Baughman was assistant coach under Wiebers

With the retirement of Dave Wiebers from the Denison Community School District, the search was on for a new head football coach for the Denison-Schleswig Monarchs.

The Monarch Activities Department announced late last week that Willie Baughman is the new head football coach.

Baughman has been employed by the Denison Community School District for three years. He has been an assistant football coach for the past two years as well as the head boys’ track and field coach.

Baughman came to Denison with a wealth of coaching experience gained at the Harlan Community School district, where he was employed for eight years.

He was the golf coach for eight years, middle school girls’ softball coach for eight years, middle school boys’ basketball coach for six years, volleyball coach for eight years and softball coach for one year.

Baughman is a 2009 graduate of Harlan High School where he played football, basketball and baseball, and ran track and golfed. After high school he attended Iowa Western Community College and played football there for two years. He then attended Iowa State University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in math.

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Baughman said he always wanted to be a coach.

“I love coaching and being around sports and activities,” he said. “It pushes kids to be the absolute best they can be and pushes them to work as a team.

“I have always loved competing,” he added. “Anyone that knows me knows that I am a competitor and will compete at anything. I love the challenge of getting a team to buy into a program and getting a team to play their absolute best when the lights are bright.”

Baughman continued, “Football is a great sport in which you only get a small number of chances to prove those abilities. I love the community camaraderie that the sport of football brings. When things are going well on the football field there just is a different vibe around the school and the community.”

Baughman said he had the opportunity to learn from some of the best coaches in Iowa and wants to have the same impact on student-athletes that those coaches had on him.

Following is his list of coaches.