Tri-County got a ‘football guy’ and a ‘W’

Shawn Echelberry loves this time of year.

Echelberry is a football guy. A football lifer, actually.

Thus, this is his time of year.

“Football has been a huge chunk of my life,” the 52-year-old said Sunday while sitting in his tractor on his “hobby farm” 10 miles south of Sigourney.

You see, these days Echelberry is more than a football guy. He’s a full-time banker at County Bank in Sigourney, a “part-time” farmer, a husband and father of three boys.

But football remains at his core.

He’s the first-year coach at Tri-County High School in Thornburg, directing an 8-player program that didn’t exist last year. His team opened the season Friday with a 60-14 win over Twin Cedars.

“It was fantastic,” he said of the win. The Trojans’ previous game was a 68-6 loss to BGM, on Oct. 16, 2020. The previous win was on Sept. 18 of that year, 42-28 over Twin Cedars.

“I’m glad for the kids.”

Echelberry made it clear. This football guy is all about the players these days. It’s about molding a team, working to get better every week, every day. It’s about the experience and having fun.

Wins matter, of course, but getting better is paramount in Tri-County’s rebirth.

But Echelberry’s football journey is pretty interesting, if not fascinating. It’s a story of football, of course.

Echelberry played high school football at Pekin under legendary coach Tom Stone, who won 332 games and three state titles in 42 years. He played at Coe College for D.J. LeRoy, on a defense that was “overshadowed a bit ... we had Carey Bender” on offense.

He played professionally in Germany for a season, then bounced around the semipro circuit for 16 years, including a stop in Cedar Rapids with the Stars.

“When my twins were born, my wife said ‘you are done,’” he said.

He also coached some during that time, volunteering on Stone’s staff at Pekin and later becoming a full assistant.

“I wanted to get into head coaching to see if I’m as smart as I think I am,” he said with a laugh.

In 2001, he got his chance. He was named head coach at Fox Valley High School in Milton, just north of the Missouri border. That school hadn’t had football since 1965 — a 35-year gap.

Echelberry coached one season, finished 1-7 and moved on. The school played one more season, then closed the next year.

He spent last season on the staff at Highland Community and, when that head coaching job opened, he applied. He didn’t get that job, but soon saw Tri-County was looking to restart its program.

“This might have been meant to be,” he said. After years of driving hours to play or coach other programs, he found one “only 20 miles up the road.”

He wasn’t concerned that the school paused its program in 2021.

“I didn’t necessarily see it as a challenge,” he said. “It wasn’t like it was a forgotten thing.”

He actually saw it as a bonus. There was no film on last year’s team to view and “I hadn’t been a head coach for 20 years.”

Tri-County — and the way Echelberry coached it — was a mystery.

“I kind of like it like that,” he said.

He doesn’t know how the season will end up and, honestly, is not too concerned about wins and losses. He wants to win — “as long as we get better ... hopefully the wins will take care of themselves” — but this is about more than the final score.

“We’ve got some great kids,” he said. “We’ve got talent everywhere.

“But I’ll be happy if the kids have fun ... none of this is about me. I’m just a vessel. It’s the kids and the community and the support is all that matters.”

Comments: (319) 398-8461; jr.ogden@thegazette.com