DES MOINES - With a smile on his face and clutching his plaque, Bob Josten looked around Wells Fargo Arena and listened to more than 13,000 spectators applaud his long and successful career. Only then did it finally begin to sink in.
The longtime head boys' basketball coach at Webster City received the highest honor bestowed on those that enter his profession on Saturday when he was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame at halftime of the Class 4A state championship game.
Josten shared the stage with two men he calls friends - former coaches Bob Horner of Mason City High School and Steve McGraw of Waterloo East High School.
"Words can't really describe it. It lived up to all the expectations and more, and it was pretty overwhelming," Josten, who was accompanied on the floor for the ceremony by his wife, Kathy, said of the enshrinement. "The atmosphere in the Well was electrifying, and it's not something you plan on or really hope for when you enter coaching. But every now and then I've got to try to step back and realize that it really happened."
Seven former players - Bob Ricker of Diagonal, Brian McDermott of Cascade, Chuck Harmison of Ames, Jamie Lilly of Humboldt, Loren DeKruyf of Boyden-Hull, Klay Edwards of Winfield Mt.-Union and Cary Cochran of Tri-Center - joined the three coaches as the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
Josten's Webster City teams were described as a "tough out" during Saturday's induction ceremony. In his 27 years on the Lynx bench he guided Webster City to eight North Central Conference championships and 3A state tournament berths in 1985 and 2001. He spent 32 years in all as a coach - there were stops at St. Mary's High School in Clinton and Burlington Notre Dame High School prior to his arrival in Webster City - before retiring in 2003 in order to spend time watching his son, Jared, play at the University of Northern Iowa. He accumulated a record of 368-235.
Josten acknowledged the long list of great teams he had the privilege of coaching while at Webster City, but he was unable to pinpoint which ones were indeed the best. Instead he chose to thank all of the players that helped him reach the Hall of Fame.
"In all the years that I coached I had some outstanding players up and down (the roster)," he said. "They were committed to the program, committed to the team and worked extremely hard."
