Ready to change the culture

OSCEOLA — Duane Matthess has been told about the past history of Clarke football.

He’s been told about how the program has not traditionally enjoyed much success.

The Tipton native is not worried about the program’s past reputation.

What Matthess wants to do is bring new life to the program.

Matthess, 39, was officially hired at Monday’s Clarke Community School District Board of Education meet.

He and his wife Sarah and two young children will be moving to Osceola shortly after the school year ends at Denison-Schleswig.

“Nothing against what happened in the past. It is what it is,” Matthess said. “They don’t have much of one, but that’s going to change.”

He wants players to wear the jersey on Friday nights as a source of excitement.

“When we put the uniform on, we’re going to wear it with pride when we step o the field for that first home football game against Saydel,” Matthess said.

As part of the overhaul of the program, it involves updating equipment. A number of older pieces of equipment were removed from use.

“As I was cleaning out some of the inventory, I saw practice jerseys from players that graduated in 1995. We don’t need to hang onto this stuff. We need to cycle this stuff out, get better things in here for our kids,” Matthess said. “Practicing in grungy stuff, that’s not really conducive for kids to have pride int the program. If it means we get some stuff where it breeds enthusiasm into the program, that’s something we need to make that investment in kids. If they see that investment, the kids see the investment being made, it gets contagious that things are going to be different.”

With Matthess hired to replaced the departed Ron Dupree, a buzz is forming around the program within the school.

“Talking to Tracy (athletic director Tracy Johnson), the kids have been talking. There has been some enthusiasm, excitement flowing into the program,” Matthess said. “That’s exciting to hear. It feels like some things are starting to change. It’s a little bit easier to have excitement now when we’re not doing anything. I’d rather have it that way, then ‘Oh, it’s another football coach. Here we go again type of deal.”

Matthesss has big plans for this summer, including going to the Simpson team camp, we well as having a team camp right before camp. Those are two things that are definitely on the calendar.”

The players’ enthusiasm has rubbed off on Matthess already.

“I’m happy that there’s that excitement. It fires me up, makes me want it must as bad is the kids,” Matthess said.

Playing hard nosed football will be a staple of a Matthess led team.

“We want teams after they play us to understand win, lose or draw that it was a physical football game,” Matthess said.

Doing that, he noted, starts in the trenches.

“We’re going to have to establish the offensive and defensive lines,” Matthess said. “That’s something I have a good background in. I hope to make an impact there.”

Beside being physical, Matthess wants his team to play fast, reactionary football.

“We want kids who are going to play fast,” Matthess said. “We want them to be able to not to think too much, but get after the ball.”

Matthess noted there will be changes, particularly on the offensive side of the football from what Indian backers have seen in recent years.

“It’s going to be a lot different from what people are used to seeing the past couple of seasons. We’re not going to be under center, three back I, option football. We’re going to be multiple-facet on offense,” Matthess said. “Offensively, we’re probably not going to be too much under center, go a little more shotgun, depending on the weapons we have. I’ve familiarized myself by watching film. Not everyone is back. Hopefully we’ll be able to move the ball around and do some good things.”

Defensive coordinator Brian Reese will be back and lead the defense.

“Coach Reese has done a good job with the defense. He’ll continue to call the defense,” Matthess said.

There is one opening on the varsity staff, as Aaron O’Tool is leaving the district at the end of the school year.

Once O’Tool’s position is filled, Matthess said he and the new staff will sit down and hammer out specific roles.

“We’ll wait to make a determination,” Matthess said. “We’ll wait to see what teachers are hired, who has a coaching authorization, background. Hopefully we’ll get some candidates interested, have a fit in the open football position.”

Success, he noted, won’t necessarily be measured by the record, but by the overall outlook of the program.

“If you measure success by wins and losses, you’re setting yourself up for failure,” Matthess said. “The biggest thing is we want our football team to be competitive and if we’re competitive and we’re in games, we’re going to have chances to win. That’s a huge step forward. We want to show the kids this can be done.”

Changing the culture involves many aspects.

“We need to have the mindset that we’re attacking from day one how we practice, how we weight train, how we treat our bodies in recovery, nutrition,” Matthess said. “All those things are crucial.”

The weight room will play a key role in changing the program.

“Talking with Tracy, it sounds like he wants to have a real strong emphasis on lifting,” Matthess said. “Our weight room will be open for freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors and not just football players.”

He added: “I’ll be living in there in the summer.”

He also noted the weight room will be open to all athletes in the school, male and female. They will be encouraged to be there to improve their strength for whatever sport they are a part of.

Matthess took a non traditional route to Osceola. After high school, he was at Iowa Central for a year, playing football for the Tritons.

At the same time, he hooked up with indoor football. He played for the Quad Cities Steamwheelers, at the time a farm team for the Iowa Barnstormers. He also played indoor football with the now defunct Fargo Freeze and Madison Maddogs.

