By Mark Schnabel
Newton Kansan
While coaching small college football may not come with the pressures that come with the major schools, it is still a major time commitment.
Because of family reasons, Bethel College coach Mike Moore decided it was time to call it quits. Moore’s final game came Saturday, a 30-0 win over Sterling at Thresher Stadium.
The win highlighted a 3-7 season that featured a lot of injuries and a lot of close losses.
“My youngest son is 11,” Moore said. “He’s involved in athletics. My daughter is 13. I’ve missed about 70 percent of the things they’ve done this fall. In another seven or eight years, our kids will be out of the house. It’s been amazing how quickly the last seven or eight years have gone. I don’t want to turn around and find out I missed all of that time.
“It’s good to be a head coach and be your own boss. It is so overwhelming time-wise. This has been a good experience for me at Bethel. This is a good level of football. You have a chance to build relationships with kids. I’ve been a player on the Division I level and a coach on the Division II level. It’s so much more of a business there than it is here. You can truly build relationships — it doesn’t matter if they are the best players on the team or if they never take a snap. That’s one thing we try to do here is give everybody a chance to play somewhere — it may be the extra-point team.”
Moore has been with the Threshers the past 13 seasons. He took over as an interim coach with two games left in the 1999 season for George Papageorgiou in what had been a tumultuous season.
Moore won the last two games of that year and was soon named head coach.
“In ’99, we had lost some close games,” Moore said. “We could have easily been 6-4. I don’t know what the issue was, but the change was made and the administration believed in me. To win those last couple of games really set the tone for the next season.”
He followed with an 8-2 season in 2000, falling just short of an NAIA playoff berth. After five sub-.500 seasons, the Threshers finally got that playoff spot in 2006, winning a share of the conference title. He would lead the Threshers to one more co-championship in 2008.
Bethel came close in 2008, losing the last three games to get knocked out of the playoff race.
“My first full year, we went 8-2 and had such great young men,” Moore said. “We had guys like Doug DeGroot, Brent Martens and David Gallagher. Just quality individuals. Then the years we won the championships. But again, we had such quality kids. Those young men were not just great players, but quality people.”
Moore said he has no immediate plans lined up.
“I don’t know right now,” Moore said. “I’m looking to stay in the community.”
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By Mark Schnabel
Newton Kansan
While coaching small college football may not come with the pressures that come with the major schools, it is still a major time commitment.
Because of family reasons, Bethel College coach Mike Moore decided it was time to call it quits. Moore’s final game came Saturday, a 30-0 win over Sterling at Thresher Stadium.
The win highlighted a 3-7 season that featured a lot of injuries and a lot of close losses.
“My youngest son is 11,” Moore said. “He’s involved in athletics. My daughter is 13. I’ve missed about 70 percent of the things they’ve done this fall. In another seven or eight years, our kids will be out of the house. It’s been amazing how quickly the last seven or eight years have gone. I don’t want to turn around and find out I missed all of that time.
“It’s good to be a head coach and be your own boss. It is so overwhelming time-wise. This has been a good experience for me at Bethel. This is a good level of football. You have a chance to build relationships with kids. I’ve been a player on the Division I level and a coach on the Division II level. It’s so much more of a business there than it is here. You can truly build relationships — it doesn’t matter if they are the best players on the team or if they never take a snap. That’s one thing we try to do here is give everybody a chance to play somewhere — it may be the extra-point team.”
Moore has been with the Threshers the past 13 seasons. He took over as an interim coach with two games left in the 1999 season for George Papageorgiou in what had been a tumultuous season.
Moore won the last two games of that year and was soon named head coach.
“In ’99, we had lost some close games,” Moore said. “We could have easily been 6-4. I don’t know what the issue was, but the change was made and the administration believed in me. To win those last couple of games really set the tone for the next season.”
He followed with an 8-2 season in 2000, falling just short of an NAIA playoff berth. After five sub-.500 seasons, the Threshers finally got that playoff spot in 2006, winning a share of the conference title. He would lead the Threshers to one more co-championship in 2008.
Bethel came close in 2008, losing the last three games to get knocked out of the playoff race.
“My first full year, we went 8-2 and had such great young men,” Moore said. “We had guys like Doug DeGroot, Brent Martens and David Gallagher. Just quality individuals. Then the years we won the championships. But again, we had such quality kids. Those young men were not just great players, but quality people.”
Moore said he has no immediate plans lined up.
“I don’t know right now,” Moore said. “I’m looking to stay in the community.”
