(Cumberland) Steve Pelzer knew from an early age that farming wasn’t for him, so the path he pursued was teaching and coaching. The former C&M leader is our guest on “Why I Coach.”
Pelzer experienced a great run in both baseball and basketball, but baseball was his first love. He even started coaching baseball while he was still in college. “I was all baseball when I started. I mean I grew up in Cumberland, Iowa. Cumberland, Iowa was baseball. That’s all we did as kids. We’d go to the park and play baseball. There was nothing else to do. Baseball was always my love. I played junior college at Iowa Western under Bob Warren who went on to Indiana State and is a Hall of Fame college coach. I actually started coaching at Cumberland-Massena while I was still in college. I was driving back and forth to Maryville to get my masters and then coming home and coaching baseball. It was all baseball. I know I couldn’t do it again now. Get up at 5:00, drive to Maryville, classes all day, stop in Bedford and grab a sandwich, come home and have a baseball game at night until 10:30 or 11 and then do it all over again. It didn’t seem like much back then in earlier years, but there’s no way I could do it now.”
After starting his full-time teaching and coaching career at Elk Horn-Kimballton in the late 1970’s he made a transition to Cumberland-Massena where he got hired by his father-in-law. The Rockets happened to have a basketball vacancy. “I just happened to inherit a couple of sophomores–one was 6’6″ and the other was 6’4″–that were really good players. We went the second year to a substate final and the next year an undefeated regular season. Then basketball kind of took over.”
When it came to basketball, Pelzer learned from a lot of legendary coaches. “I had an opportunity early in my basketball coaching career to work camps and become close to a lot of really, really good high school coaches. Among them Kent Gade (Griswold), Mitch Osborn (Elk Horn-Kimballton), Jerry Christensen (Treynor), Carl Cochran (Tri-Center). We became very, very close friends. When you’re around guys like that you have a chance to really soak up a lot of things. Each one of those guys contributed to me becoming a little bit better coach.”
Pelzer led C&M to the state baseball tournament in 1993. “That team was just loaded with a bunch of baseball guys. We had lost two substate finals in a row. One to Northeast Hamilton and then the year before we lost in 13 innings 2-1 to Martensdale St. Marys. That’s when only four teams qualified for state, so we were one of the final eight teams those two years and then next year in ’93 it was kind of like the CAM football team, we knew that was our time. We were rated #1 most of the year. We actually won our substate final I think by 10 runs. So it was a relaxing time. #1 seed in the state tournament, won our first game, and then lost in the championship. Just a lot of great guys and guys that people know around here. Mark Erickson coach at Red Oak was on that team, Barry Bower CAM’s football coach, Andy Hensley who was Tri-Center’s wrestling coach was on that team. I’d want to take an afternoon off sometimes and they wouldn’t let me. They just loved baseball that much.”
In basketball the first team he guided to Vets Auditorium was an unexpected run in 1995. “We were 9-10 going into the postseason. Not a very good team early in the year. To watch those kids come together and grow by the end of the year was unbelievable. We beat Murray who was undefeated at the time with Hall of Fame coach Jerry Brown. We beat them at Creston and made it to the state tournament. It was totally out of the blue. Nobody expected it, so it was a pretty cool ride.”
They went again in 1998, backed by what some consider to be the biggest shot in C&M history. A 3-pointer by a sophomore with :05 remaining forced overtime against Exira in the substate final and the Rockets didn’t take their first lead until the final few minutes. “It was a thrill. Exira had a great team. They were really, really good. We had beat them twice during the year, but we kind of expected to go. We really thought we were good enough to go so it was two completely different scenarios.”
Pelzer also played a role on the coaching staff for CAM baseball in 2017 when they qualified for the state tourney.
Previous Coaches
(Click to listen)
John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Dick Strittmatter, Atlantic native
Chad Klein, Audubon Native (Kuemper Catholic and Boone)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Monte Riebhoff)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Steve Ahrendsen)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Scott Weber)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Curt Mace)
Steve Pelzer, Cumberland-Massena
Jason Mehrhoff, Anita Native (Carlisle)
Eric Hjelle, Elk Horn-Kimballton grad (Underwood)
Brett Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum (Waukee Northwest)
Warren Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Chris Stimson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Scott Yates, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Jan Jensen, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum
Seth Poldberg, EH-K grad and Guthrie Center coach
Marc Bierbaum, Griswold grad and Iowa Western track/cross country assistant
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Curt Schulte, Harlan graduate (Glenwood)
Liz Stein, Harlan graduate (Audubon and Underwood)
Angie Spangenberg, Harlan and Red Oak
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley
Dan Schleisman, Shelby-Tennant and Treynor
Chad Harder, (Walnut Grad) Tri-Center
Josh Abel, (Walnut grad), Tri-Center
Kevin Suhr, (Walnut Grad) Blue Valley High School, KS
