NEIL GOOS

Maj. Doug Newcomb of Ankeny wrote the following letter to the Editor, which was published in the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune:

A few weeks ago, the Sentinel-Tribune reported the resignation of Coach Neil Goos as head football coach at CCHS after 22 years. The community of Osceola, as well as former students scattered across the nation, owe him congratulations and thanks.

As high  school  students, we measured success by how many games we won. Years later, those are fond memories, but compared to the things he taught us, there is no comparison.  The lessons he taught are what carry on in people's lives.

Coach Goos gave a generation of Osceola's children the character traits necessary for success in life: courage to do what's right, fortitude to stick with it when things are tough, desire to achieve their goals, the knowledge that success only comes with hard work, dedication to the job and those you work with, setting priorities, and honoring your commitments.

We didn’t know it while we were playing football, but he was helping us become successful in our careers and professions, teaching us to become good parents and spouses, and upright citizens.

Yeah, winning 27 games in the three years I was a varsity starter would've been great. Would I have learned the same lessons? Maybe. One thing is certain, that experience has helped make me who I am today. I know I’m not alone in saying that.  I’ve heard several classmates say that as the years have passed,  Coach Goos helped instill in us the traits, skills, and abilities to succeed in life. He mentored hundreds of kids - many of whom owe a great deal of their successes to lessons he taught them on the practice field, in the locker room, or on the bus ride home after a game.

Coach Goos - thank for your service to the community and its young people.  You accomplished your mission 22 times. I thank you and am proud to still call you "coach!"

*******

In Neil's opinion:

This is a good time in my life. I am 52 going on 53. I have a loving, hard-working wife, Nancy, who teaches fifth grade in Clarke Elementary. We have three children-Nick, who will be 25 in December, graduated from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg. He lives in Kansas City, and, like his mother, teaches fifth grade. Andy is 22 years old. He graduated from Central College in Pella and lives in Des Moines. His present work is in marketing. Our daughter, Tricia, is 19 years old and in her second year in college. We visited lots of campuses before she made her choice. She went with her brothers and saw what they chose as well as looking at Simpson and Cornell. She chose Buena Vista in Storm Lake, where she is working on a business degree.

Actually, it has always been fun to be with our family, to watch them grow and participate in activities. The kids were always involved in extra-curricular things like summer ball and band- to experience what they might not have learned in classrooms. We were kept busy many weekends for six years while they were in high school and college (and it has been ongoing). The most fun in my life has been to enjoy times with my wife and kids. If there is anything our kids might feel we deprived them of, it would be a dog. We always felt we couldn't take proper care of one because we were gone so much. We had tropical fish and birds.

I teach junior high math, a couple high school math classes, and physics. I am in my 30th year of coaching, 22 of which have been at Clarke Community. Before coming here I was in Titonka in north central Iowa, for four years; and for that same length of time I taught in Washta and Quimby in the Willow district in northwest Iowa, close to Cherokee.

What the letter-writer credited to me should be passed along to my parents. I grew up on a farm and my folks still live there. I learned that hard work was part of growing up and becoming successful. In those days the 50s-60s-hard work was what made a farmer prosper. I've been proud that I grew up that way. It taught me a lot of things about myself and about life. It probably became part of my coaching and teaching. One of my deepest convictions is that if you have some ability you should work on improving it.

My parents are Gerald and Shirlene Goos. Our address was Treynor, which is near Council Bluffs, on highway 92. I presently have five sisters and one brother, all younger than I. All but one lives in the Council Bluffs area, the other lives in Ashland, Missouri. I had a brother who died when he was in second grade. I was in sixth at the time. He had cancer and suffered for half a year with a minimum chance of surviving. When my youngest sister was in kindergarten, I was a junior in high school.

Our family enjoyed things, but we didn't have a lot  Most of what we had came off the garden and farm. We had a big garden, which meant there was work to do, and we ate well both summer and winter. Our mother made the girls' clothes. Ours was a busy household. All seven of us were in school at one time. Everyone had a duty to take care of when we sat down for meals together.

I was a good son, doing a lot of things because my parents wanted me to. I grew up in the United Church of Christ and our family attended church regularly. I went to summer camps and youth rallies in Harlan and Shenandoah. We went to movies as a family. When I got my driver's license, I used my new privilege mostly to get my sisters and myself to different activities.

My parents wanted me to have an education, with the goal of having a professional career. So, from the beginning, I knew that I would go on to college. Sports made me more interested in school. I participated in football, baseball, basketball, and track in high school, and was a starter at the time we went to the state basketball tournament. I went through a normal high school, graduating in l968 in a class of 32 students. Like a lot of high school kids that have done well in sports and whose team has had a good season, I thought I could go on to play at the next level.

I chose Westmar in LeMars, which was formerly one of six United Methodist colleges. The board faced an agonizing financial decision some years ago when the conference was unable to maintain the buildings. They accepted the offer of a Japanese businessman who purchased the university and refurbished some of the buildings. He had in mind that he could recruit Japanese students and thus this venture would provide a cultural exchange as well as a business enterprise. It did not prove to be so. The numbers of students dwindled and local government took it back from him. Their hopes that somebody would buy it were never realized and the college closed. The buildings are padlocked and sitting empty.

