‘Changed my passion’ - Jerry Koestner’s career in education spans high school coach to college instructor

After graduating from Russellville High School in 1971, Jerry Koestner went on to complete an extensive career as a high school coach and administrator, in addition to retiring from the Army Reserve. In recent years, he has helped mold school administrators as an instructor at William Woods University. Courtesy of Jerry Koestner

In the days of his youth growing up on a farm near Lohman, Jerry Koestner came to appreciate playing sports while attending school at nearby Russellville. This interest, coupled with the inspiration of several cousins who were employed as teachers, inspired the young man to achieve the educational footing to help him become a high school coach and led to an experience in school administration that concluded with teaching at the college level.
 
“After I graduated from Russellville High School in 1971, I enrolled in Lincoln University since I knew that I wanted to teach and coach,” he said. “While I was in college, I worked in housekeeping at (the former) Still Hospital and also participated in the ROTC program for all four years,” he added.
 
As Koestner recalled, a whirlwind four days unfolded in May of 1976, beginning with his interview for a position as coach at Concordia High School on a Friday. The following day, he graduated with his bachelor of science degree and received his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.
 
“Then I had to report to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on that Sunday so that I could complete several weeks of initial training to serve as a field artillery officer and, the following Monday, received a call that I had been hired as a coach at Concordia.”
 
He added, “I actually began teaching at Concordia in the fall of 1976 and stayed there for the next three school years,” he recalled. “While I was coaching there, I was the assistant football and baseball coach for high school and the junior varsity coach.”
 
The next step in his career came in the fall of 1980, when he became the coach for baseball and basketball and assistant coach for football at Iberia High School. The following year, he was hired at Eugene High School, spending the next six years coaching in the baseball and basketball program. Under his guidance, the Eugene Eagles baseball team took second in State Class 2A Baseball Tournament.

Koestner, who was at the time married with children and balancing a full-time coaching and teaching position along with his Army Reserve duties, also chose to build upon his education. While coaching at Eugene, he found time to earn his master of science degree in physical education from Central Missouri State University.
         
“Russellville hired me and I began there in the fall of 1987 as the varsity and junior varsity girls’ basketball coach and the boys’ baseball coach,” Koestner recalled. “I also taught social studies and elementary and high school physical education.”


The girls varsity basketball team went on to win four conference titles under Koestner’s leadership.
 
“With four pitchers each pitching a couple innings, Russellville baseball coach Jerry Koestner managed to keep his team undefeated,” reported the Eldon Advertiser on April 5, 1990.
 
His Russellville team defeated the Eugene team for the district championship.
 
In addition to his successful record as a coach, in the mid-1990s, Koestner began to make the transition from coaching and teaching to that of school administration.  
 
He explained, “When the middle school moved into a new building, all I was teaching was social studies and they made me a master teacher so that I could help with teacher evaluations and discipline for students. That’s also about the time that I went to CMSU and earned my educational specialist degree in secondary administration in 2003.”
 
Koestner’s military career came to a close with his retirement from the Army Reserve at the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2004. The following year, he retired from his career in high school education after having served ten years as the middle school principal at Russellville.
 
This, however, did not represent the concluding moment of his lengthy career in education.
 
“I started teaching at William Woods in 2003,” he explained. “Some of the courses I instructed focused on curriculum and instruction, athletic administration, and education administration. It has been a great opportunity to use my experience to help guide a future crop of school administrators.”
 
He returned briefly to the Russellville School District following his retirement as one of two in-school suspension teachers.
         
Koestner is married to Laurie, a retired elementary teacher, and they are parents to four children—Eric, Laura Lynn, Devin and Jahanna. In recent years, he has become an active member of American Legion Post 5 and served on various committees. Additionally, he attends St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Lohman, the congregation that has been his church home since childhood.
 
While still a senior in high school, Koestner recalls going to visit his school counselor to inquire whether he had been selected for a college scholarship awarded to those entering health and physical education.
 
“He told me that he thought that it was great that I was going to college, but that I should do that for a semester and then drop out an get a job,” he said. “I entered college with a chip on my shoulder but went on to graduate every degree with honors, including military schools, just to prove that I could succeed.”
 
The recent years he has invested as an instructor for courses at William Woods University, he explained, have become some of the most rewarding of his extensive career.  
 
“I really enjoy teaching at the university, and it has become something of a hobby for me,” he said. “What a wonderful feeling that comes from watching some of the students that I have guided in my courses coming back to thank me for helping prepare them for that next step in their own careers.”
 
He added, “Coaching began as my passion, but I think that teaching at the college level has changed my passion. When these former students go on to become outstanding principals and administrators, I’d like to think that I played some small part in that.”
 
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the upcoming history compilation “Beyond the Moreau.”  

---