West Central football coach resigns

BIGGSVILLE — Roger Kerfoot has officially turned in his resignation at West Central High School. 

Most people will remember him as the varsity football coach who rebuilt a program that had won only one game in three years. The previous season, before he took over at West Central, they were 0-9.

In his first year, he guided the Heat football team to a 3-6 record. He improved to a 4-5 record his second year. Then, in his third year, he took West Central's football team to their first trip to the playoffs in school history with a 5-4 record. In fact, it was the first winning record (during the regular season) that West Central had in school history.

But making the football playoffs is something that he'll never forget. They were faced with a three-hour bus ride to play the always-tough Stockton team, and they even got to travel in a charter bus.

"It's just the whole experience of accomplishing something that wasn't done here before," Kerfoot said. "Just that experience of playing on a Saturday afternoon. The score did not dictate it, but we played really well. We scored more points on them than were scored on 'em all year."

Kerfoot's fourth and final season of coaching football at West Central featured a 3-6 record. Kerfoot did elaborate on his decision to turn in his resignation. "I think, since I have been here, we have given the program some credibility and respect that it didn't have before by setting a high standard of expectation," Kerfoot said. "Under the current circumstances, I think I have taken the program as far as it is going to go. And, it is time for me to walk away. It is up to the next coach, the stakeholders and the players to continue that. I wish them luck."

Kerfoot said, under the right situation, he would definitely consider coaching football again in the future. He declined to talk about his future plans. However, he will not return to West Central next year and is also stepping down as athletic director and teacher at WCHS.

Some of his former players currently playing football in college are: Trey Goff (Monmouth College), Dustin Hawk (St. Ambrose University) and Nate Daniels (Iowa Wesleyan College).

Kerfoot has learned a great deal from one of the best football coaches in the area in Tim Lafferty. Kerfoot was a senior football player at LaHarpe High School for coach Lafferty's first win. It was during the time of the old Bi-County Conference. Then, for coach Lafferty's 100th win, Kerfoot served as an assistant coach for him at Northwestern/LaHarpe. "He (Lafferty) didn't want anything said about it," Kerfoot said, of the 100th win.

Dick Goff, an assistant football coach at West Central, enjoyed working alongside Kerfoot the past four years. They go way back to high school and even played against each other in football.

Goff was promoted to an assistant coach (defensive coordinator) on the varsity the past four seasons.

"Coach Kerfoot did a really nice job coming into the system that he came into," Goff said. "He demanded hard work and success, and cut no corners. He kind of came in and rewrote the whole system. The kids did a really nice job buying into it. That was the reason we had so much success. He and I got along really well and I learned a lot from him. We're definitely going to miss him. That's for sure."