Sports : Vikings hope to build success on another field - the coach\'s family farm

Viking players look for healthy ears of sweet corn in a drought-battered field.

Viking football players camped overnight at the Womochil farm, and picked and cooked their supper.

Viking players and Coach Womochil work to gather wood for a camp fire.

Eli Rogers sets up a large stump for a bonfire.

Gene Womochil helps players dig carrots.

Jordan and Gene Womochil work to dig carrots.

Jordan W

John Betterton helps dig carrots.

Viking Coach Jim Womochil talks football with his mom and dad, Gene and Ann.

Vinton-Shellsburg football coach Jim Womochil believes that a new era of success will begin in the weight room and on the practice field -- and on another field where he first learned the lessons of liberty and hard work.

Womochil invited Viking football players to spend a night at his family farm northeast of Vinton, where they picked sweet corn and carrots for their meal and helped cook a supper that included fish, chicken and hot dogs. The players also gathered firewood for camp fires.

The Friday night camp-out came at the end of the week-long football camp. More than 60 players attended the camp and most of them spent the night on the Gene and Ann Womochil farm.

"This was a great place to grow up," said Coach Womochil, as he walked on the dry riverbed. "It was a place with a lot of freedom and also a lot of hard work."

It's been a difficult year on the farm, said Gene Womochil. The intense drought has harmed the family's famed sweet corn harvest. And when Womochil and several Vikings tried to dig up the carrots in a small garden, they found the digging in the dry soil to be very difficult.

"It's been a tough year, but I am not going to quit," said Gene.

Likewise for the son, the field offers hope for a brighter football future.

Jim first brought his Williamsburg football players to this farm in 1997, the first year that team went to the playoffs.

He later brought other Williamsburg teams there, as well as a couple of teams from Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

On Friday, at the end of the week-long football camp, Coach Womochil and other members of his staff, as well as his parents, sat in the shade to watch players set up their tents and played pick-up football games near the banks of the Cedar River. The coaches talked about the upcoming football season, and the potential they see in their players.

Already, Womochil's tenure at Vinton has begun more optimistically than his successful run at Williamsburg. At Vinton more than 60 players participated in football camp this week; the first Williamsburg team had just 26 players.

And while the Williamsburg community rallied around the football program after it began winning, Womochil said Vinton area residents have already begun enthusiastically supporting the program.

"There is a lot of hunger for a winning program here," he said.

Football practice begins Monday.

Last Saturday evening, the VS Touchdown Club organized a supper for all players and their families. That event included a brief introduction from Touchdown Club co-founder Stu Overton, as well as remarks from Coach Womochil.

The Touchdown Club members have begun a variety of projects, including working on an equipment shed, painting the practice field, sales of Viking football clothing and other activities.

Womochil briefly summarized his coaching philosophy and his five-year plan for the program.

"I want to see an increase in the interest in football, and see a change in the culture of the school," he told the players and their families.

His five-year plan includes an aggressive strength and conditioning program that involves every player.

"We should not ask how many of our players are in the weight room," he said. "All of them need to be there. That needs to be a priority -- nothing else is more important to the success of a team."

Womochil also said fund-raising for equipment to make the weight room "a place where kids want to hang out" is an important part of the program.

Mirrors that allow the players to evaluate their techniques as well as motivational posters and other accessories will help make the weight room a better place to work out, says the coach.

"I want us to be the best conditioned team," he said. "We will work the players hard. There are no guarantees, but your chances are much better when you work hard in the weight room.

Also, said the coach, the harder the players work in practices and the weight room, the harder it will be for them to give up.

Womochil also said he plans to get his players involved in the community. Many have already helped unload seats for the Palace Theatre and worked a booth during RAGBRAI.

"I am thankful to be back in the community that I love very much," said Womochil,who thanked his coaches and others at Vinton-Shellsburg who helped him succeed in football at the high school level as well as at UNI.