Former Panther coach joins IHSAA Hall of Fame

Former Creston boys basketball coach Jim Calkins will be inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame Friday night.

Calkins was the leader of Newell-Fonda’s Class 1A state championship team in 1991. The Mustangs opened state tournament play with an 84-67 victory over Lynnville-Sully. Newell-Fonda defeated Bellevue 80-70 in the semifinals before finishing the title run with a 76-55 triumph over IKM, Manilla.

Diagonal advanced to the Class A state tournament that year, led by all-stater Terry Anderson, and fell in the quarterfinals to Pomeroy-Palmer, 87-77.

Calkins averaged over 20 points per game for all four varsity seasons under head coach Paul Loos, a Creston native who served as an assistant coach for Dick Jungers in Newell-Fonda’s Class 1A girls state championship Saturday night. Calkins scored 2,034 career points for the Mustangs and his 314 3-pointers still ranks fifth on Iowa’s all-time career list. In his senior year he averaged 27 points a game in basketball and was individual runner-up at the state golf tournament.

Calkins went on to play three years at Buena Vista before starting a 25-year teaching and coaching career. He currently resides in his hometown, Fonda, and works at Loring Hospital in Sac City.

Calkins had been a teacher and coach at Kingsley-Pierson when he was hired for the 2003-04 school year as a social studies teacher and head basketball coach in Creston, succeeding Tyler Cerveny.

Panther state teams

Calkins guided the Panthers to five substate finals in his eight seasons as head coach, including state tournament appearances in 2005 and 2006, the final year of competition at Veterans Memorial Auditorium and the first year of Wells Fargo Arena. The Panthers were defeated by state champion Harlan by one point in the 2006 Class 3A semifinals, 42-41, and placed fourth that season with a final record of 21-5. A year earlier the Panthers lost to Ballard in the first round at state to end a 19-6 season.

The Panthers were 127-83 in those eight seasons and have not returned to the state tournament since that 2005-06 season. Among the all-state players under Calkins were G.G. Harris, Dane Wardenburg, Steven Moeller and Grant Wood.

“I had a wonderful time in Creston,” Calkins said. “We went to four straight substate finals. We had some great players, groups that liked to have fun and compete. It made my job much easier. Make sure you say how appreciative I was of the help I got from (assistant coaches) Dick Bergstrom and Matt Somers.”

After the 2011-12 school year, Calkins became a teacher and coach at North Fayette High School in northeast Iowa. Todd Wolverton was principal in Creston during Calkins’ time with the Panthers, as well as principal at North Fayette when Calkins was involved in the girls basketball program there for a total of 12 years, including nine seasons as head coach.

“Jim is a very good coach and a better human being,” Wolverton said. “He was a strong mentor for many young people. Nothing proves that better than when he helped us out immensely at North Fayette Valley and agreed to coach our girls program. During one of our tournament games, a couple of his former Creston players (Cody Pearson and Adam Riley) drove all the way up to Waukon to watch the game and support him. He’s made a difference in a lot of lives.”

As a Newell-Fonda player, Calkins was almost part of multiple state tournament teams. In 1989, the final year of Fonda High School before combining with Newell, the Flyers took Palmer into double overtime, which would have ended Palmer’s winning streak at 97 games. Newell-Fonda was ousted by Wall Lake View Auburn in 1990, moving up from Class A to Class 1A after the merger.

The Hall of Fame is a deserved award, according to Calkins’ high school coach.

“I’m happy for Jim and his recognition as being one of the best,” Loos said. “Well-deserved honor. We’ve had many fantastic players representing Newell-Fonda.”

“When I got the call I was definitely taken aback,” Calkins said. “It was a nice surprise. Like I’ve told some of the guys, you’re going to get the credit when the team puts up statistics. We averaged 97 points. I had a Hall of Fame team. Tremendous teammates.”

The Hall of Fame inductions will be held at halftime of Friday’s Class 1A championship game that begins at 5 p.m. The championship games are televised on Iowa PBS.

Lorensen honored

Among the other inductees is Clarinda native Fred Lorensen, longtime coach of Prairie City-Monroe, and father of current Graceland University coach and former Southwestern Community College national champion coach Todd Lorensen. His career record was 632-327 in 42 years as head coach, ranking No. 14 on Iowa’s all-time win list.

Others coaches honored are longtime Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Ankeny Centennial coach Bob Fontana, former Wapsie Valley coach Marty McKowen. Joining Calkins as former players honored in the Hall of Fame are Linn-Mar and North Carolina standout Marcus Paige and AGWSR all-stater Adam Viet, who played at the University of Northern Iowa. Justin Stockdale of Dike joins the IHSAA Officials Hall of Fame.