Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Jerry Beguin, left, and his wife, Karen, recall fond memories of Kimball High School. Jerry taught and coached in Kimball from 1965 until 1997. He is holding a scrap book of his fond memories of the school.
Jerry Beguin, longtime Kimball teacher and coach, arrived when the town was stuffed with workers in the oil filed and for Boeing. All those workers meant schools bursting with their children. Fifty years later and the biggest change is a disappointing one.
"The biggest thing I've noticed, and it is sad, is the decline in population," he said. "When I first came here there were two schools that are both gone, with the junior high school closed for lack of students. We've had our booms and busts."
Beguin grew up on a ranch outside of Rushville and began his teaching career in Minatare, where he taught and coached football for five years before moving to Kimball in 1965.
"I taught five years in Minatare and did all the coaching, too," he said.
When things did not seem to be working out there, Beguin called up an acquaintance from his youth, Max Hensley, who just happened to be superintendent of Kimball Public Schools.
"I just got on the phone one day and asked Max if he needed any help. He said come down Saturday."
Soon, Beguin signed a contract to teach eighth grade science and coach football.
"The first year I was assistant in junior high, then they moved me up to high school. The first head coach that I worked under was Mr. (Al) Petsch, and the next year they had one of the assistants leave up at the high school, so they made me assistant up there under a guy named Lou Shoff," Beguin said. "So I was assistant under him for two years, then a year under Ward McGowan and then a man by the name Bob Clay was here. I assisted under him for three years."
In 1965, the Kimball High School Longhorns played to a 9-0 campaign, holding five of their nine opponents to no score and allowing no more than seven points to any team they faced off against.
Beguin came in as an assistant coach the following year along with new head coach Lou Shoff, and they too finished the season undefeated. Those were the years Beguin affectionately calls the pre-Staehr era.
Beguin went on to coach football under Keith Staehr from 1972 to 1996. He retired fully in 1997 and upon Staehr's retirement in 2001, presented him with a book that covered the entire time Staehr coached.
Through the ups and downs in Kimball, Beguin and his family were happy to call it home.
"Kimball schools are well organized," he said. "We were satisfied here."