Athlete, Teacher, Coach
In May of 1988, a Globe Gazette reporter described Jim Ahrens as “The tall, thin man with a ready, smile, competitive heart and dry sense of humor,” a man who “enjoyed brilliant high school and college basketball careers before embarking on a teaching and coaching career that took him to Spirit Lake, the University of Northern Iowa High School and Postville, before he arrived in Clear Lake in 1970.”
As that was being written, Clear Lake High School was mourning the death from cancer of its Administrative Assistant/Athletic Director. A student, Casey Callanan, described that day. “It really hit us this morning. Teachers were crying, we were crying. We’ll miss him . . . a lot. Mr. Ahrens was really special.”
Dick Johnson, in his column for the Globe, wrote, “One of the shining lights that typify the good people of North Iowa, with the sense of community and down-home tradition, was quite suddenly extinguished. It was hard to believe. I didn’t want to believe it.” No one did.
Bob Huntington, then the high school principal, said, “What Jim meant to me, what he meant to this school, this community . . . this is a very difficult time. He was a very good friend, a great friend. He was a gentleman to the core.”
From 1970 to 1988, Jim was part of the heart of Clear Lake High School, as a social studies teacher, as basketball coach, as official for many sports, as assistant football coach, as assistant principal, as athletic director. It’s almost impossible to document all he did for the school and particularly for its activities’ programs. If there was a game, a concert, a play – Jim was almost always there, teaching and supporting kids and assuring them of quality programs on many levels.
Whatever Jim did, he gave it his all. In high school, he was a standout basketball player; at Buena Vista College, the records he set in basketball stand today and his retired jersey still hangs on the wall. Here in Clear Lake, he coaxed players to their best, listened to the excuses of the late arrivers every morning, rounded up a few strays down at the sea wall, manned concession stands, set out hurdles, encouraged kids and held them accountable for their actions, worked with the Booster Club, backed up the coaching staff – and that doesn’t even begin to summarize everything Jim did in his unswerving dedication to the kids in this community.
And of course, he was as dedicated – more dedicated – to his wife Carolyn and their three sons Mike, Mark and Matt and their families as to his students and activities.
The entire high school, in fact most of the community, suffered with Jim and his family through the months of his illness. And then he was gone. Curt Charlson, fellow teacher and coach, brought with him to Jim’s funeral a poem by an anonymous writer which said it better than any of us could that day:
“God saw he was getting tired and a cure was not meant to be.
So He put His arms around him and whispered, ‘Come with Me.’
With tear-filled eyes we watched him suffer and fade away.
Although we loved him deeply, we could not make him stay.
A golden heart stopped beating, hard-working hands were put to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us He only takes the best.”