In the movie “The Departed,” Jack Nicholson as Irish mob boss Frank Costello says, “I don’t want to be a product of the environment, I want the environment to be a product of me.”
Doug Kerr, Iola High football coach, has taken the quote to heart and wants to apply it to his program, he told Iola Rotarians Thursday.
Rather than have his athletes accept cultural backgrounds that may limit their possibilities, Kerr wants them to reach higher and “take the next step.” The culture of “good enough” destroys enthusiasm, Kerr said, to the point he thinks it may well have been responsible for last year’s school bond election failure.
A turning point, he thinks, for the team can be a revamped and improved playing venue in Riverside Park, plans for which he has visualized but not yet fully developed. His vision is for the football stadium, a 1930s product of the Depression era Works Progress Administration, to be a focal point for the community.
Kerr talked about installing 100 seat-back chairs, a huge step up for comfort from concrete bleachers. He also mentioned a Ray Houser Memorial dressing room project, to turn that antiquated portion of the facility into one with modern amenities. Houser, who died recently, was Iola High’s football coach years ago.
“I want to make something the community can be proud of,” he said.
A starting point will be painting and sprucing up the stadium and adding concrete where mud collects after each rain. The effort will be to include the community, not just as fans but also as participants in making the old stadium a source of pride.
This fall’s season will be Kerr’s fourth at Iola High, which means players from all four grades, freshman through seniors, will be wards of his program.
“We’ll have 50 boys, and one girl, out this fall,” which he said is a good representation for a school the size of IHS.
Coach: Culture of ‘good enough’ curbs enthusiasm
