1/22/2010
Written By:
Category: Activities  
School(s): Harlan  

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Harlan Community football coach Curt Bladt has been chosen as one of 21 high school coaches from across the country as a 2009 National Coach of the Year named by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association. It is the second national honor he has received in the last four years.

Bladt has served Harlan Community for 42 years. He has been the head football coach for the past 32 seasons after serving as an assistant coach for 10 years. Under Bladt, the school has won an Iowa record of 11 state championships.

His impressive career win-loss record of 345-35 is second all-time in Iowa in wins and ranks first in winning percentage (90.8). Moreover, he had led his teams to a state best of 29 playoffs and a post-season record of 83-19, also a state best.

Bladt's success goes outside the playing field. In 2008 he received the NFHS Spirit of Sport Award for Section 4 for his efforts in tending to an opposing junior varsity athlete with hospital visits and follow up calls of encouragement. After a 2003 title he won a battle over Miller-Fisher Syndrome to return and coach his team to titles in 2004 and 2005, while also networking and visiting area residents similarly afflicted with the disease. Although several hundred miles removed, he and his staff also organized Harlan Community players to help the community of Parkersburg regroup after a devastating 2008 tornado.

He is a past winner of national, state and district coach-of-the-year honors, including the National High School Athletic Coaches' Association football coach-of-the-year in 2006. He has been active with in the Iowa Football Coaches Association as a member of its Board of Directors, and their playoff and hall-of-fame committees.

Although now retired as a teacher, he was active in local and state education associations and the Western Iowa Arts Association where for 25 years he played Santa Claus. In addition to his outreach program related to the injured student athlete, individuals with Miller-Fisher Syndrome and the Parkersburg tornado clean-up, he has stayed active as an advocate for community programs for kids.

The NFHS, which has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982, honors coaches in the top 10 girls sports and top 10 boys sports (by participation numbers), and in one "other" category that is not included in these 20 categories. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year in which they receive their award. The award honors coaches for the 2008-09 school year.

Other recipients of this year's national awards for boys sports are:
Norm Persin, basketball, Oak Hill (Ohio) Local Union School; Karl Koonce, track and field, Pearcy (Arkansas) Lake Hamilton High School; Dean Jones, baseball, Chesnee (South Carolina) High School; Robert Weir, soccer, Plano (Texas) Senior High School; Barry Chooljian, wrestling, Plaistow (New Hampshire) Timberlane High School; Tony Rowe, cross country, Owensboro (Kentucky) Daviess County High School; David Ghareeb, golf, Grand Rapids (Michigan) East Grand Rapids High School; Rivers Lynch, tennis, Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) High School; and Bill Reichle, swimming and diving, Martinsville (New Jersey) The Pingry School.

Recipients of the 2009 NFHS national awards for girls sports are:
Don Petranovich, basketball, Winslow (Arizona) High School; Ronald Smith, track and field, Klamath Falls (Oregon) Henley High School; Linda Lampkin, volleyball, Hermann (Missouri) High School; Mike Jodoin, softball, Eugene (Oregon) North Eugene High School; Frankie Whitlock, soccer, San Antonio (Texas) Ronald Reagan High School; Tracy Waters Miller, tennis, Barrington (Illinois) High School; Eldon "Pete" Moss, cross country, Benzonia (Michigan) Benzie Central Schools; Ronald Johns, swimming and diving, Littleton (Colorado) Chatfield High School; Kathleen DeBonis, field hockey, Bridgewater (New Jersey) Bridgewater-Raritan High School; and Jodi Schoeck, golf, Barrington (Illinois) High School.
The recipient of the National Coach of the Year Award for other sports is Charles Apel, boys' lacrosse, Bridgewater (New Jersey) Bridgewater-Raritan High School.

In addition to the 21 National Coaches of the Year, the NFHS Coaches Association has selected Gelaine Orvik of Fargo, North Dakota, as the recipient of the National Coach Contributor Award. This award is presented to an individual who has gone above and beyond and who exemplifies the highest standards of sportsmanship, ethical conduct, moral character, and who carries the endorsement of his or her respective state high school association.
Orvik, who has been executive secretary of the North Dakota High School Coaches Association for 30 years, is currently executive director of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. He has coached a number of sports over the years, including boys' track and field for 30 years, boys cross country for 14 years, girls cross country for four years, boys' basketball for two years and football for 10 years.

The NFHS has a contact person in each state association who is responsible for organizing a committee to select deserving coach award recipients. In Iowa the Iowa High School Athletic Association works with the state coaches' associations and others to develop the state's nominees. State award recipients then complete an extensive profile that requests information regarding the coach's record, membership in and affiliation with coaching and other professional organizations, involvement with other school and community activities and programs, and their coaching philosophy. To be approved as an award recipient and considered for sectional and national coach of the year consideration, this profile form must be completed by the coach or designee and then approved by the executive director (or designee) of the state athletic/activities association.

The next award level after state coach of the year is sectional coach of the year. The NFHS is divided into eight geographical sections. Iowa is in Section 4 which also includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. The NFHS Coaches Association has an advisory board, composed of a chair and eight sectional representatives, which considers the state award recipients from the states in their respective sections and selects the best candidates for the sectional award in each sport category. The advisory board forwards those recommendations to the NFHS national office in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The NFHS Coaches Association advisory committee considers the sectional candidates in each sport, ranks them according to a point system, and determines a national winner for each of the 20 sport categories, plus one "other" category.

A total of 342 coaches will be recognized this year with state, sectional and national awards.