Burmeister joins Hall of Fame

DES MOINES — Darrell Burmeister was in typical multitasking mode Friday.

Early on the day he was going to be inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Basketball Hall of Fame, “Coach B” was working with Nodaway Valley runner Doug Berg at the Iowa Association of Track Coaches state indoor championships at Iowa State University. Burmeister, who remains Nodaway Valley’s boys cross country coach, is a volunteer distance running coach for the boys track team.

“Doug Berg got 12th in the mile (1,600 meters) and placed fifth in the 3,200 for a medal, so it was a good day before I got here,” Burmeister said after standing at midcourt at halftime of the Class 4A state championship game Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

Burmeister was accompanied during the midcourt recognition by his sister Diane Osterkamp, his brother Delbert Burmeister and 20-year assistant coach Dr. Richard Kohler.

As he stepped off the playing floor, Burmeister was greeted by former Nodaway Valley guard Eric Raasch, a star guard on Burmeister’s first state tournament team in 2005. Raasch, now an assistant coach for 3A state champion Dallas Center-Grimes, gave Coach B an emotional hug.

“It’s been special because I had players from all decades here tonight,” Burmeister said. “I remember I used to go to the state tournament at Vets Auditorium and sit up there thinking, why can’t we do this someday? Well, in the substate final that year (2005) at Atlantic we got down 30-9 to Clarinda at the end of the first quarter. Eric Raasch and Billy Baudler led a great comeback and brought us to the state tournament. That was something special, to see Eric and so many other guys here tonight for this.”

Burmeister guided six state championships in three sports — boys and girls cross country, and boys basketball (2006). He began his basketball coaching career at Bridgewater-Fontanelle at the age of 29, later taking over the combined program with Greenfield, which became the consolidated name of Nodaway Valley in 2000. He credits Ron Juhler for stepping down as Greenfield coach and becoming athletic director, opening the door for him to become the shared program’s head coach.

Burmeister’s 37-year career included 603 wins, 13 Pride of Iowa conference championships and six state tournament appearances including a championship in 2006. His Wolverines had two conference winning streaks of 71 and 58 games. Five times his teams entered postseason play with undefeated regular season records.

Burmeister’s basketball teams at Nodaway Valley averaged 18.7 wins per year over 27 seasons, with just one season below .500.

“What I’m proud of is that our kids worked hard,” Burmeister said. “When we lost to Unity Christian in the championship game in 2005, we got back to Greenfield and our guys got off the bus and played basketball in our gym until 1:30 in the morning. They wanted to win it next year, and they started working on it.”

That championship was indeed earned in 2006 against Fort Dodge St. Edmond. More state trips would follow in 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

After he was told he would join the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame, Burmeister said he thought about the work ethic that came from his family’s hog farm on the Cedar-Scott county border in eastern Iowa.

“When the landlord died, we couldn’t afford the farm, so my parents had to move to town,” Burmeister said. “Even though that farm wasn’t ours, we treated it like it was ours. We took care of it. Just like I didn’t own our basketball program, but I felt like I owned it and had to take care of it and maintain it. I felt I did that over 37 years. I don’t think I could have worked too much harder. I don’t think I could have asked too much more out of my players. We developed some great players — more than 15 of them became all-staters.”

Blunt honored

Three others with southwest Iowa ties were honored Friday night. Honored as a coach was Kevin Blunt of Stanton, retired as Stanton’s principal and athletic director. He coached basketball at Essex, Bedford and Stanton.

Players honored were B.J. Windhorst of Clarinda and Brett Watson of Elk Horn-Kimballton. Windhorst played at Iowa Western Community College and Drake University, and is now boys basketball coach at West Des Moines Valley. Watson played at Wayne State and is currently the coach at Waukee Northwest, a state tournament team in Class 4A this year. He formerly coached at Creston.