Coach Darrell Frain leaving Creston O-M wrestling

[Clone83]

. . . to become AD and head football coach at Riverside HS in Oakland.

Frain returns to his roots at Riverside
http://www.nonpareilonline.com/spor...cle_6839f081-8bb7-504f-9f5f-d1f33d4cb74f.html

. . . the news that sent shockwaves through two school districts became official: Frain was returning home.

The 50-year-old Frain, who built one of Iowa’s best wrestling programs at Creston/Orient-Macksburg, will officially become the new activities director and head football coach at Riverside High School on July 1.

Frain is a Carson native and a 1986 graduate of Carson-Macedonia High School. Carson, Macedonia and Oakland now comprise the Riverside district. He said he hadn’t given much thought to going home until the last few months.

“A lot of things fell into place,’’ he said. Frain said he found most appealing “the challenge of being in charge of a whole athletic department, and then switching sports and being in charge of football, which is something when I came out of college that I really wanted to do.

“It created a lot of excitement in my brain, and everything went forward from there.’’

In 19 wrestling seasons at Creston, Frain’s teams made 13 state dual appearances, including seven top-four finishes and a 2007 state title. The Panthers won the traditional state meet in 2007 and 2016, along with seven other top-four finishes. His wrestlers won 19 individual state championships. He was a longtime assistant in the Creston football program, most recently serving as the offensive coordinator. . . .

. . . Frain said there was no magical formula to his success in Creston. It’s more about showing up every day, ready to work, with no excuses.

“I just want to build on things that they already have,’’ he said. “Just make them more accountable and more committed. Compete every day. … It doesn’t matter if it’s school, work, athletics – just compete in everything you do.’’

There were playoff appearances in 2010 (3-7) and 2013 (5-5), but Riverside hasn’t finished a football season with a winning record since a 7-2 mark in 2004. Since 2005, the Bulldogs are 27-92 (.227).

Darrell Frain leaving for Riverside
http://www.crestonnews.com/2018/05/03/darrell-frain-leaving-for-riverside/almi1mf/

. . . Frain is a Carson native and graduated from Carson-Macedonia High School before it joined with Oakland to become Riverside High School.

Frain was named the Creston/O-M wrestling coach in 2000-01 and will wrap up his 18-year career with a laundry list of accomplishments on his resume.

Among one of the biggest accomplishments was the Panther team qualifying for eight straight state dual team tournaments, a streak that ended this past season.

The Panther veteran received numerous awards during his tenure as head wrestling coach while leading Creston/O-M to Class 2A state traditional team titles in 2007 and 2016 and state dual team titles in 2007 and 2008.

The newest Riverside athletic director recorded over 300 dual wins in his time as Creston/O-M wrestling coach with his 300th win coming Jan. 5, 2017 over Kuemper Catholic.

As the wrestling coach, 31 Panthers reached the state championship match and 18 of them went on to carry the title. . . .

 

[dirtyninety]

I am sure 4-hyphened, consolidated school districts are to come in the future as educrats can't figure out where the money went.

 

[NEICyFan]

I am sure 4-hyphened, consolidated school districts are to come in the future as educrats can't figure out where the money went.

It makes zero sense to operate a school district with less than 20-30 kids per class. Talk about spending money.

 

[Clone83]

North of Oakland, Avoca-Hancock (“AvoHa”) and Shelby-Tennant merged quite awhile ago to become A-H-S-T. I think it includes Walnut now (famous for its antique shops), and is now A-H-S-T-W.

Oakland has some decent wrestling history. I think they won a state title or two, maybe the late 1980s or early 90s — and one year were dominant IIRC, with like 5 guys near the top of their weight classes. Avoca has won a state football title or two, I believe. Avoca and Oakland are quite a bit bigger than the other towns in their school districts, and the schools could be called just that IMO. But the naming I think relates in part, probably, to getting enough votes to pass bond issues and agreement to consolidate.

On the other hand, just north of Avoca is Harlan, which is much, much larger than the other towns in their school district. Shelby and Walnut in relation to Avoca are smaller but none are all that big.

Outside of Council Bluffs and Carter Lake (on the Nebraska side of the river, near the airport), Oakland and Avoca are the two biggest towns in Pottawattamie County (which is about twice the size geographically of all other Iowa counties, except one). Their populations are about 1500 each. Avoca used to have its own courthouse and still hosts the East Pottawattamie County Fair. Closer to Council Bluffs, Treynor and Underwood are still quite a bit smaller but faster growing, and seem likely to surpass Oakland and Avoca in population at some point.

I don’t think the populations of Oakland or Avoca have changed much for quite a long time — though both are still an easy commute to Council Bluffs-Omaha as such things go.

 

[Clone83]

Incidentally, it wasn’t in the Riverside school district but near it one summer, my brother and I found a giant buffalo skull in the Nishnabotna. It was a drought year, and this buffalo was buried in a wet sandbar in the middle of the river that would normally be covered by two or three feet of water. Years later I saw a television special on the buffalo at Yellowstone, which showed the likely demise of this creature near Oakland. It was winter and the buffalo were crossing a river, when the old bull fell through the ice because of his size, and was unable to pull himself out.

Ironically, or fittingly, Botna Bend Park in nearby Hancock has long kept a few buffalo (and elk).

Once, my brother reached through the fence to touch the bull, which was looking the other way. Upon feeling this, it jumped in the air and did a 180, ready to charge! Holeee ****.

More effective than any sign that said don’t touch the buffalo.