Deam named as Jefferson AD

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Chris Deam said he "is cut from the same cloth" as the man he will succeed.

"I admire the job that Scott Kibby has done," Deam said Monday after he was named the athletics director at Cedar Rapids Jefferson, pending board approval.

"I thought that if I was going to make a move, now is the time to do it."

Deam, 36, has served as athletics director at Clarke Community Schools in Osceola since 2009. He will succeed Kibby on July 1.

Kibby has been hired to follow the retiring Marv Reiland as AD at Iowa City West.

"Chris is a high-energy guy," Jefferson Principal Chuck McDonnell said. "We were trying to find the guy that feels right, and everybody felt that Chris feels right.

"He's a hard-working guy and relates well to kids."

Deam graduated from Hampton-Dumont High School in 1994. He wrestled three years at Northwestern College in Orange City, where he earned a degree in accounting. He received his secondary-education degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and his masters from Northwest Missouri State University.

He coached wrestling at Kingsley-Pierson in 1997-98, then student-taught and coached at Underwood at 2000-01.

Deam has been at Clarke since 2001.

Clarke is a member of the South Central Conference, and has an enrollment of 276 in the top three grades, according to the state's BEDS Documents.

Jefferson's enrollment is 1,158, the 17th-largest school in the state.

"I'm looking forward to the next challenge," Deam said. "I plan to work hard along with my coaches. We want to develop great athletes through strength and conditioning.

"I want to give the coaches as much as they need to be successful."

Deam is the final of three high-profile hires within the Jefferson athletics department in the last month.

McDonnell selected Brian Webb as the football coach and Jason Edwards as the girls' basketball coach.

Deam and his wife Carrie have two daughters -- Anna, 8, and Carlee, 4.