re from cities — maybe can’t picture themselves here,” Ceri said.
“Our big-city friends look at Iola as a charming community,” she added.
As far as schools go, both said they thought they had received good educations in Iola.
“I’m concerned about their financial situation, but that’s statewide, not just here,” Ryan said.
Ceri noted with affection that many of her former teachers keep up with her whereabouts.
“I think it’s charming how teachers have maintained such an interest in me,” she said.
Ceri and Ryan look amused when asked if they feel like they “settled” by returning to Iola.
“We have fulfilling careers, our family is nearby and our quality of life is good,” Ryan said.
Enough said.
A coming home story: With the world as their oyster, the Coffields chose to make Iola their home
