Joel Osborn

Trust yourself

This week’s Moonlighter just knows how to win. Heck, Harlan just about had to add gold to its school colors during his senior year. The winning didn’t stop with his high school graduation though. His experiences as a high school player and college athlete prepared him for helping lead a perennial D-II football power. After a decade as an assistant, he has taken the reins of his own football program and Joel Osborn is looking to keep the Ws coming.

Joel Osborn grew up in Harlan, Iowa. The western Iowa town is basically synonymous with winning with legendary coaches like Curt Bladt and Mitch Osborn. State titles were pretty much the expectation in the early 2000s. Joel Osborn was the quarterback for the Cyclones for a few of those titles and also played point guard for his dad on the state championship basketball team, short stop on the champion baseball team, and participated on the track team. Osborn finished his high school career as one of the most decorated all-around athletes in Iowa high school sports.

While he had a lot of options to keep playing after high school he didn’t want to just pick one sport. When considering his options to play both football and basketball in college, Osborn wanted to be in a position to keep for a title. That championship mindset took him down the road to Maryville, Missouri to play for Northwest Missouri State. The Bearcats are consistently one of the top programs in Division II football each year and Osborn quarterbacked the team to a 16-3 record and two national title games during his junior and senior years.

As a redshirt freshman in football, he was able to contribute a great deal on the basketball court in his first season. However, due to the championship run in his sophomore season he missed part of the basketball season and then eventually chose to step away from basketball to focus on his football career. Though he started out splitting time at QB, Obsorn led the team to a title run and came up just 20 seconds short winning a title. In 2008, he was named the MIAA conference offensive player of the year on the road to another shot at a national title. 

After finishing his playing career losing in the Division II national championship game for the second time, Osborn grabbed a headset and clipboard and stayed on the sideline. In over a decade as a coach in Maryville, Osborn served in roles from recruiting coordinator to offensive coordinator. Those experiences, including 4 national championships, 8 conference championships, and coaching many All Americans and All Conference players opened a door for him at one of the top NAIA football programs in the country.

Joel Osborn makes his head coaching debut for the Benedictine College Ravens in Atchison, Kansas this year. This debut is unlike any other though. The NAIA football season will kickoff in just a few weeks due to Covid. Osborn was named the head coach on January 15th after the retirement of legendary coach Larry Wilcox. Even without the benefit of a true offseason to prepare, Osborn has shown time and time again, he is ready for the challenge.

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