Father, son back together on the Cedar Rapids Prairie football sideline

CEDAR RAPIDS — You’re not always going to agree with everything. Even if you are father and son.

Especially if you are father and son.

So it went recently for Cedar Rapids Prairie head football coach Kyle Knock, who coaxed his dad, Don, into helping out with his program this season. Don Knock spent nearly a quarter-century as a high school head coach and has been in the college ranks as well, including at Iowa State.

That’s a lot of experience to be able to lean upon. Or occasionally disagree with ...

“We actually got into it for the first time at practice,” Kyle Knock said. “He was questioning what I was doing, and I was questioning what he was doing. He finally goes ‘All right, I’ll just shut up.’ I told him, no, it was fine. I’m not upset that he questioned me.

“We wear our coaching headphones at practice to communicate better. So in our headphones he goes ‘Well, your curfew just got moved up a couple of hours.’ Everyone kind of laughed. Then he called me that night and asked if we were good. I told him we were never not good. It’s OK to disagree. That’s how we learn from each other.”

This is Kyle Knock’s second season as Prairie’s leader. When Derek Roberts, his offensive line coach, took an administrative job at the school in June, he needed a replacement.

Don Knock, 70, is retired and lives near Cedar Falls. Despite the distance, Kyle decided to knock on his door, pun intended.

“I was like ‘Well, who am I going to find in the next couple of weeks before summer stuff starts?’” Kyle Knock said. “Our principal, Spence Evans, actually said ‘You should hire your dad.’

“I told him he’d never do it. I tried to get him last year, and he didn’t want to do it. I called him, started talking to him, and he was slow playing it. But my mom would call and say ‘Oh, he’s excited.’”

Kyle said he told his dad he only needed to make the commute a couple of times a week for practice. Ironically, Prairie’s first game was last week at Cedar Falls.

Don has been to virtually every practice. Yeah, he’s excited.

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“He stays pretty quiet at times,” Kyle Knock said. “He’s like ‘It’s your program. It’s not my program. I’m going to keep quiet and do my job.’ But I was like ‘Dad, if you speak, everybody here is going to listen to you with respect. No one is going to tell you to shut up.’”

In the vein of “it’s your program,” Kyle said his dad didn’t really want to talk about this arrangement. The two have coached together before in Missouri, with Don the head coach.

Don also coached Kyle in high school at Cedar Rapids Kennedy. Kyle Knock also played collegiately at Iowa State.

“He wants to stay out of the limelight,” Kyle said.

And be there with advice anytime his son might need it.

“He’s also there to tell me if I’m making the right decisions, doing the right things,” Kyle Knock said. “It’s good to have that reinforcement sometimes. He loves it. He called me (the other day) and told me he’s having a blast. He’s got a good group of linemen, good kids that are coachable and listen. They obviously know his background, being a longtime head coach and being at Iowa State. So there is a lot of respect from the kids to him. It’s good.”

Knock also has another former head coach on his staff in Maurice Blue. The defensive coordinator came over this season after spending almost three decades as a player and coach at Cedar Rapids Washington.

Blue and Knock were Washington assistants at one point. Prairie (0-1) plays Friday night at Dubuque Senior.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com