My choice of schools was influenced by the fact that I wanted to continue in sports. I was a linebacker in football for four years and on the basketball team for two. The cost was $2,000 for tuition, and I had a grant in 1968. The second year I got a $500 football scholarship.

But college broadened my experience in lots of ways. Treynor did not have minority groups or people with different life styles. I was pretty naive when I left home. Lots of kids came to Westmar from the eastern part of the United States. It was cheaper than many schools and there were not too many students. In most cases they hadn't visited the college or known much about it until they started classes, so they had much to learn outside the classroom as well.

Once I got out on my own, I didn't go back home very often. The-first couple years I was just finding my identity. I was never rebellious as happens with some kids. On our campus, the evidence of that was the take-over of the African-American building, but I wasn't involved in  that. I suppose sports may have kept me from that sort of thing. Other than long hair and sideburns, I didn't seem to be influenced much by the spirit of the '60s.

My idea of becoming a teacher probably happened at the end of my junior year in college. At that time we didn't have to make a decision until then. Now you have to take six hours every five years to keep the teaching certificate updated. One of the reasons I chose teaching was that I enjoyed being involved with kids of that age group and I wanted to share what I had learned. I graduated from Westmar in 1972.

Nancy and I knew one another in college. I was an athlete and Nancy was on the drill team. We were friends, but she was a couple years younger than I, and we didn't start dating until after I had graduated.

Nancy grew up in Rockwell City and was a good Methodist all her life. Her parents still live there. Her dad was a rural mail carrier and her mom a library assistant. She has an older brother, Ric, a younger brother, Jeff, and a younger sister, Julie. My family hasn't remained as close as Nancy's. They get together more often. It may be because there are fewer of them.

Nancy's degree was in elementary education. She took summer classes and finished in three years, from 1970 through 1973. Her first teaching job was in Osceola.

We were married in 1975 in Rockwell City. I was teaching at Willow at that time. She worked in Ida Grove in a restaurant. We moved to Titonka in 1976, and in 1977, Nick was born. Nancy stayed home and did some tutoring of Southeast Asian students.

In 1980 I took the job at Clarke, and in May, Andy was born. We moved July 1 of that year. Nancy didn't begin teaching right away, and when she began, she shared days with Carolyn Cannon. One taught in the morning and the other in the afternoon. That continued for two years. Nancy has taught in Weldon, at North in Osceola, and at the new elementary for a total of 20 years, teaching fifth grade for most of the time.

I consider that I am a very fortunate fellow. I have a very unselfish wife that has allowed me to do a lot of coaching after normal school hours. The last nine or ten years I have coached junior high baseball in the summertime, and the extra hours I have, I have spent painting and shingling houses. That kind of work allows you to arrange your own schedule, and it doesn't take much of an investment. You buy a ladder and a paint brush and you're in business.

We enjoy Osceola. We think it is a great place to raise a family. We live among people who care. There have been many changes since we came here - changes in the school system, a new elementary building, a new auditorium and additions to the high school. In my field, we have had the honor of having "play-off football teams."  There are only so many teams in each class that qualify to be in the playoffs, and we have been among those. We have also had the learning experience of having winless seasons. That is interesting because in both those situations, I believe the athletes were very similar regardless of what the records were.

Through my coaching, I have enjoyed and learned from my teachers, athletes, and through assistant coaches. I have had the honor of coaching athletes that have come back and coached alongside me: Brian Brooks, Jon Pedersen, Doug and Don May. I have greatly enjoyed watching them grow and raise their families.

We have enjoyed being members of the Osceola United Methodist Church. We attend and have a chance to greet people we don't see any other time. Our church community looks for involvement and we are asked to take responsibilities. I feel good that I am seen as having the ability to participate, and Nancy and I have served in several different capacities. I have been on the Trustees Committee a couple times and several years was an annual conference delegate. It should be a joy to serve. There are challenges that face our church from time to time, but the true nature of our church flourishes. We are a pretty resilient people.

What I look forward to is watching my kids grow into their occupations. I hope to be able to spend more time with my wife and family as our children's families expand. Every year and every age I expect will be better than the last.

Perhaps it is clear from the published letter that I believe in our young people. We see right now the same attributes that were good in youth years ago. They have the same characteristics. They have a much wider variety in their experiences. Growing up in Treynor defined my thinking until I went to Westmar, which expanded my world. Those who grew up in Osceola knew only this area until they had other experiences. The world is not the same before and after. It has an international flavor now, but underneath there are the same caring, responsible, hard working qualities in this generation.

I look at young people and know they have a lot of choices that could make them worse off than they are. Why they choose what they do, I am not sure. Because of who we are created by, we are very resilient. We can be in the depths at one time and on top at another time. I'm not overly religious, but I do believe God has a hand in all we do, even if we don't notice or give credit or thanks. I have always had a saying, "Your good years are not past. No, next year will be better than this year. The good years are still ahead."

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 2002 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised August 20, 2012