Jay Eilers signed on as new head football coach at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn after liking what he saw on film, but it was really the people at HMS that sealed the deal for him.
“I came here on my interview and we have some of the best facilities in the state of Iowa here at HMS, but we have better people than facilities,” remarked the new head man. “And when I left (the interview) I pondered and prayed about the opportunity of working with people like this and, sure enough, here we are. I was definitely blessed for that opportunity and you could recognize the culture that Pat Carlin and Nate Hemiller and Ashley Benz, all administrators at our school, you could see the culture within those three people and it was something I had definitely been a part of in the past from people like (coach) Mel Tjeerdsma and I wanted to be a part of it again here. We are blessed here. The communities are amazing.”
Eilers played for Tjeerdsma at Northwest Missouri State. That was after his time on the high school football field at West Burlington under another Hall of Fame coach Bill Nelson. “My time for both of those coaches and the guys Mel had on his staff, I was around some phenomenal men,” said Eilers.
After graduating from high school in 1994, Eilers red-shirted at Northwest Missouri State and then played four years for the Bearcats, culminating in a National Championship. He next seized the opportunity to join a professional football league. “I played Arena League football with the Quad City Steamwheelers and it was a blast,” said Eilers. “(The year) 2000 was the first year of Arena Football 2 and we were 19-0. That was pretty cool to go 15-0 National Champs in college and back that up with a 19-0 run. The coaches called me ‘The Streak’ and I thought that was pretty cool. I liked it.”
In reference to his coaching career, the new HMS coach admitted, “I’ve kind of bounced around from high school to college. You always think about that first coaching job out of college and I was blessed to be at St. Jo Central in St. Joseph, MO. (Head Coach) Tony Dudik was a class of a man and you learned a lot about the right ways to coach and you couldn’t ask for a better example early. From there I went on to North Kansas City due to my wife and I moving. My first head job in Albany, MO we were 3-21 in three years there. I knew we were going to struggle. We took over a program that hadn’t won a game for quite awhile. I was lucky. I got to be with good kids and I had a good administration. From there I really believe God said ‘Hey you’re struggling as a high school coach were going to give you an opportunity at Missouri Western State University’ and I coached the offensive line for the Griffins with Jerry Partridge.”
There was one coaching move Eilers was tickled to make. He explains, “College is my addiction and it calls for everything but I think it called too much on me and my family. I had the opportunity to go back home to West Burlington and coach at my alma mater and it was a dream job.”
The 2020 season was his fourth with the West Burlington/Notre Dame program and it saw the Falcons compile a 4-5 record which included a playoff win and a pair of losses to number one Williamsburg. “The thing I absolutely am so proud of during my time there is that every year we had more kids out for football,” said Eilers. The coach shared that leaving his dream job at his alma mater was something he didn’t think would ever happen. “There were a lot of obstacles which we had to jump through in my previous job and we continued to jump through those things for our kids,” said Eilers, “But I felt like, at a certain point, administration and I didn’t have the same vision.”
HMS finished at 7-3 in 2020 and that record featured a pair of playoff wins. Eilers was impressed with the HMS game footage he looked at. “Yeah, it was intriguing, it was attractive to see the talent that we have here,” admitted the new head coach. “But then to follow that up and meet the kids and see the work ethic and the commitment. This team is special.”
The Eilers family makes up a foursome. Said the coach, “My wife Rebekah and I met at Northwest Missouri State. We’ve been married for 23 years and have two amazing boys. Ethan will be a freshman at South Dakota State playing football for Coach Stiegelmeier and Evan will be a sophomore here at HMS. I’m pretty proud of all of them. Those guys are my rock.”
Coach Eilers sees his position as HMS Elementary Instructional Interventionist as a calling and feels it ties in with his passion for coaching football. “I was the behavior kid in school,” he admitted. “I was the kid that you didn’t want to come into your classroom. I’m embarrassed of it, I’ve grown and learned a lot of things but it was relationships with people that allowed me to grow up and change and so many times those relationships were from coaches and I was blessed to be around all these great people. And football gave me a lot in life. I was the first ever to graduate with a four-year diploma in my family and went on to get my Masters. I really look back as an adult so many times and I recognize football was leading me in all those directions. The cool thing is I get to pay back now. I get to, as they say, pay it forward.”
At HMS Eilers joins Steve Waechter, Mark Petersen and Korey Ebel. They were assistants under Tyler Horkey who moved on to an administrative position at Spencer Community School. “These guys are so professional and so knowledgeable about the game,” said the new head coach. “They welcomed me with open arms and jumped in immediately which is a commitment and a true sign that these guys are 100 percent into it for the kids, not themselves. They were so welcoming to me and my visions and my coaching style and I’m lucky to have them. I get to rely on them a lot. I love coaching with them. I always said it doesn’t matter what level you coach at, it matters who you coach with and I get to coach with some awesome, awesome people.”
Waechter is the defensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Petersen works with the receivers and the defensive line. Ebel is coaching the stack linebackers and the fullbacks. Eilers coaches the outside linebackers and calls the offense.
