Former longtime Cedar Rapids football coach Jim Dostal dies at age 59

CEDAR RAPIDS — They wanted to coach together. Ride off into the football sunset together.

When Mark Bliss came to Cedar Rapids Prairie High School in 2015 after prior head coaching stints in multiple states, he credited Jim Dostal for convincing him to make the move.

The two were good friends, had met at a bowl game in Australia, of all places. Bliss would be the Hawks’ head coach, but only if Dostal would be his defensive coordinator.

That’s the way it was until Bliss stepped down after the 2022 season to help care for a gravely ill adult daughter.

“Jim was my best friend,” Bliss said. “We knew each other 29 years and got to coach together for eight years at Prairie, and it was the greatest time together. He is the most high-character, integrity-driven, compassionate and hardest-working man I have ever known. He would do anything for former players and coaches, help them with anything they needed.”

Dostal died Wednesday at the age of 59. A Cedar Rapids Jefferson graduate, he was an All-America linebacker at Coe College, a significant part of the school’s first NCAA Division III playoff team in 1986.

A Coe athletics hall of fame member, he was an assistant coach at the school for many years before joining Bliss at Prairie. Dostal was head coach at Cedar Rapids Jefferson for six seasons, leading the J-Hawks to the Class 4A state playoff semifinals in 1992.

He was a longtime instructor at Jefferson who was still teaching.

“We went out to eat often in Cedar Rapids, and no matter where we went, someone would recognize him and go out of their way to have a talk with him,” Bliss said. “The thousands of lives as a teacher and coach he impacted will be a part of his lasting legacy.

“I’m still numb over Jim’s passing and loved him like a brother. He was such a special man and know my life will never be the same without him.”

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