Camp Verde High School’s longtime football coach Luke Steege has resigned, and a former Cowboy has been hired to take his place.
Steege, who’s been with the Cowboys for 14 years, sees it as a “bittersweet homecoming” as he accepted a head coaching position at Postville High School in rural northeast Iowa, the area he grew up and the state where the majority of his family still lives.
“I grew up in Iowa, so this is like a homecoming for me,” Steege said. “All of my family is in Iowa, my wife is originally from Iowa, everyone is there except for me, my wife, my two kids and my in-laws. I also didn’t like the way the high school is moving academically.I love my job and the kids, but I felt like it was the right time for a new challenge.”
Steege, who is a social studies teacher at CVHS, stressed it was a difficult decision, but one he feels happy with. His new school is more of a football school, something he felt there was a lack of with the CVHS program, and will play his alma mater which merged with another high school.
“It’s a smaller school, but more kids go out for football there,” Steege said. “Here, we have fall soccer and an outstanding wrestling program that takes kids away from football. But like [CVHS], it’s been successful but has had it’s hard times.”
Since Steege took his first opportunity as head coach with the Cowboys, CVHS has had playoff appearances seven years in a row and beat cross-valley rival Mingus Union High School for the first time in the school’s history.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, May 29, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
