Longtime basketball coaches Jerry Kindhart and John Carle have at least two things in common with former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray. They’ve come out of retirement more than once, and they’ve stepped up to serve in interim capacities when help was needed.
Now, Kindhart and Carle will lead the women’s basketball team at AIB College of Business as co-head coaches for the 2013-2014 season.
“When they heard we unexpectedly had an open position, they called us and volunteered to fill in for one year,” said Terry Peters, AIB’s vice president for enrollment and acting athletics director. “That’s a tremendous offer from them, because it allows AIB to focus on completing the planned restructuring of our rapidly expanding Athletics Department’s staff. Then we can conduct a thorough candidate search.”
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The two coaches replace Keith Coleman, a retired Marine Corps major with extensive coaching experience, who was AIB’s athletics director and head women’s basketball coach. Coleman resigned in June after being tapped for a position that drew on his logistics background.
“Keith had a terrific career opportunity unexpectedly presented to him,” Peters said. “We’re very happy for him, but his departure left us with big shoes to fill.”
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Peters said AIB now will hire a full-time athletics director, who will oversee the search for a women’s basketball coach to begin in the 2014-2015 season.
Meanwhile, Kindhart and Carle are eager to get to work again.
“Once a coach, you can’t get it out of your blood,” Kindhart said. “Once it’s in there, it’s hard to leave. My wife knows that.”
Kindhart previously coached for three seasons at AIB. A member of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and Iowa High School Athletic Association Halls of Fame, he was involved with women’s basketball for more than 40 years, coaching at South Page, Ida Grove, Ballard, Urbandale, Melcher-Dallas and Dallas Center-Grimes high schools. He led Ballard to the state tournament in 1970 and Dallas Center-Grimes in 1998.
Carle previously served as assistant coach and interim head coach at AIB. He has been coaching for 50 years, with stops in Cosgrove, Knoxville, and two stints at Des Moines Lincoln High School. He is a graduate of Central College, where he was a four-sport athlete and an NAIA All-American in basketball. He is a member of the IHSAA and Des Moines Lincoln Hall of Fames.
Kindhart and Carle agree that they get along well.
“We’re good friends. We have been for a long, long time,” Kindhart said.
“We really like each other, and we both think the world of AIB,” Carle said. “We were talking one day, and Jerry said, ‘Let’s help them out for a year or so until they can get somebody in there who is really good.’ I said, ‘Are you sure?’”
Carle recalled that AIB’s young basketball program was building momentum when he and Kindhart stepped aside after the 2011-2012 season.
“We had gotten to the point where we upset St. Ambrose once and almost got Simpson, so we were feeling pretty good about it,” Carle said.
It was Kindhart’s idea to be co-head coaches this time, Carle said.
“We’ll talk things over,” he said. “There are certain aspects of it – particularly when it comes to communication and computer work – that Jerry is very, very good at. Then when we get on the hardwood floor, he’ll lean my way a little bit.”
Women’s basketball returned to AIB in 2007 after more than a 50-year hiatus. From 1929 to 1952, AIB’s powerhouse women’s basketball team was known nationwide.
AIB is an associate member of the Midwest Collegiate Conference in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). It offers programs in men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, golf and bowling, plus volleyball, softball, baseball, cheerleading and competitive dance.