A football life: Olson receives $5,000 award as finalist in Most Valuable Coach contest

By: 
Robert Maharry

John Olson is a football guy, through and through.
 
Whether he’s doing yard work, preparing for a physical education class or attending to the needs of his four children, there’s a good chance that the Gladbrook-Reinbeck coach’s mind is elsewhere.
 
“He dreams about it,” senior quarterback Hunter Lott said.
 
Olson, who has led his team to back-to-back Class A state championships, didn’t disagree when asked how much of an average day the sport occupies in his mind.
 
“Yeah, 24 hours. Not every minute of those 24 hours, but there isn’t a 24 hours that goes by without thinking about how to get people in the right spots,” he said. “Even when I’m mowing lawn, I’m constantly thinking about that.”
 
Since taking over the program in 2006, Olson has built G-R into one of the preeminent small school football powerhouses in the state, and he celebrated his 100th career win after a 43-0 shellacking of Belle Plaine on October 13. Others have noticed, too: on Thursday morning, representatives from U.S. Cellular held an assembly in the high school gym and presented Olson with a $5,000 check recognizing him as a top 15 finalist in the company’s “Most Valuable Coach” contest, a nationwide effort to celebrate some of the best high school coaches in America. Olson is one of four finalists from Iowa: the other three hail from Packwood, New Sharon and Council Bluffs.
           
“Just being able to see the coaches and the fans and everybody engaged together is very, very special to us,” Solomon Filer of U.S. Cellular said.
 
The Rebel faithful packed the stands for their fearless leader, who’s also a teacher and the athletic director in the district, and cheered loudly as Lott and high school principal Andy McQuillen heaped praise upon Olson. Beyond his enthusiasm for the gridiron, the coach attacks his life off the field with a similar vigor.
 
“What an honor to come to work every day, work right next to this guy, and see what he does and how he impacts people,” McQuillen said. “One of the things that I get out of (Olson) every day is his best effort.”
 
And as Rebel Nation navigated the most turbulent period in school history amidst a first-of-its-kind public dissolution vote that could have ended the district altogether and split it among five neighbors, the athletic successes of the football and basketball teams helped to mend an otherwise fraught relationship between the two namesake communities. 
 
Read the full story in this week's Grundy Register. Subscribe by calling (319) 824-6958 or clicking here. 

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