John Petersen and Steve Smith were both hired for head coaching positions in the Ankeny school district in the spring of 2019.
Now, several years later, they are both departing at the same time.
Petersen is planning to resign as the Ankeny Centennial girls’ golf coach. He has yet to officially submit his resignation letter, but has told his golfers of his plans.
“It’s time to slow down a little bit,” said Petersen, who previously served as the Ankeny boys’ basketball coach for 18 years. “I still really enjoy the girls, but there were certain things during the winter like opening the simulators that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep doing this. If the head coach is not all in, they should not be the head coach. That is my opinion.”
Petersen guided the Jaguars to a 10th-place finish in the Class 4A state meet in 2022. Payton Drefke tied for 15th as an individual at that meet, then placed 15th the next year and tied for 16th in 2024.
In Petersen’s first season, Lauren Sease qualified for state as an individual and earned a 10th-place finish in 2019.
“It’s been fun,” Petersen said. “The most important thing is that I’ve enjoyed the girls I’ve worked with over the years. They’ve just been fantastic young people.”
Smith, meanwhile, was initially hired to coach the Ankeny boys’ tennis team that he once played for. He guided the Hawks to a 3-9 record in 2019.
After the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, longtime Ankeny girls’ coach Katie Owens stepped down from her position. Smith was then hired to take over the program because he wanted the opportunity to coach his daughter Kira and the other players in this year’s senior class.
Now that those girls will be departing and Kira will be moving on to play at Iowa State, Smith wanted some more flexibility to be able to watch his daughter compete at the collegiate level.
Thus, Smith has resigned from his position after guiding the Hawkettes to an overall record of 36-36.
“It’s been a blessing to coach my alma mater the past seven seasons,” said Smith. “We’ve had some amazing memories. My greatest memories are of the huge improvements my first years at both the boys’ and girls’ programs, the state individual and team berths, and the numerous players from my programs that have taken their love of tennis to play in college. I’ve also enjoyed some amazing assistant coaches, and having two former players on my staff this year has been fun.”
The Ankeny girls’ team posted an 8-7 record in 2021. Then, buoyed by the addition of this year’s senior class in 2022, the Hawkettes went 14-3 and advanced to the state team tournament.
Smith’s daughter placed fourth in the Class 2A singles tournament, then qualified for state again the following year. After spending her junior year at the Gomez Tennis Academy in Naples, Fla., Kira is undefeated this season and will play in the state tournament later this week at Iowa City for the third time.
“Time is the driver of my decision to resign,” Smith said. “First, my family has sacrificed so much for me to be able to coach tennis at Ankeny High School. With Kira playing at ISU next year, we’ll want to be able to travel and watch her play this fall.
“Second, to compete in our conference, you need to have a strong pipeline that starts in the elementary schools and continues through high school. Given my work with bioscience startups for BioConnect Iowa, I don’t have the bandwidth to be able to run the summer programs Valley and Johnston do,” he added.
Ankeny Activities Director Mike Bakker will need to find a replacement for Smith quickly. Girls’ tennis will move from the spring to a fall sport this August.
Smith left the door open for a possible return to coaching in the future.
“Who knows if there’ll be an opportunity to return after I retire from my paying job in five or so years,” he said.