Retired Creston AD joins Iowa Hall of Fame

After years of devoting his career to serving kids, retired Creston athletic and activities director Jeff Bevins is being honored for his work. In March 2025, Bevins will be inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame.

Bevins spent 15 years as Creston High School’s activities director, serving students in both the athletics and the arts. Prior to that, Bevins had served as the high school AD in Chariton and the middle school AD in Clarinda. However, even before becoming an activities director, Bevins was passionate about helping students in their extracurriculars.

“The biggest thing that really got me into this was kids. I loved coaching kids when I started teaching in Clarinda in 1981,” Bevins said. “I was coaching four sports and teaching phys ed. I coached four sports for several years.”

It was during his time in the Clarinda school district that Bevins learned the art of being an AD.

“It all started with Harley Schieffer, who was the athletic director at Clarinda at the time. I knew I wanted to move on from the teaching position and into that area,” Bevins said. “I had a talk with him and he guided me and helped me with starting out doing the middle school work, as far as officials, schedules, facilities, for middle school activities while he was still the head high school AD.”

Schieffer was named the executive director of IHSADA in 2014, a role he still holds. However, Schieffer wasn’t Bevin’s only inspiration.

“The main reason I went into education were some coaches I had at my high school, so I knew that was the area that I wanted to get into and make a career of,” Bevins said.

He served as Clarinda’s middle school AD for about five years, then becoming AD and assistant principal at Chariton High School in 2000. Bevins came to Creston in 2004, where he served as AD and assistant principal until 2019. He continued working at the school through the iJAG program until retiring two years ago.

CHS principal Bill Messerole explained Bevins’ dedication to the students showed how great he was.

“Jeff had a state wide reputation as one of the best ADs in Iowa. He was a ‘go-to’ guy for many young ADs in Southwest Iowa,” Messerole said. “The number of hours ADs put in is astronomical - most coming after 4:00 when their day job is finished. Many class 3A schools have ADs only, while Jeff was also the assistant principal. This basically doubled his time.”

Bevins’ many hours on the job meant meeting many types of people. However, he said this was his favorite aspect of the work.

“I have been very fortunate to have a very good, or awesome, coaching and sponsor staff,” Bevins said. “I just have been very fortunate both at Chariton and here to work with awesome coaching staff, the sponsors, administration is huge. Not saying I got everything I wanted, but I was able to explore avenues for the athletics and activities departments to go into.”

Bevins was also complimentary of all the region’s ADs, especially his predecessor Curt Olson.

“I think that one aspect of being an AD and activities director is, you get a lot of support from the ADs that you’re around, and being in the Hawkeye 10 and also following Curt Olson - he was here before me and he was here a long time before me,” Bevins said. “The Hawkeye 10 as a whole has had a very awesome group of ADs going clear back to the 1990s. It’s a very supportive group, and then you also get that support from ADs across the state as well.”

Through his time both as an AD and meeting ADs, Bevins said there were a couple of characteristics that made certain people stand out.

“You have to be pretty levelheaded, be in situations that can be uncomfortable,” Bevins said. “If you’re at a game, someone’s going to lose and you have upset parents sometimes.”

Bevins also said organizational skills were an important aspect of the job. At Creston, he was grateful to have Claudia Peppers helping keep him on track.

“I have been very fortunate to have an awesome administrative secretary, assistant. I had Claudia Peppers the whole time I was here as an AD and she did an awesome job of keeping me in the straight when things were going in all directions. That is very important,” Bevins said.

Messerole also expounded on the importance of organization, something he said Bevins excelled at.

“Jeff went about his duties in a very professional manner and always wanted our kids to have a great experience in their activities. Jeff was very organized and enjoyed the success of our kids, coaches and activity directors,” Messerole said. “This is a well-deserved honor.”

Bevins is one of five joining the IHSADA Hall of Fame in March. Other honorees include Jim Boehmer of Lake Mills, Alan Ling of English Valleys, Rollie Ackerman of Grundy Center/Marshalltown and Bryan Poulter of Colfax-Mingo.

Honorees will be recognized at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 29 during the annual IHSADA State Convention at the Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel and Convention Center.