Marion coaches share two decades of football
Sports reporter
The crowd didn't want to leave.
Parents and fans mingled with the players, sharing high-fives and hugs, while the coaching staff calmly walked off the field and headed toward the locker room.
It's not that it didn't matter to them, but as coaches, they were only doing what they thought they were supposed to do.
However, the players weren't going to forget this moment.
It was the second week of the 1988 Marion High School football season, and the Warriors had just defeated the Remington Broncos on the road, 14-6, to improve to 1-1 on the season.
Considering the team was riding a 22-game losing streak and had gone 2-34 the previous four seasons, it was quite an accomplishment.
Head coach Grant Thierolf, and assistants Mark Meyer and Jerry Smith, looked at it in a different light.
"All we had done was end a one-game losing streak," Thierolf said.
Actually, the coaches had started a winning tradition that is up to 119 and counting.
Winning ways
Smith, the defensive coordinator who had been a head coach at the eight-man level for 10 years before coming to Marion, actually wasn't at that game — back then assistant coaches scouted upcoming opponents instead of today's practice of trading film.
"Chris even had an interception," Smith said of his son who played on the team.
Smith was disappointed he missed the game, but he also was just happy to get the victory. The Warriors would win three more that season, and this staff had won the fans, and players, over.
"It was very exciting to say the least," all-league running back and defensive end Rob Hartley, who was a senior on the 1988 squad, said. "We were proud we could win a football game."
Hartley remembered when the players knew going in, a loss was nearly evident. The new coaches however, demanded much more than that.
"They pretty much had to teach us how to play the game of football," Hartley said.
The trio did just that by winning eight of nine games during their second season together in 1989, and taking the team to the 3A state title game in 1994, before losing to Wichita Collegiate.
"It was so much fun," Smith said of the 1994 season. "The community got behind us."
As much fun as winning was, Thierolf wanted to make sure that wasn't the only thing the players were focusing on during their high school career.
"I wanted [them] to be the best football players they could be at MHS," Thierolf said, "but I never wanted to make it life or death."
That's why the staff gives its players Saturday off and the only weekend "practice" is watching film Sunday at Thierolf's house.
With a record of 119-69 during the past 20 seasons, it's hard to argue with their logic.
The road to Marion
While it's rare to find three coaches together as long as these coaches have been, what might be more rare is the fact none of them had any ties to Marion before coming to the home of the Warriors.
In fact, Meyer sometimes still can't believe he ended up in Marion.
He was a member of Centre High School's team in the '80s, back when the Cougars were 11-man and played Marion every year.
"This is the last place I thought I would end up," Meyer said.
However, after Thierolf, who was at Garnett High School before coming to Marion, was hired, Meyer said it took him "all of 30 seconds" to convince him to help coach.
"I wanted to focus more on FFA," Meyer said.
But what was evident to the players — the fact that the former University of Kansas offensive lineman Thierolf expected to turn the team around — was evident to Meyer as well.
"I was impressed with what I saw," Meyer said.
But even Thierolf, who grew up in Beloit and became a Marion icon, didn't know much about the "town between two lakes."
"I didn't even know where Marion was," he said.
But once he got here, he quickly realized it could be a special place.
"There were some good football players roaming the halls," he said.
Smith's story was different in that he already was in the district, coaching and teaching at Marion Middle School. He knew football inside and out.
Smith had played the game at Coffeyville Community College from 1964-65, and after a stint in the Navy in Vietnam, he finished his career at 28, playing from 1970-73 at Fort Hays State University.
He had the middle school Wildcats undefeated, even when the Warriors were losing.
"We were begging him to come up," Hartley said.
He eventually joined the staff the same year as Meyer and Thierolf.
"It's been great," Smith said. "Nothing against the middle school, I liked coaching there."
He knew however, the intensity level was not the same, and jumped at the chance to head back to the high school level.
Small-town football
Ever since the three decided to work together they, along with another assistant in Doug Dick who coached with the three for 17 years until 2005, have kept football the talk of Marion.
"It's still a topic of discussion," Thierolf said.
The coaches love that aspect of coaching at a smaller school, in a small town, where football is king.
Thierolf once asked a 6A coach how many people come to watch their games: "As many who are on the bus," he said.
The fans aren't the only great thing about coaching at a smaller school. Sometimes the schools have a hard time finding enough players to field a team, meaning some kids who might not have a chance to play at larger schools, find one at the smaller schools.
"They turn into great football players," Thierolf said.
Mainly because if the smaller, or the slower ones don't play their absolute best all the time, it may be hard to find playing time.
Still, Thierolf feels it's not always ability as much as it is heart.
"I love coaching the players who do what they are asked to do," he said.
And that, Hartley said, is the reason MHS has been successful the past 20 years.
"[Thierolf] just said, 'We are going to play football, and this is how I want you to do it. It's my way, or no way.'"
The tradition continues
With Smith running the defense, Meyer both lines, and Thierolf captaining the ship, Marion Warrior football has found much more success than failure the past 20 years.
Shaun Craft, a current assistant coach, and former Warrior quarterback under the staff, can attest to that fact.
When he got a phone call from Thierolf telling him about an opening for head baseball coach at MHS, Craft knew just hearing from his former coach was probably enough to take the job.
After he did, Thierolf asked if he wanted to help coach football as well.
"It was two great things at once," Craft said.
Craft knew what to expect from the coaches, because their philosophy of always playing hard, and fair, never went away. Shying away even a little bit from what they believed in was not an option.
But that doesn't mean they have never had to adapt.
Technology has changed the way film is reviewed, and the game itself has seen subtle changes over time.
Thierolf still considers the staff to be "old school".
"You're talking about three guys who don't even carry cell phones," he said with a laugh.
He also alluded to the fact they still run the option, something rarely seen at the high school level.
But even when they do decide to change something in their coaching styles, if only because time forces it, their motto never changes: play football the right way, do what you are told, and success will follow.
For all the yelling, stomping, or throwing of inanimate objects on the sidelines the past 188 games, the staff, particularly Thierolf, also has a soft side.
"I don't think most people know that," Hartley said. "And I don't know if he wants people to."
Hartley was reminded of a time when he and other former players were at a game right after their former teammate Calvin Hett was killed in a tragic accident.
Before kickoff, Thierolf came up to the players, kissed them on the cheek and said, according to Hartley, "No matter how old you get, you all are still my boys."
It was something you don't see everyday, but Hartley knew his coaches cared about more than just winning football games. They cared about their players.
"It gives me chill bumps just thinking about it," Hartley said.
So, it probably wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows the three, that they didn't make a big deal about the first victory together.
They don't look at themselves as miracle workers, or the game as the most important thing of all. They just have continued doing a job they were hired to do 20 years ago.
However, the fans and players who hung around on the field at Remington in October of 1988, knew something special was happening.
The new staff had changed Marion High School football and the players who were, or would be, a part of the family.
"They made us believe in ourselves," Hartley said.
That's all it took.
