Burns builds belief at BGM

CEDAR RAPIDS — In 2004, Brooklyn, BGM High School didn't field a varsity football team.

Now, unfortunately, that isn't a unique story. Countless school districts have seen shrinking numbers in various sports over the years, and plenty of varsity seasons have been lost.

But when you consider that the Bears went from having just 15 players on the roster in that 2004 season to the Class A state championship game nine seasons later — that's where the story gets special.

'It's been a long haul, but I think that going through all of this is going to make us all better people,' said BGM Coach Jerod Burns, who took over the program in 2005, the first year after the JV season.

'It starts with the head coach. You've got to have a great attitude and you've got to make the kids believe they can win, no matter what the situation is.

'Kids can see right through a guy who doesn't believe in what's going on.'

Restoring that belief was job No. 1 for the young coach, who was taking his first head coaching job.

Burns was an assistant on that 2004 team, which was reduced in size due to a mass exodus of seniors at the time. Burns said 17 of them quit before the season, and the 'demoralizing' feeling the remaining players and coaches went through fed his desire to give the kids and community something to cheer on Friday nights.

'I really thought, looking ahead that we had some classes coming through, and that we had a chance to be successful if we could get the work ethic part of things turned around,' Burns said. 'It was a big time mentality change for the kids and community for quite a few years, and then once 2008 rolled round … things just kind of snowballed from there.'

If possible, Burns' snowball analogy was understated in what the BGM football team saw in terms of marked success from 2008 on.

Before that season, the Bears had not had a winning season since 1977. That 31-year drought was snapped with a 6-5 season and trip to the state playoffs. BGM hasn't looked back since, going 49-10 — the worst season record in that time was 8-3 in 2011 — and claiming four district championships in the five seasons since 2008.

BGM secondary principal and former BGM head coach Rick Radcliffe was the man who hired Burns before the 2005 season, and said Burns' plan for the future and the chances of the aforementioned results being attainable made the decision pretty easy.

'He had a great enthusiasm for working with our young people and he had a plan on how to get things turned around,' Radcliffe, now an assistant for Burns, said. 'Basically it was to work hard in the weight room in the off-season and being with the kids and trying to help them believe in themselves.'

Burns' relationship with his players was evident right from the start, Radcliffe said. Burns — who also took over as the head baseball coach in 2005 — was in the weight room with the kids every day, helping them to become 'bigger, faster and stronger.'

One player who made a great connection with Burns — the two still exchange texts after each other's games offering congratulations and/or encouragement — and benefitted from buying into what the coach was teaching was current Iowa State linebacker Jevohn Miller.

Miller, who is just the second BGM player to play at the Division 1 level — the other was Jeff DeVilder, who played at Iowa in the late 1970s — remembers what it was like during that 2004 season with no varsity squad, and how disappointed everyone was.

He said Burns pushing him and others to lift consistently and the right way is one of the chief reasons the Bears are so successful now.

'The (kids now) are so much stronger and faster than some of the BGM teams in the past, and that's all because of coach Burns,' Miller said. 'Coach Burns pushed us when nobody wanted to come in when I was younger and he consistently did that and has built a championship team.'

The belief is there now at BGM, with both Radcliffe — who sees it at practice — and Miller — who, even from Ames, can see it whenever he's home — saying the kids have fully bought into the program.

And though Burns will give credit to the kids, to God and to countless others for the success, he did admit he's proud of himself for persevering through two 1-8 seasons in his first three years.

And why not? He has the Bears possibly on the brink of their first state championship, with a showdown against West Lyon in the Class A title game Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

'There were a lot of times it seemed pretty bleak. We had to deal with a lot of adversity,' Burns said. 'I'm proud of myself for sticking with it, and not letting that stuff bring me down.

'There's no question this season — and the last several seasons — have been really fun, and that makes my job really easy. It's a lot of fun to win with these kids.'