A good coach could build a successful college football program by using Metro high school players as a foundation.

Steve Staker has done exactly that at Coe.

The Kohawks have 13 former Metro players from Cedar Rapids and Marion on their roster and they hail from all seven of the major high schools in the Metro. Some of them are prominent players and some are not, but they're all contributing to a successful team.

Coe is ranked 22nd in the NCAA Division III poll this week after demolishing Loras, 69-7, Saturday at Clark Field. The week before, the Kohawks drubbed Buena Vista, 51-0, for a two-week tally of 120-7 against two Iowa Conference opponents.

There are former Metro football players on teams all over the country, from the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Oregon Ducks, from William & Mary to Montana and points in between, but you'll find the biggest collection of Metro grads at Coe.

The Atwater brothers, Jordan and Mark, are playing for the Kohawks, although Mark suffered a sprained neck and concussion Saturday and needs time to recover. The Atwaters graduated from Linn-Mar.

The Marion Indians have four spots on the team with Matt Barnd, Colton Storla, John Conner and Jake McDonald. There are two Prairie grads with Bryce Alberts and Matt Ockenfels.

Demetreus Johnson and Ben Schmidt from Kennedy are on the club. So are Chase Cooling from Xavier, Mike Schneiderman from Washington and Tanner Lund from Jefferson.

All of these guys were excellent players in high school. And if you've ever watched an Iowa Conference football game, you know it's played at a very high level and requires an exceptional amount of talent to succeed.

This is nothing new, of course. Metro graduates have been playing at Coe for years, in a variety of sports, both men and women.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference between a Division I walk-on at Iowa from a Division III player in the Iowa Conference. Sometimes there is no difference. Sometimes it's just a matter of opportunity.

You have to be good to play at Coe. And make no mistake, you also need some serious money to pay the bills.

NCAA Division III schools like Coe do not offer athletic scholarships. You can get academic scholarships and need-based grants, but nothing directly for sports.

The total cost of attending Coe for a year is more than $40,000, according to two families that have sons at the school. One of those student/athletes is receiving approximately $20,000 in academic
scholarships, but that still leaves another $20,000 (or more) for the family to pay per year.

The other student/athlete is receiving about $18,000 in scholarship money. That family anticipates paying $24,000 in additional fees this year for a total of approximately $42,000.

Multiply those costs by four years and you see how expensive it gets. On the other hand, it's hard to put a pricetag on a quality college education that includes a chance to play sports in the Iowa Conference, which is one of the top D-3 leagues in the country.

There are 134 players on the Coe football team this year, according to the roster for Saturday's game against Loras. That's an incredible number for a school that has a total full-time enrollment of
1,304 students this semester.

A whopping 10.3 percent of all the students at Coe are on the football team. It also means Coach Staker is making a lot of money for the Kohawks by having all those kids on the squad.

If all of the 134 players were paying $40,000 per year, the total revenues would be $5,360,000. And if they were paying $20,000 per year, the total would be $2,680,000. Either way, it would appear football is paying off for the Kohawks.

Kirkwood Community College and Mercy University do not have football programs, so Metro high school graduates who want to stay in town to play ball have one choice.

It's Coe.