Football is more than a game that Jay Eilers gets to coach. It's a classroom where student-athletes have the opportunity to learn life lessons.

Eilers is H-M-S's new head football coach, taking over the program from Tyler Horkey who accepted a position at Spencer.

As he settles into his new duties as a coach, Eilers sees his role as an instructional interventionist at H-M-S Elementary as an opportunity to help students build a solid foundation for the future.

"I was the behavior kid in school, the kid that you didn't want to come into your classroom," he said. "I've grown and learned a lot of things, but it was relationships with people that allowed me to grow up and change, and so many times those relationships were with coaches."

After coaching the West Burlington/Notre Dame program for four years, Eilers came to feel he and the school's administration did not share the same vision. So he checked out employment opportunities on the Teach Iowa Job Board and saw H-M-S's head coaching vacancy. He watched a couple of Hawk football games on HUDL and was intrigued enough to apply.

The interview process sold Eilers that H-M-S was the place for him and his family.

"We have some of the best facilities in the state at H-M-S, but we have better people than facilities," Eilers said. "When I left, I pondered and prayed about the opportunity of working with people like this and, sure enough, here we are."

That includes his wife Rebekah, to whom he has been married for 23 years; son Ethan, a freshman at South Dakota State where he plays football; and son Evan, a sophomore at H-M-S who also has the chance to play for his father.

"We are blessed to be here. The communities are amazing," Eilers said.

A graduate of West Burlington, Eilers played college football at Northwest Missouri State University, which won the NCAA Division II national championship during his final year. Eilers also played in the Arena League with the Quad City Steamwheelers.

"It was a blast," he recalled. "The year 2000 was the first year of Arena Football 2 and we were 19-0. It was pretty cool to go 15-0 and national champs in college and back that up with a 19-0 run. The coaches called me 'The Streak'. I liked it."

In the coaching ranks, Eilers has "bounced around" from high school to college. His first job was at St. Joseph Central in St. Joseph, Mo. His first head coaching opportunity came at Albany, Mo. The wins came hard (3-21 in three years), but it was good experience.

"We took over a program that hadn't won a game for quite a while," he recalled. "I was lucky. I got to be with good kids and I had a good administration."

In the college ranks he was offensive line coach at Missouri Western State.

"College is my addiction and it calls for everything, but I think it called too much on me and my family," Eilers said.

He then returned to West Burlington, where the Falcons were 4-5 last year and won a playoff game.

"The thing I absolutely am so proud of during my time there is that every year we had more kids out for football," Eilers noted.

In addition to coaching football, Eilers will be an assistant boys' basketball and track coach at H-M-S. Those positions will provide other avenues to help students prepare for life.

"The ultimate thing we're trying to do is teach these kids and give them tools to be successful five, 10, 15, 20 years down the road," he said. "I think the ultimate job of what we're doing here with our staff is making sure our kids understand what they need to do to be successful in life."