When Scott DeJong came to Ankeny in 1993 to take over the girls’ basketball program, he replaced a legendary coach in Dick Rasmussen.
Now, more than three decades later, DeJong has put an end to his own legendary career.
The only head coach in Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball history, DeJong announced his retirement on Tuesday–shortly after giving his resignation letter to Activities Director Nate Lingren.
“It was an amazing run,” said DeJong. “When I first came here in 1993, you just didn’t know how it would go. As I look back, it was a huge blessing to come (to Ankeny). It’s a great community with a lot of great people.”
DeJong coached at Colo-NESCO for five seasons before coming to Ankeny, where he built the Hawkettes into a powerhouse program in the early years of the five-player era. He won six state titles over the next 20 seasons, including a record four in a row from 2002-05.
In 2013, DeJong moved across town to begin the Centennial program. He led the Jaguars to seven state tournament berths over the next 12 years, including a record seventh coaching crown in 2016.
“Some years I thought maybe we’d be down, but we just kept winning year after year,” DeJong said. “And the players just kept coming.”
DeJong ends his career with a record of 716-191. He went 205-75 at Centennial, including a 17-8 mark this season.
“He kept (his decision) pretty quiet all year. I had a small feeling due to having a large senior class this year,” said all-stater Jaeden Pratt. “A coach like him you think the game of basketball will have to stop him, he loved coaching and the sport so much. Playing for coach was truly inspirational. He was more than a coach to me, he was kind of a grandfather figure to a lot of us. He cared about each player and wanted them to do their absolute best. He loves the game and poured a lot of his time into it, and I think with the teams he had coached over the years the sleepless nights, practices and scouting had paid off. He has the label of ‘Hall of Fame coach’, and he lives up to that.
“He is an icon all around the state of Iowa and definitely a coach everyone will remember and think very highly of,” she added.
The Jaguars reached the Class 5A semifinals earlier this month before dropping a 61-42 decision to eventual champion Johnston, which went on to capture its fourth title in the last six years.
“That was a tough game,” said Johnston coach Chad Jilek. “It didn’t really matter what the records were, we’d always tell our girls when we played Centennial, ‘It’s going to be tough.’ We had some really good teams, but they put up some good fights against us every time. I won’t miss having to prepare for Scott’s teams, but I’ll miss having him on the sidelines.”
Jilek was coaching at Mason City in the early 2000s when Ankeny enjoyed its historic run under DeJong. The Hawkettes completed their four-year streak of championships with a 44-game winning streak and were ranked second in the nation by USA Today.
“We were at the bottom of the conference and trying to compete,” Jilek said. “I reached out to him at that time and asked him, ‘What are the things that you do to get your kids to play so hard?’ I was trying to instill some of that in the kids up there at Mason City. He was kind enough to reply to me, and I’ve gotten to know him a lot better since I’ve been at Johnston. We talk pretty regularly now, not necessarily about Xs and Os, but he’s always been gracious to talk to me.”
Kristina Voss was one of the stars of those Ankeny teams. She went on to play at Creighton and is now an assistant principal and athletic director at Hale Middle School in Omaha.
“Those were some of the greatest times of my entire life,” Voss said. “There’s been nothing like those four years and the camaraderie that we had. Growing up with (DeJong’s daughter) Emily, she was in our class and I had known him since we were in first grade. When they moved here, my sisters (Holly and Jenny) played for him as well. It’s kind of been all Ankeny has ever known, or at least since I’ve been around. You won’t be able to say Ankeny basketball without coach DeJong.
“It’s really sad to see his legacy end, but we all knew it was going to come at some point,” she added.
Nicky Wieben was another star on those teams. She went on to play at Iowa State and was later inducted into the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union Basketball Hall of Fame.
DeJong coached two other Hall of Famers at Ankeny, Erica Junod (1999) and Maddie Manning (2012). Junod also went on to play for Iowa State, while Manning played at Oklahoma.
“I am forever grateful to be coached by DeJong and his staff–not only playing at the D1 level, but I’ve had the opportunity to travel all around the world because of his commitment to helping me be better,” said Manning. “I loved playing for him. I love his style of play–you knew you were going full court man-to-man and you better bring it. That was the same thing in practices. They were intense and competitive but smart. He had a way of pulling the best out of every player he coached from the top to the last player on the bench. I don’t know that there’s many coaches that could say that.”
DeJong coached numerous other all-staters at both schools, including 2022 Centennial graduate Cleao Murray. She went on to become a standout at Grand View and is now preparing for law school.
“I give coach DeJong a great deal of credit in my player and personal development,” Murray said. “He developed my IQ on both ends of the floor, and preached the fundamentals which proved to be important for the entirety of my career. I think he prepared me very well for college basketball, especially on the defensive end. The skills he instilled in me during my time at ACHS have carried over for the entirety of my career and made me very successful.
“Beyond basketball, he’s taught me discipline, hard work and perseverance through adversity I’ve faced. He was always the person to pick me up,” she added.
DeJong said the time was simply right to retire. His longtime assistant coach, Dave Runchey, was already planning to resign.
“Coach Runchey has been wanting to step aside for the last couple of years. He stayed on and now he’s done, so that was a factor,” said DeJong, who will turn 65 years old this year. “But my age was No. 1–I’m not getting any younger. I’ve never missed a game or a practice. I don’t sleep much during the season, maybe three or four hours a night, and that’s probably not good. My wife (Leann) is going to be retiring at the end of this year, and she has been games to her whole life. We’ve got seven grandkids, and it’s probably time to search out some new things–although it’s going to be difficult to step away from something you have a passion for and feel like you still have energy for.
“The other factors just lined up to where it was time to step aside. We have property at Scottsdale that we could be at in the winter. I just felt like it was time to hang it up,” he added.
DeJong leaves behind a coaching record that may never be matched in the state.
“You know, people in the basketball world around Iowa have been asking me about DeJong the past couple years–I suppose they knew this was around the corner–and I just tell them he’s a legend,” Manning said. “It is hard to make it to the top, but it is even harder to stay there. The state tournament is his second home, and it’s just expected that he’s there. That’s legendary! It takes an unbelievable amount of commitment but also to keep that joy that shows through his players on the court. Iowa basketball is going to miss him, and I’m lucky to have been there for four of his 37 years.”
Lingren will now have to replace two basketball coaches with a combined 71 years of head coaching experience. Boys’ coach Bob Fontana has also resigned.
“It was an absolute privilege to work alongside coach,” Lingren posted on Facebook. “A legend and an incredible person!”