The newcomer plans few changes to the Hawk defense. “We’re going to be pretty similar,” he said. “We’re going to be attacking. I think that’s one of the things that attracted me on film, Coach Waechter being so aggressive on defense and I think our kids enjoy playing that way and I think you look at even creating turnovers on the defensive side of the ball, they did a nice job of that and I think that’s part of his scheme and then, obviously, that is complete effort from our kids on the field playing extremely hard.”
Graduation has created some holes and the team has been working for weeks to fill them and put together this year’s defense. “All those things start in the summer and I think every team goes through that,” commented Eilers. “Our kids have done a tremendous job in the summer from strength and conditioning and I think the coaching staff did a tremendous job installing schemes and our kids have just shown an amazing football IQ.”
Eilers indicated a priority when it comes to the offense. “Number one, I think we’re going to be very physical,” he said. “We’ve got an offensive line we’re excited about from Lance Berends to Jesse Garcia to Nick Bronstad. Keevyn Jacobsma is playing at an extremely high level. Adam Schierholz is a sophomore and this kid is a freak. We feel very good about those guys being physical and doing some things.”
He is also excited about the contributions of players such as Travis Kamradt, Connor Dodd, Kooper Ebel, Keaton Graves and Mason Brinkman. “I would say we’re going to be very physical and were going to be very versatile in what we do,” commented Eilers. “There might be some unorthodox formations we do but it’s going to create some positive situations for us in those non-traditional formations.” He went on to say, “We want to control the clock, we want to be able to run the ball, but I think one of the things Kooper Ebel is so successful at is throwing the ball. That has been an awesome part of our offense right now, our two minute, we’re spread, and we’re going up-tempo no-huddle. So we have a wide variety of what we can do and we will do it all.” The new head man coyly described his offensive scheme in these simple words: “The oldest one in the book.”
HMS graduated both its punter and its place kicker but stepping into the breech is one of this year’s seniors. “Jordan Ortega has stepped up very well for us in both punting and kicking and we feel very good about what he’s been doing for us,” complimented his head coach. Eilers noted that special teams has been a big part of fall camp. “We opened up Day One with punt and actually had our second ‘special teams only’ practice yesterday as we are emphasizing special teams,” revealed Eilers. “I think our coaches recognize it, our kids recognize it and we want to be very successful. When you’re trying to change field position in such chunks, it is critical, fundamental in that area. Tony Dudik, the first coach I coached with, said ‘Offense entertains, defense wins games and special teams loses games.’ So many times you see that special teams can cost you and it’s important to be successful there.”
The Hawk squad is 41 players strong and Eilers said it features the most quality depth that he has seen at the high school level. He noted that there are some positions where the second-stringers are right on the tails of the starters. “We feel blessed to have the depth we do,” said the coach. “I think it’s the quality depth that is such a help to move kids in and keep the offense, defense and special teams moving. That scout team, offense, defense, special teams automatically gets better and improves when you have the depth that we do.”
This football regular season is eight games in length but any team that does not make the playoffs has the option to then schedule a ninth game. “I’m not a traditionalist, I’m what’s best for the kids,” stated Coach Eilers. “I think it’s better for Iowa high school football trying to find competitive games, because I don’t think it’s good for kids when you’re out there, you’ve played a team, lost 52-0 and then the state says ‘Hey, you’re going to play them again.’ I think it’s best for the kids and I think that’s what the state’s trying to do. I think the state recognizes that and they’re trying to do the best that they can.”
HMS has district games against Gehlen Catholic, South O’Brien, MMCRU, Alta/Aurelia, Hinton and Akron-Westfield but the new coach is not looking down the road. “We’re focusing on us,” declared Eilers. “When we start focusing on other opponents prior to the time, I think we’re cheating the process.” Attention has been paid to the opener against non-district opponent West Sioux. Said Eilers last week, “We’ve broken down game one through and through, upside down, inside out, left to right, right to left, and I think our kids have done a nice job of understanding formation recognition of what we’ll see next week and now is probably time to start working on what they do out of those formations.”
West Sioux was also 7-3 last season. The Falcons lost in the Class 1A semifinals to eventual champion OABCIG. The Hawks made it to the quarterfinal round in Class A. Both schools retain those Class Assignments for the coming season, including the opener this Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Hartley. “It’s going to be outstanding,” said Eilers of the match-up. “I think it’s going to be one of those games that not many high school teams get to get out of the gate. This will be a playoff atmosphere. This will be a playoff quality. But for both teams, whether you win this game, that doesn’t get you your ultimate goal, or you lose this game it does not take anything away, but it’s going to be an opportunity. That’s one thing that we’re going to focus on as coaches week in and week out: whether we win or lose, on Monday we’re teaching to grow and get better from that game.”
When asked about what qualifies as a successful season, Eilers replied, “The ultimate thing we’re trying to do is, we’re trying to teach these kids and give them tools to be successful 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road. I know we’re talking about a season of success, but I think the ultimate job of coaches, I think the ultimate job of what we’re doing here with our staff is we’re going to make sure our kids understand what they need to do to be successful in life. I’ve never been anywhere where kids work harder. I’ve never been anywhere where kids are more committed. I think it’s a compliment to our community.” He added, “We’re going to play every game one at a time. We’re looking to be 1-0 every game. Obviously, this team has the potential of being the absolute best team in the state and we’re going to work, were going to commit to the process, we’re going to play our tails off and we’ll let the scoreboard and schedule speak for itself.”