Hall of Fame coach cites Creston influences

Paul Loos traces his athletic roots back to the streets of west-central Creston.

“Obviously my family being involved in sports was a big influence, and I’d have to give kudos to the Myrtle Street gang,” said the longtime Newell-Fonda coach inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday night. “Growing up, there were a lot of us who just went out and played sports all the time. Guys like Ty Rogers, Mike Geis, Dan Montague. Sports was a major part of our lives.”

Loos, a 1980 graduate of Creston High School, was recognized Saturday night at halftime of the Class 4A championship game along with Al Marshall, a 47-year coach whose career ended this year as his Cascade, Western Dubuque team competed in the state tournament. Creighton University coach Greg McDermott was one of Marshall’s former players.

Former players joining coaches Loos and Marshall into the Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday were Paul Sir, Greg Lansing of Harlan, Tyler McKinney, Nathan Funk and Greg Brunner.

Lansing’s mother, Diane, is a sister of June Bower of Creston and was an all-state guard at Thayer. Lansing, a former University of Iowa assistant for coach Steve Alford, is head coach at Indiana State.

Loos went on to play football and baseball at Central College for two years after graduating from Creston High School. He then transferred to the University of Northern Iowa to pursue a degree in education, while continuing to play baseball.

Loos’s entire career has been spent in northwest Iowa. He began at Sac City and served as head baseball coach while assisting in football and girls basketball.

Competitive area

Loos moved to Fonda in 1986 and was assistant boys basketball coach for one year before the head coach position opened. He spent two seasons as the head coach at Fonda before taking over the combined program with Newell in 1990.

In 25 seasons Loos guided the Mustangs to nine conference titles, 11 district and nine substate tournament championships. The Mustangs’ nine trips to the state tournament resulted in four titles, a runner-up and a fourth-place finish. Among the state titles was his 1992 team that included all-state guard Jim Calkins, who went on to a successful coaching stint at Creston that included two state tournament appearances in 2005 and 2006 and multiple substate appearances.

From 1996 through 1998 the Mustangs posted a 49-game winning streak. Loos posted a 412-172 mark at Newell-Fonda to boost his career record to 434-193. Four times he was named the Class 1A Coach of the Year and among numerous other honors he was named the Sioux City Journal Coach of the Year in 2000.

Prior to his retirement as Newell-Fonda coach in 2014, Loos was active in the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association, serving a term as president and being on several leadership committees. He and his wife Jackie have a daughter, Ashley, and live near Storm Lake.

Loos is concluding his final year as physical education teacher at Newell-Fonda before retiring, and just completed his second season as assistant men’s basketball coach at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.

Loos said he was influenced by many coaches during his years in Creston, most notably by a respected ninth-grade basketball coach who went on to his own Hall of Fame career in Athens, Georgia.

“The coaches with the most impact on me back then were probably Jerry Todd, Dick Skarda and Curt Jeffryes,” Loos said. “Coach Todd was a big influence on me in basketball. It was Bobby Knight motion, heavy on the defense. There was nothing wrong you were doing unless you were standing. The game was fun playing for him. He had remarkable records in Creston. We’d go up against ninth-grade teams from schools like Dowling and Urbandale and win a lot of those games. I think we were 16-4 and we had one of his worst records!”

Among Todd’s players in Georgia was San Diego Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers. While Loos wasn’t a starter for Todd, he learned from him.

“I came off the bench, but I always sat next to the coach,” he said, smiling.

Loos and his staff had Newell-Fonda playing an exciting brand of ball in a tradition-rich area of the state.

“We had a lot of good athletic programs around the area,” Loos said. “Palmer was tough. Pomeroy was strong, and they were in our back yard. They merged just like Newell and Fonda. That just drove our kids. Fonda was always a basketball community. They had some nice teams in the early 1980s, too.”

One of his assistants, Dick Jurgens, became a state champion girls coach at Newell-Fonda and had his team in the state tournament again this year. One of Jurgens’ assistants is Kevin Larsen, the center on Loos’ 1992 state championship team and teammate of Calkins.

“I reluctantly asked Dick to take over the girls program,” Loos said. “But I had a vested interest. My daughter was playing.”

New challenge

When Loos stepped away from coaching the Mustangs, he joined head coach Brian Van Haaften’s staff at Buena Vista. Prior to Saturday’s ceremony, Loos said he has enjoyed coaching at the collegiate level. He finds himself on the opposing bench of Central College and former Creston standout Colby Taylor.

“We actually beat Central twice this year, but they had great shooters and got hot in the (conference) tournament,” he said. “I enjoy it. It’s a higher level of basketball. In Division III you’re getting all-conference and all-state players. Even in Division III, you’re getting quality players. I was fortunate enough to be with a conference championship team last year. We should have a decent ballclub next year.”