Wilson ties Bigler win mark at 113

KAHOKA – The Fort Madison Bloodhounds got their second win of the year on a rather blustery night in Kahoka, Mo. Tuesday night.
But that second win wasn’t the headline of the night. Fort Madison Head Coach Ryan Wilson tied former Coach Mark Bigler as the winningest coach in Bloodhound history with 113 wins.
The Bloodhounds walked away with a 79-47 cross-state win over Clark County, Mo., in Kahoka behind senior Nolan Guzman’s 24 points. Jonah Tackett had 11 and Darius Foy had 10 in the win.
Wilson missed playing for Bigler by just a year. Bigler left when Wilson was an eighth grader at Fort Madison.
“I didn’t get to play for him. I was in eighth grade in track when he and Mike Brooks were our track coach,” Wilson said.
“He let us know that season since we would have been freshman on the team that fall, that he wasn’t going to be coaching for us.”
Wilson said coaching isn’t about records, it’s about teams. But it takes good teams and good players for a coach to be in a position to reach milestones like this.
“I’ve been fortunate to have both great players and great teams. It’s a nice accomplishment, but we’d like to get more wins and move forward,” he said.

“When you reach these milestones it’s fortunate to have that happen. It’s obviously fun to get there.”
Wilson said Coach Bigler was the one who actually started keeping track of record books and does a lot with pictures and memories.
“He’s the one who started this record book and we’ve been updating it since he left. There was a bit of a gap between Coach (Jeff) Bloomer and Coach (Steve) Schmitz, but it’s something they kept up and I’ve kept going.”
Wilson said getting one more win is just another reason to keep climbing.
“We want to keep winning. We want to win the rest of our games and when the time comes for 114 we might as well keep climbing,” he said.
He said the support of his wife and four kids has helped him reach his goals and allows him commit the time needed to the program.
“We’ll keep climbing and seeing how many more we can get,” he said.
The Hounds improved to 2-12 on the year and are 1-6 in Southeast Conference play. They host to Burlington Friday night, and then host Class 3A Pella in a non-conference game on Saturday afternoon.