Resurgence of a program

A new day for North Scott

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By Sean Moeller | Friday, October 27, 2006 1:04 AM CDT | () comments

The North Scott football team is on the verge of an undefeated season. But Bettendorf, also unbeaten, stands in the Lancers’ way tonight.

ELDRIDGE, Iowa — The man who hired Dave Jacobson to take over the North Scott football program five years ago has a good idea about what’s made the head Lancer a success everywhere he’s been. It probably explains the team’s 8-0 record entering tonight’s colossal game against fellow unbeaten and No. 1 state-ranked Bettendorf.

“He’s a workaholic,” Denny Johnson said this week of Jacobson.

Jacobson, who typically answers the phone with “Now’s not a good time,” has gone 33-11 at the helm of the Lancers.

“When you work hard on something, good things happen,” said Johnson, who was athletic director at North Scott when Jacobson came aboard.

“He’s at school very early in the morning and on Friday nights, when everyone’s packing up and going home to their families, Dave’s sitting in front of the TV scouting the next week’s opponent.

“That gentleman doesn’t sleep much on Friday nights. It just kind of rolls into Saturday. The man goes a hundred miles an hour. The only day I see Dave relaxed is on game day. I can actually have a conversation with him.”

Jacobson thinks a lot of that ethic was contracted from watching his father work.

“My dad was born on a self-sufficient farm, so

as a child, he had to help work for everything they ate. They got themselves through The Depression that way, and he’s always been like that. I think it rubbed off on me. I hope it has,” he said. “I don’t want to think about anybody out there outworking me. I believe that the little extra work makes a difference.”

Only recently has the North Scott football program reversed its biography. For nearly a decade, upon entering the Mississippi Athletic Conference in the 1985-86 school year, victories were hard to come by.

Even 10 years before that, the wins weren’t there. From 1989 to the present, the Lancers have endured 12 losing seasons and an overall record of 89-104. They’ve made just two playoff appearances (1999 and 2005).

But their third postseason berth will come this year, which will be the program’s 10th winning season in the past 12. There are no more 0-9s or 2-7s. The school has repositioned itself as a perennial team to have to deal with in the conference, along side the Bettendorfs and the Davenport Assumptions.

A lot of the credit goes to Jacobson and a staff that have made a point of infusing a different mindset into all of the district’s players, one that would make winning the expectation, not the exception.

“It takes a long time to get a program back on a level. When I got here, the kids were at a level they shouldn’t have been at,” Jacobson said. “Probably, as much as anything, the hardest thing was getting the kids to buy into what we were asking of them. It’s hard to do that with a program that’s middle-of-the-road. They had won a few games the few years before and when teams are like that, they have a false sense of security.”

Jacobson, who had won at Iowa City High as an assistant and West Delaware and Cedar Rapids Jefferson prior to coming to Eldridge, and his staff began implementing a new approach that preached the importance of hard work in the weight room, being a solid student, a great family member and taking up multiple sports. The wins have followed.

“Once you make that commitment — when those things happen — the football falls into place,” Jacobson said. “It was a buy-in.”

Defensive coordinator Kevin Tippett, who has shaped the Lancer defense into a speedy, formidable unit, believes Jacobson was that missing ingredient.

“I think Dave took us to that next level,” he said. “The program went from being very poor to one that expects to win because of his expectations. He really took us there. During those first few years, practices got a little longer. The players have really bought in. We were right on the cusp for the first few years Dave was here and then last year, we finally broke through. Our kids have worked really hard. There’s no secret. We expect a lot out of our kids.”

Against the Bulldogs, the No. 3-ranked Lancers will be shooting for just their second MAC conference title and first outright after tying with Bettendorf in 1999. It’s tonight when all of these days of pulling into the high school parking lot at 5:45 in the morning have the chance to deliver the jackpot, but Jacobson is aware that there are plenty of skeptics out there, who still adhere to the out-dated league hierarchy.

“I think 99 out of a 100 people — besides our players, staff and community — don’t give us much of a chance to win (tonight). And that’s part of it until you earn the respect of others outside of your community,” he said. “If you can’t get excited for this one, you’ve got something wrong. You want to be in this situation. Whoever wins, they’ll have earned it. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The Lancers see the fun continuing.

“This isn’t just a one year thing anymore,” Johnson said of the winning. “Everyone wants to get their program to that level where you’re building from year-to-year — where you’re not rebuilding, you’re reloading. (Jacobson’s) a very dedicated man to what he does, and he’s been able to surround himself with a great staff. Kids are always looking for direction, and I think the program is on very stable ground. This has been a very gratifying thing for our community.”

Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or at smoeller@qctimes.com .

over the years

North Scott’s

seasons since 1985

1985 4-5

1986 0-9

1987 4-5

1988 3-6

1989 2-7

1990 2-7

1991 0-9

1992 0-9

1993 4-5

1994 4-5

1995 5-4

1996 5-4

1997 4-5

1998 2-7

1999 8-2

2000 6-4

2001 5-4

2002 6-3

2003 6-3

2004 6-3

2005 7-2

2006 8-0