By Heidi Sanders
hsanders@kentreporter.com
After more than a quarter of century at the helm of Kentridge High School’s football program, Marty Osborn has stepped down as coach.
“I have been here 26 years,” Osborn said in a phone interview. “I had a great run, a lot of great players, great families to work with. I have been very blessed. I have had a great staff.”
Osborn made his decision to resign at the end of the season.
“The bottom line, as great as it has been we have struggled the last couple years,” he said. “In the off-season last year, I met with my bosses and I said, ‘If we are not successful next year I think it is time to get a new person here and go in different direction to get things revitalized.’”
The Chargers were 0-10 this season, 3-7 in 2015 and 1-9 in 2014. The team’s last winning season was 2009, with a 6-4 record.
Osborn can’t attribute the team’s struggles to anything in particular.
“The coaches have worked just as hard,” he said. “The kids are giving good effort. We just haven’t had the success we had back in the old days.”
Osborn would like to stay involved in football.
“Personally, I still love football, still love to coach and still love to teach,” said Osborn, who teaches business at Kentridge. “My first choice would be to possibly assist someone new to come on board and stay on board in football. I don’t feel burnt out.”
Before coming to Kentridge, Osborn was head coach at Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines for five years.
The relationships Osborn developed with his players and their families and his fellow coaches over the years were his favorite part of the job.
“Nothing is better than a former player or student coming back and telling you about their life and how they are doing,” he said. “That is the most rewarding part of the job. “
He is grateful for his own family’s support as he coached. He and his wife Lori have four daughters, Tiffany, Brittney, Talia and Alexandra.
“My daughters all grew up running around the school and helping out at the camps,” he said. “We were a package deal all these years.”
The support of his staff and leadership were important to Osborn as well. Assistant coaches Glenn Dacus and Jeff Shumake worked with Osborn throughout his tenure at Kentridge, and Dave Fowler spent the last 15 years with him.
“I just think the people I worked for have been so supportive and given me and my staff the opportunity to get things back on track, which for whatever reason it didn’t work out,” Osborn said.
Osborn worked under three principals and only two athletic directors during his 26 years as the Kentridge coach.
“Some of the local schools have had probably a dozen (athletic directors) in the same time,” he said.
Kentridge Athletic Director Eric Anderson described Osborn as the cornerstone of the football program.
“His focus has always been the importance of athletics in developing fine citizens, and he has never wavered from that focus,” Anderson said in an email.
“His success on the field is matched by his success in the building in always doing what is best for young people. Having had the chance to work for him, with him and also as his AD, it is clear to me there are no finer people to work with our kids. Marty is known throughout the state for the quality of program he runs, but more importantly for the quality of individual that he is.”
There isn’t a timeline yet for naming Osborn’s replacement, Anderson said.
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