When did Linn-Mar football turn the corner?

MARION - When was the turning point?Was it the day Bob Forsyth was hired? The rainy night in which the losing streak ended?Last year's memorable with over Cedar Rapids Kennedy? Or Cedar Rapids Xavier? Or Cedar Rapids Washington?Was it the day ground was broken on a state-of-the-art stadium that will open next year?When did Linn-Mar football turn the corner?“To be perfectly honest, I don't think we've turned any corner yet,” said Forsyth, the third-year coach who has led the Lions back to respectability - and beyond.“We're still trying to get to that next level. And maybe we can see the corner, but we're still in the hallway. There's still a lot of work to do.”Linn-Mar (7-2) hosts Pleasant Valley (5-4) in a Class 4A first-round playoff game Wednesday. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Armstrong Field.Yes, work remains to be done to return to the glory days of the early 1990s, when the Lions were kings of the Iowa football jungle. But the program is far, far advanced from where it had been a few years back.“I think the No. 1 difference is that we're getting a string of pretty good athletes right now,” said Scott Mahmens, who came to Linn-Mar from Clinton in 2005 to serve as the school's athletics director. “Strength and conditioning got some new blood in Matt Casebolt.“There's just a new attitude and a new philosophy in place right now.”In short, Linn-Mar has become more than a basketball school.Armstrong Field is a bustling place in its final season of business. The award-winning marching band is more than 200 members strong and features a baton twirler who will twirl two at a time, with fire on the ends.The stands are packed. And the football team is relevant once again.Yes, the youngsters wear T-shirts that emulate their heroes. In the past, most names on the back read BOHANNON or PAIGE or PRINTY.Now, the name of choice is GARMAN, as in Jer Garman, the senior running back who has rushed for more than 4,000 yards in the past three years as the program has climbed swiftly.Forsyth, who had turned around the program at Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, was hired at Linn-Mar in February 2008.“Football wasn't a big thing here at the time,” he said. “Kids like to be involved in things that are successful, and we hadn't been successful for a while.”Mahmens was struck by Forsyth's “passion for the game.“Just his determination and drive,” said Mahmens, whose sons (Mitch and Mac) have played for Forsyth. “He'll run through a wall for those kids, and they'll run through a wall for him.”Garman said, “Coach works harder at football than I've seen anybody work. He loves it.”In Forsyth's third game, the Lions beat Dubuque Senior, 24-6, to end a 24-game losing streak.“People will just cruise by this score and figure, ‘Just another game on another Friday night.' But it was a lot more than that,” Forsyth said afterward.It was the start of something better.Linn-Mar went 3-6 that season, then climbed to 9-2 and won a MVC divisional title last year.Another big season has followed, and the Lions are hopeful for a deep run into the playoffs.Next year, the Lions will play in a new stadium, just a long punt to the northwest of Armstrong Field. It will seat about 6,000 to start, with the option of adding more seats down the road.Still, Forsyth insists the corner has not been turned. And Mahmens agrees.“I coached football for 18 years, and I can tell you we're close,” Mahmens said. “But we're not quite to the level where we want to be yet.”