State champion coach joins Wrestling Hall

The coach who lifted a strong Creston wrestling tradition to even greater heights for two decades is among the 2023 inductees at the Creston Wrestling Hall of Fame banquet Saturday night.

Darrell Frain, currently head football coach and athletic director at Riverside in Oakland, guided the Panthers from 1999 through 2018. His teams won two state tournament titles and one dual state tournament crown, taking second four other times in the two tourney formats combined.

Other inductees are the Willets brothers from Panther teams in the 1960s — Larry, Rod, Jerry and Ted; state placewinner Kim Kirkman from the “breakthrough team” of 1972; and longtime News Advertiser sports writer Larry Peterson, who covered the program from 1985 to the present as a retired freelance contributor.

Also honored at the banquet will be teams ending in “3″ starting with the second team in program history from 1963, along with members of the 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013 teams. Seven scholarships will also be awarded to Creston graduates who were part of the wrestling program during their high school years.

Funds for those scholarships are gained through ticket sales, a raffle with prizes awarded Saturday, and a silent auction.

The event will be held at the Creston Eagles Club with social hour at 4 p.m., followed by Creston coach Cody Downing introducing his staff and talking about this year’s team at 5 p.m. Those attending from the reunion teams will be introduced prior to the dinner to be served around 5:45 p.m.

After dinner, the scholarships will be presented, followed by Hall of Fame inductions at approximately 6:45 p.m.

Advanced ticket purchases are recommended for $20 each and can be obtained at Hulett & Sons and Hartsock Insurance, or by contacting committee members John Walters (641-247-1984), Dan Hayes (641-202-6566), Emmy Key (641-202-3136) and Chuck Hulett (641-202-2262). The committee is a separate entity from Creston Community Schools.

DARRELL FRAIN

Darrell Frain was a multi-sport athlete at Carson-Macedonia, now part of the Riverside district, and a state qualifier at 155 pounds in 1984. He was a member of the football and baseball teams at Graceland University and inducted into the Graceland Hall of Fame in 2010.

Frain began his teaching and coaching career in Creston in 1996 and served as an assistant for head wrestling coach Rich Downing from 1996 to 1999. He became Downing’s successor in the 1999-2000 season and held that position for 19 years through the 2017-2018 season.

Creston had earned one state trophy before Frain took over the program, a runner-up finish in 1975. By the time Frain’s career in Creston concluded, Creston had surpassed everyone in southwest Iowa with 20 state trophies in his last 16 years.

Starting with coaching Andrew Hayes to his second state title in his first season, Frain coached 11 wrestlers to 19 state titles. Jake Marlin became southwest Iowa’s first four-time champion under Frain. During his reign, Andrew Long and Chase Shiltz each won three titles and Kalab Evans joined Hayes as a two-time champ.

The team won traditional tournament championships in 2007 and 2016, along with second-place finishes in 2008 and 2015. The 2008 team had five state finalists and four champions. His Panther teams won the 2007 dual state championship and placed second in 2008 and 2011.

The Panthers were 327-70 in dual meets under Frain. His staff was considered one of the best in southwest Iowa, including the likes of current head coach Cody Downing and current assistant Chris Loudon, Dan Hayes, Matt Long, Casey Tanner and former University of Iowa wrestler Mario Galanakis of Nodaway Valley.

“You have to be out of school five years to be eligible and this is Darrell’s sixth year away,” committee member John Walters said. “It was just a matter of time for Darrell. We always had a great program, and he took it to a higher level. He was good at delegating with an excellent staff, and he also had some really good people helping with the younger kids in guys like Mark Loudon, Denny Linderman, Dennis Leith, their kids and their buddies. Like most good programs, once it gets going it catches on and kids come up wanting to be a part of it. Darrell found a way to motivate the kids.”

Frain followed a tradition established by Downing in starting two-a-day workouts in January to build a better base of conditoning and technique for the important part of the season — sectionals, districts and the state tournament. His teams were also known for having workouts before meets and tournaments in a warmup beyond what most teams do.

KIM KIRKMAN

Creston moved from Class 3A to Class 2A in 1972 and it was a breakthrough of sorts as the Panthers led 2A with seven state qualifiers after several narrow misses in 1971. The team placed sixth and Kirkman also placed sixth individually.

“It was a very close competition. We were one win from getting a trophy,” Walters said. “The next two years we also had the most qualifiers and got fourth both times. We were a half-point from getting a trophy in 1973.”

Kirkman had several victories over notable state standouts, including twice avenging a previous loss to future state champion Dan Swoyer of Greenfield. He also competed against Lewis Central initial state champion Bill Allan and Glenwood’s first state champ, Rod Evans, along with Corning runner-up Randy Hickman. The 132 weight class was loaded in southwest Iowa those years.

Kirkman was the only freshman to letter in a sport at Creston in the 1968-69 season. He was also a standout linebacker in football and president of the student council.

WILLETS BROTHERS

Brothers Larry, Rod, Jerry and Ted Willets all contributed to the Creston wrestling program in its early years throughout the 1960s.

Larry won the school’s outstanding wrestler award in 1964. He and Rod were on the school’s first team in 1961 and wrestled for Creston Community College in its first years. Despite a serious motorcycle accident after his first year of collegiate wrestling, Larry stayed active in athletics in Creston.

Rod become a successful coach in both wrestling and football in Bedford for many years, working with former Creston coach Dannie Stephens for a time there. He was Bedford’s head coach for 11 seasons. Rod also assisted Bedford football coaches Bob McCoy and Max Dougherty for many years, including the 1992 state championship season. He received state awards as assistant coach of the year in both wrestling and football.

Jerry was Creston’s first Corning Tournament champion in 1966 and repeated that feat in 1967, when he had an undefeated dual season. He received the school’s outstanding wrestler award that year and wrestled at Southwestern Community College. He took pride in never having been pinned in high school and collegiate competition.

Ted was a multi-sport athlete at Creston and one of the school’s first champions in the conference tournament, then the Hawkeye Seven, in 1968. He served in the U.S. Army after graduation before attending SWCC and the University of Northern Iowa to become an accountant. After returning to work in Creston in 1986 he volunteered to work at several Creston tournament over the years.

“Those guys were all just solid wrestlers and great representatives of the school,” Walters said. “In the end, Rod had the most experience in wrestling with all those years of coaching, but they all had a part in our teams throughout the 1960s.”

LARRY PETERSON

Peterson covered Creston wrestling from 1985 until his retirement in 2020, and continues to contribute to the News Advertiser for several sports assignments a month on a freelance basis.

He has also covered the sport at the collegiate level, following the careers of former high school competitors at Iowa, Iowa State and UNI along with smaller colleges. He has covered two NCAA tournaments for the News Advertiser.

A graduate of Fort Dodge where he played baseball and basketball, his interest in wrestling was fueled when he lived on a farm in the Eagle Grove district as a young boy, and started attending Fort Dodge wrestling meets with his father after the family moved there in 1966.

Peterson covered the University of Iowa wrestling team as a student as Dan Gable was beginning his dynasty there. He covered the Atlantic wrestling team for four years before joining the News Advertiser in 1984.

“We were always appreciative of Larry’s coverage and how thorough he was,” said Walters, a former head coach at Creston. “As a coach I know he was working early mornings after meets, or on Sundays getting everything together from a Saturday tournament. Even if he didn’t wrestle, he understood it enough to know what we were talking about. As a historian, I always appreciated that he included the match results from each weight and placing matches from tournaments. Any wrestling fan wants to see that.”