Two former Montezuma head football coaches – Ryan Van Veen and Tyler Baethke, made some state championship news during the recent Iowa high school finals.
Van Veen, who coaches receivers as an assistant coach at West Des Moines Dowling, was on the sidelines as Dowling won its seventh straight Class 4A title, beating West Des Moines Valley in the championship game.
Van Veen, a middle school English teacher, just finished his eighth season as a Dowling assistant.
Baethke coached the cornerbacks during his first season as an assistant at Western Dubuque, which defeated Solon to win the Class 3A title.
The former Braves head man was praised by head Coach Justin Penner for his role. The head coach told Tim O’Neill of the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald that Baethke turned players Collin Hogan and Bryce Ploessl into the kind of defenders “who could survive alone on the perimeter.”
“I don’t think anyone would throw the ball at Collin Hogan, and Bryce Ploessl got so much better throughout the year,” Penner told O’Neill.
“Coach Baethke took all of his head coaching abilities and plugged it into coaching corners and he was terrific for us this year,” Penner said.
Baethke is employed by a private industry in the western Dubuque area. His wife, Whitney, is city manager of Peosta, Iowa.
