Coach of the Year: Anamosa's Ryan Streets

ANAMOSA – It was early September, the second week of the prep football season.

Ryan Streets was walking back to his team's locker room at halftime, trying to figure out what he should say to his team. The Anamosa Blue Raiders were trailing Oelwein, and the coach knew his boys were disheartened.

He was, too. These were teams in the midst of hideous losing streaks, Oelwein 22 games and Anamosa 26.

'We were down and weren't playing well at all,' Streets said. 'We had been way ahead the week before (against North Cedar), 24-7, and lost that game.'

Somehow everyone pulled it together. A touchdown run by Trevor Wehling in the final minute secured a 17-13 victory, Anamosa's first in three years.

Oelwein would go on to end its losing streak three weeks later, by the way.

'You could just tell at the end of that game how much of a relief it was,' Streets said. 'It was almost like the kids had won the Super Bowl. Everybody was jumping around. After that, we got the monkey off our back, got some confidence, and we never stopped winning.'

Anamosa won its next six games for an unfathomable 7-1 record. The Blue Raiders lost in the regular-season finale to Cascade and to New Hampton in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs, but what a ride 2014 turned out to be.

You go from state laughing stock to state playoff team in one season, and that's pretty special. It's why Streets has been named The Gazette/KCRG-TV Area Coach of the Year.

'It was kind of funny because you had to bring the kids down after six wins in a row,' Streets said. 'I remember that Monday morning walking into school and thinking 'Holy cow, we are 7-1! What the heck happened?'

'The nice thing is our JV was 6-2, our freshmen 5-3, our eighth-grade team was undefeated. You can really see it's starting to change. Most people believe it takes three years to change the culture, but somehow, I don't know how, we did it in two.'

Streets, 36, is a Midland High School and University Wisconsin-Platteville graduate who began his coaching/teaching career at Riverdale, Wis. He went to Maquoketa for a year and spent 10 seasons as defensive coordinator at DeWitt Central, hired two years ago to try and clean up an Anamosa program that was a mess.

Most people believe it takes three years to change the culture, but somehow, I don't know how, we did it in two.

- Ryan Streets

Gazette/KCRG Coach of the Year

The Blue Raiders were 0-9 last season, but Streets was building infrastructure. Weight training was stressed, as was discipline and accountability.

'It was just organization,' Streets said. 'It was 'OK, this is what we're going to do.' The poor kids had I don't know how many coaches the last few years, so it was change all the time. I told them we weren't going to change, this is what we are doing. We were just going to do it better and better and better and better. They bought in, we started winning games, and they got confidence. And after that, you can really go.'

Anamosa should continue to go next season. Quarterback Kolin Schulte returns, as do the top three rushers, the top two receivers and four of the top five tacklers.

The Blue Raiders have been in the playoffs only three times and are still seeking their first postseason win. The New Hampton game was the school's first playoff home game.

This season might have been just the beginning.

'You can tell how good you are going to be by your offseason,' Streets said. 'You have kids in the weight room, you are watching film with your coaches.

'We've got goal sheets for the kids for things like how much want to bench press and things like that. Another big thing for us is getting kids out for (other) sports. Make sure they stay competitive.'