Other things took his interest and he moved back to eastern Iowa, working various jobs in the Iowa City area. Meanwhile, he coached football at Iowa City West.

He coached at Springville, then in Class A. When the Orioles dropped to eight man, at the same time he was dealing with a difficult personal situation, he left the job there.

He then took a job at Independence as a sophomores coach and special teams coordinator.

But being a non-teacher was difficult.

“The unfortunate thing of not being a teacher prior to this is you’re hamstrung in sense of teachers fill those contracts,” Matthess said. “With as non teacher, you have year-to-year contract. If you’re not tied to that teaching contract, it’s hard.”

Eventually, he went back to school. He enrolled at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids and worked towards completing his degree in secondary education.

This past season, he found a football job conducive with student teaching. He served as the defensive coordinator at Center Point-Urbana.

As he grew older, he became more disciplined in doing school work.

“I always wanted to be a teacher, but I have never been a huge fan of the tediousness of going to college and classes. I didn’t think that was important,” Matthess said. “In high school, I struggled with my studies. It was not because I was smart enough, it was taking initiative. Doing it now that I’m older, a little more mature I know what’s at stake. I realize the importance of it. It’s much easier to stay focused on the task at hand.”

Matthess’ work helped him to graduate magna cum lade this year.

His success in academics at a later age can inspire his team at Clarke.

Matthess pointed out studies take priority over football.

‘Something I will stress to our players, remind them is you are a student-athlete first. It means taking care of business in the classroom, being a responsible citizen,” Matthess said.

Football players can be role models within the school for the rest of the student body and staff.

“I want our teachers and our school district to look at football players as leading the way, setting example for other students,” Matthess said. “I don’t want to be looked down as football players on how they act. That’s not how we’re going to act.”

Part of good character starts with being responsible on social media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other platforms. Being responsible there can open doors for playing at the next level, Matthess noted.

“I want to make sure our student athletes in social media are making the right choices. That’s something that will be addressed in the program. Kids are on social media. That covers every student in high school saying and doing the right things,” Matthess said.

College coaches are aware of what goes on social media, and negative repercussions of poor choices there.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a college recruiter put out tweet that an athlete had a scholarship pulled because of a tweet,” Matthess said. “Social media is changing the world. When I was in high school, we didn’t worry about that. We didn’t have those things. I want to make sure every athlete like Gabe Crawford, more athletes that have the desire to play after high school that they are afforded the best opportunities possible. I don’t want them to mess that up with something silly they tweeted or retweeted. That goes back to the top down type of mentality. I’m not trying to micromange. I want them to have fun and be kids, but I feel like I’m doing them a disservice to the ones that want to make the leap to playing at the college level if we don’t have those conversations. It’s a reality of the world we live in today.”

Another aspect of good character starts with servant leadership from the coaching staff and the seniors, then trickles down into the rest of the program.

“I’m very big into servant leadership in sense of where it starts at the top,” Matthess said. “That falls my shoulders, how we spread that to our assistant coaches at all levels. That falls on me. Where it trickles down is to the seniors. They’re going to be leaned on a lot this year setting the tone in practice getting ready for games. I look at it at the end of practice in some programs freshmen pick up the dummies. The way it’s going to be in our program is that the seniors show the younger kids coming up in the program how to lead and be a successful program.”

Senior leadership for the team will be crucial.

“There’s not excuses if things aren’t going well. It all starts from the head of the program and that falls on me,” Matthess said. “I need to make sure our seniors are saying and doing things the right way, the best possible way of all aspects, doing the right things in practice, saying and doing the right thing, acting and doing the right thing, acting the right way. in school and the community.”

“Ultimately that reflects on our program, school, their family.”

Matthess will encourage his football players to be more than football athletes.

“I don’t look at is as building football players,” Matthess said. “Football players turn into basketball players and wrestlers. I’m a big believer in multiple sport athletes and how they play a hand in and hand off each other.”

Matthess has started a Facebook page, Clarke football, and created a Clarke football handle on Twitter, @clarke_fb.

Matthess wants Indian backers to visit those frequently to stay up to date on happenings within the program.

“Social media plays a big part not only for getting information out, but for following the program and supporting the program,” Matthess said.

Mattheess is finishing up the school year at Denison-Schleswig, then will move down early this summer.

The combination of coaching football and teaching caught Matthess’ eye. He will teach government at United States history at the high school level.

His wife Sarah has already accepted a job working for Osceola Dental Care and Dr. Stark.

The move to Osceola will be for the long term.

“We’re looking forward to being part of the community,” Matthess said. “I told Tracey one of the nice things is I’ll be a teacher and a coach in the same building. We’re not looking to move again, not to mention my wife said we’re not allowed to move after we just moved less than four months ago.”

The opportunity given to him is a dream come true.

“When Tracey offered me the position, it’s been my life-long aspiration to be a football coach and teach,” Matthess said. “This is my first year I’ve been able to fulfill both of those.”

“I couldn’t be happier.”