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‘The world is a little less bright’ without longtime girls track coach
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · October 19, 2017
Longtime girls track Head Coach Harlan Ferguson, inducted into the National High School Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2009, died on Sunday.
He was 89.
Ferguson coached some level of girls track, from junior to senior high, for 44 years. He moved to West Branch in 1994 and served as an assistant high school coach until 1996, when he was named to the head coaching position. He held that position until retiring after the 2009 season.
He first started coaching in 1959, and covered sports including football, girls basketball and boys track, for nearly 50 years of coaching altogether. Ferguson took several teams and squads to state track. Ferguson had a reputation for producing top hurdlers.
Carol Lumpa and Scott Kelly served as assistant coaches under Ferguson for several years, then took over the program in 2010 as co-coaches. The two stepped down at the end of the 2017 season.
“Harlan was a great motivator and legendary storyteller,” Lumpa said.
She said his stories helped the student-athletes relax. Lumpa mentioned one time when Ferguson bought a moped and said it was because “I wanted to keep up with the girls.”
“He really just loved the girls and loved coaching track and field,” she said.
Kelly said Ferguson “was so supportive” of the student-athletes, and the girls were drawn to his lighthearted and humorous stories.
“And he was very knowledgable from all those years of experience, especially with teaching girls how to hurdle,” he said.
Allie Arp, a member of the West Branch High School Class of 2009, was one of the top discus throwers for the team.
“He would always push us, even when we didn’t think we could do stuff,” she said.
She remembers one time joking during practice about running hurdles, and Ferguson signed her up for that event in the next meet.
“He told me to put my money where my mouth was,” she said. “Then the meet got canceled.”
Nurturing
Ferguson in 2009 said he was humbled to get inducted into the NHSCAA Hall of Fame because he never ran track himself — his school did not offer the sport. He said he read books and paid close attention to other coaches to learn.
“If it hadn’t been for kids I have had in the past, I wouldn’t have gotten the award,” he said then. “If they hadn’t done what I asked them to do, I would’ve quit a few years ago.”
Lumpa said Ferguson got his athletes to do more because he found “the ‘it’ factor.”
“He was one of those coaches — the girls didn’t want to disappoint him,” she said. “They want to work as hard as they can, and he always got lots of events to state. I learned a lot from him.”
Kelly said Ferguson created a culture where Kelly “always felt they were motivated,” even after Ferguson retired.
“I felt we were blessed by girls who wanted to be better to be good in meets,” he said.
The discus thrower said her former coach “knew how to put the right people in place to get the best out of his athletes,” and found assistant coaches who specialized in the various events.
“When he told us, ‘Go get ‘em’ — most days that was all you needed,” Arp said. “He was the supportive coach you would want him to be. It wasn’t about who you were, it was about what you could do.”
Arp said Ferguson “seemed to know what we needed.”
“If someone wasn’t having a good day, he knew what to say, when to say it and when to step back,” she said.
Remembering
The girls track team created a fundraising 5K race for Hoover’s Hometown Days, can named it the Team Fergalicious 5K Road Race. Ferguson was still coaching at the time.
“He was such a mainstay and kind of a legacy in town,” Arp said, explaining why the team injected his name into the title. “It’s a good way to remember him as our coach, and honor all that he had built and done for the girls track program.”
Lumpa counts Ferguson and Iowa City’s Bud Williams among her mentors.
“I didn’t do everything they did — they were old school — but sometimes that was the best thing,” she said.
She remembers Ferguson sometimes saying things that could come off as “offensive,” but did not diminish from him as “a really good track coach.” She recalls Class of 2012 member Jennifer Pohlman nailing her vocals as the lead in the Beauty and the Beast musical, and Ferguson coming up to her later, asking, “Would you sing at my funeral?”
At another time, he asked Kelly if his ashes would fit in two batons — the kind sprinters hand off in relay races.
“You never knew what was going to come out of his mouth,” Lumpa said.
Kelly said Ferguson, who finished coaching at 81, “could be ornery at times.”
“You’re not going to tolerate everything when you’re 80-some years old,” he said. “But the girls got along with him great.”
Arp said Ferguson created a lasting impression in the athletes he coached. She remembers the day she told him she would throw for the Buena Vista College girls track team. That was his alma mater.
“He was so proud,” she said. “The smile on his face is something I’ll never forget.”
Kelly said a lot of Ferguson’s former players and fellow coaches will be saddened by the news of his passing.
“For the most part, they all loved him, liked his stories and the way he coached them,” Kelly said.
Arp expects several of her teammates and others will pause to recall their years on the team.
“It’s one of those things,” she said. “It’s sad, but you don’t realize how much of an impact someone had until it’s too late to thank them. … The world is a little less bright without him.”
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