Father-son act at Coe

CEDAR RAPIDS - Coe College football coach Steve Staker reclined in his office chair with hands folded, the picture of relaxation. His son and offensive coordinator, Tyler, was in a chair next to him, constantly fidgeting and wobbling his legs with nervous energy.

If you wanted the picture that sums up this unique coaching partnership and why it works so well, here it was.

“There are a lot of things that Tyler thinks about that I don't think about,” Steve Staker said. “But on the other hand, I think from a maturity standpoint, I maybe have a little more patience than what he does ... Tyler's pretty aggressive, I think.”

The son smiles.

“Dad could come into work every day and go down to (athletics director) John Chandler's office and sit there and chat for five hours,” he said. ”I'll be like ‘Well, we need to get this done and this done. What about this?' But you need a balance between those two things. In talking to dad about being a coach, he said he was always aggressive and fiery and got all worked up at times.

“Where now that he's had experience, those things don't affect him as much. I think players see that as well. You're never too high, you're never too low as a coach. That's an important aspect of it that I've learned.”

These are great days for Coe football. With no game this week after last Saturday's 24-22 escape of Dubuque, the Kohawks are 5-0 and ranked sixth in NCAA Division III by d3football.com and eighth by the American Football Coaches Association.

Coe surprised a lot of people with its first-round playoff win last season at St. John's (Minn.). That momentum has carried through to 2010, including a memorable 37-28 win over Central two weeks ago in a battle of top-10 ranked teams.

“First of all, I think we've had some kids who have come in that have the potential to be pretty good players,” Steve Staker said. “I think that, coupled with some really good coaching, has a lot to do with it. These kids have allowed us to coach them up. They've paid attention, so they're doing those things that make them better.”

At an age where he could be on a golf course instead of a football field, Steve Staker is the leader of this program. At 67, he's in his third season as head coach, following four years as defensive coordinator and a 35-year hall-of-fame prep career at Fredericksburg.

His youngest son, Tyler, is 27. A quarterback on Fredericksburg's 2001 state championship team and an all-region defensive back at Coe, he had all of two years of graduate assistant experience when he was named offensive coordinator in 2008.

“I remember the day Steve was named head coach,” said defensive coordinator Larry Atwater. “We were in John Chandler's office, talking about who should run the offense. We kind of threw out ‘Well, what about Tyler?' It's been just a great choice.”

Tyler is the youngest of Steve and Linda Staker's five children, all of them Coe graduates. Cody, Shane and Lance played football for the Kohawks, and daughter Shannon married Coe baseball coach and assistant athletics director Steve Cook.

This is a Kohawk family.

“I've got the best of both worlds,” Steve Staker said. “I'm able to be a head coach at a college, which I never really pursued. ... I enjoyed coaching in high school and teaching in high school, but this opportunity came about. ... It was a chance to say ‘OK, here's an opportunity. And it's at Coe, where all my kids went to school.'”

“It's a pretty cool experience to be able to coach with your dad,” Tyler Staker said. ”To coach a sport that you love, being surrounded by a bunch of guys you (enjoy being with). It's really a family atmosphere. Then to have your dad next to you, it makes it that much better. I'm sure a lot of sons wish they were in my shoes, in this situation where you get to work with your dad every day. I feel really fortunate.”

“(The staff) works really, really hard at what they do,” Chandler said. “They work very hard building relationships with the recruits, and they are very honest with them about the kind of experience they are going to have here. They're going to have a great academic experience, and that athletic experience just accentuates the academic experience.

“That's what we're built on. That's what Division III is about.”

Steve Staker said he has no timetable for retirement. He's healthy, loves what he does, loves coaching with his son and feels he relates with players who are almost 40 years younger.

You wouldn't be terribly surprised to see Tyler take over for him when he does finally hang up his whistle, though that appears to be a ways off. There are some more things to accomplish.

Maybe even a national title some day?

“It's possible,” Steve said. ”And I think it's something we constantly need to strive for. Aim high, and that's pretty doggone high.”