Two towns, one goal

SIGOURNEY – The success of Creston/O-M football has run into roadblocks against one of the toughest districts in the state through recent years, but one alumnus has found success in other parts of the state.

Sigourney-Keota football is nearly three hours away from Creston, but the connection to one of southwest Iowa’s hub cities begins at the top of the Cobras’ team.

Jared Jensen, a 2001 Creston graduate, took over the reigns of Sigourney-Keota’s football program in 2011 after back-to-back 5-4 seasons. In the nine years since Jensen took over, the team’s record is 61-34 with an 8-1 season in 2019 and going undefeated so far in 2020.

Jensen said his philosophy with the team, especially this season, has been to “go 1-0” and take each game, play and series “one at a time.”

That mindset has proved to be exactly what a historically strong program needed after just missing the playoffs a season ago, despite losing one game on the year.

“We just understand that one game can ruin your season. And last year, we just kind of feel like the kids got robbed by not making it into the playoffs, being 8-1,” Jensen said. “I think that was the lead catalyst to understand that every single game is important, we can’t overlook anybody.”

Coming up just short in 2019, but finding major success for the first time since 2016’s eight-win year gave the team something both Sigourney and Keota to come together, pushing the team to a No. 3 ranking in Class 1A. Jensen said seeing the communities rally together reminds him of what Creston/Orient-Macksburg football has been like for so many years.

Dangerous Cobras

Sigourney-Keota has run the single-wing offense, different than the offensive approach Jensen ran while he played quarterback at Creston and William Penn in college.

Jensen said he felt he needed to keep the system in place, with the youth teams running the same system and it being a staple for the team.

Keeping the same offense, the Cobras have flourished. Sigourney-Keota is averaging 44 points per game.

In Class 1A, the Cobras are second in rushing touchdowns (38) and rushing yards (2,727), third in total touchdowns (57), all-purpose yards (4,319) and offensive touchdowns (51) and fourth in offensive yards (3,453).

With so much success, Jensen relates the team going 16-1 through the past two seasons back to the way he felt in high school, looking at the varsity team and individuals as someone he wanted to emulate. Now, Jensen said he sees that in the program he coaches.

“I don’t think it’s just been this team. I think it’s the groundwork that’s been laid prior,” Jensen said on what has brought success to the program in recent years. “It was that way when I was in high school. We had some really good role models when I was a freshman. Obviously, at 3A, freshmen don’t practice with the varsity, but looking at those juniors and seniors when we were freshmen, that’s who we wanted to be. We wanted to be like those guys. … I think that’s kind of where we’re at right now. The freshmen that come in, they don’t feel not welcomed.”

Senior leader and 1,000-yard rusher Sam Sieren and quarterback Cade Molyneux are some of the upperclassmen young player in the program are looking up to this season.

Seeing the success of the program and the entire team buying into what Jensen and his staff teach is something that reminds him of his alma mater in southwest Iowa.

“There’s just a great relationship within the program, and I just feel like it was the same way when I was in high school,” Jensen said.

For the magical 2020 season, Jensen and Sigourney-Keota remain as one of eight teams left in Class 1A, fighting for a chance to play at the UNI dome and a state title.

The Cobras rolled through Beckman Catholic 35-14 Friday and set to face 8-1 Columbus Catholic at home Friday, with kickoff coming at 7 p.m.