Photo courtesy of Iowa Central Athletics: Iowa Central athletic director Kevin Twait talks to the Triton women’s wrestling team earlier this season after they clinched the district championship.

Kevin Twait rattles off the date like it happened yesterday.

This isn’t a birthday or an anniversary he proudly rescues from his memory bank, but in a way, it’s actually both.

Do you remember when you held your first meeting as the new Iowa Central football coach?

“February 5, 1996,” Twait declares without hesitation. “There were 36 kids who were supposed to be returning for me. I had spent the last six seasons (as head coach) at Buena Vista, but this was something totally different. The body language was bad. There was no eye contact. I was expecting to see some respect and enthusiasm. I didn’t get much of either.”

Twait then offered up an addendum, which sounds on the surface like a death sentence given football is a game of numbers and depth.

“By May 5, all but eight of them were gone.”

So it’s the spring of Twait’s first season at the helm of a junior college program in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and he’s almost literally starting from scratch. Uncertainty — and maybe even a little panic — would have crept into the minds of most coaches at that point.

Instead, Twait devised a gameplan. He decided to sell Iowa Central as a legitimate stepping stone for serious student-athletes who wanted to better themselves — not just athletically, but academically. And Twait knew the only way he could make that work was by treating this job, this school and this community as the exact opposite in his own world: a permanent home.

“(Athletic director and men’s basketball coach Dennis) Coach Pilcher asked me the basics: ‘can you get the guys to go to class and in bed at night?'” Twait said. “I told him not only are we going to do that, but we’re going to raise the bar. I’m going to find kids who take school seriously and really want to succeed. We may be a junior college, but we don’t have to think of ourselves as a ‘lesser’ option for (prospective) students.”

The pitch caught on. Twait landed cornerstone recruits like Andy Jepson of Manson Northwest Webster and Ben Smith of Wall Lake View Auburn — well-known area names who maybe weren’t necessarily big-time football prospects, but had the grades and the leadership qualities of high-level students who changed the face of Iowa Central.

“Having guys like Andy and Ben sent a different message,” Twait said. “They raised the expectations for all the right reasons in the areas it mattered most. We weren’t just taking football seriously — we were taking all of it seriously.”

Suddenly, Iowa Central became the antithesis of the JUCO stereotype. Forget “Last Chance U” — this was a destination location for kids who truly wanted to make their lives better.

Twait’s infectious approach played well on the recruiting trail. He was hard-nosed, demanding and old school in his habits and expectations. Yet his heart won players over and got them to buy into what became the Triton way.

The next chapter could have easily been written elsewhere. Twait didn’t have to spend 22 seasons on the sidelines and 29 total at Iowa Central, as he now faces the home stretch of his stint as athletic director.

“Sure, I had plenty of opportunities to leave,” said Twait, who is retiring this June. “But I’m from Emmetsburg. We love Manson, where our kids grew up. We love Fort Dodge. I had support here from the administration. (Presidents) Dr. (Bob) Paxton, Dr. (Dan) Kinney and Dr. (Jesse) Ulrich believed in me, but more importantly, believed in what Iowa Central could and should be. The administration has always been forward thinking…kind of that ‘if you build it, they will come’ mentality.

“There’s ‘bigger’ and ‘better’ out there. But I bleed Navy and White. This is home, and it always will be.”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about this interview with Twait, which originally took place a few months ago after he went public with his retirement decision. His first full season was my first as a student at Iowa Central. That same year, Teresa Jackson became the director of theatre at ICCC. She is also retiring in a few months after building a Hall of Fame career in her own right here, rather than elsewhere. It’s incredible to take a step back and think about how far the school has come since 1996.

The initial investment Twait, Jackson, Jim Kersten — another 2025 retiree who spent decades improving Iowa Central’s standing — and many others made in both the school and this community would have been more than enough had it lasted only a few years in the early part of this renaissance. These Tritons saw something here when few did, helping to transform it into a real college atmosphere.

The decision to stay — to make this their final professional stop, even with a skill set and work ethic that could have easily pushed them many more rungs up the ladder — is what truly sets them apart, now nearly three full decades later.

May their examples lead the way for others to do the same in establishing a new era at Iowa Central and in Fort Dodge. Their standards aren’t just the hope now, but the blueprint.

Eric Pratt is Sports Editor at The Messenger. Contact him via email at sports@messengernews.net, or on Twitter @ByEricPratt