Retired coach returns to family's farm land

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas

Leonard Germer had to replant this year's corn crop due to a March freeze, but it is now up three or four inches. Germer has moved his family to the farm where he grew up raising grain sorghum, corn, and cotton. -Staff photo by Taylor

April 18, 2002 -- Leonard Germer is a farmer, but he still remembers the years that he counted by seasons. He's also a retired football/basketball coach.

After a number of years of coaching in various parts of Texas, Germer moved his family back to land adjacent to the old farm house where he was reared. Upon the death of his dad, he and his wife, Jo Ann, made the decision to return to the land to rear their children and be near his mom, and it's a choice they've never regretted.

While growing up on his family's farm near Kyle, Germer was involved in FFA and helping his dad with the row crops. He was also an athlete and won a scholarship to Southwest Texas State University. After a tour of duty during the Korean conflict, he returned to graduate.

"I started playing football in high school, and I got a scholarship to go to college ... that's the only reason I've got a degree. I probably wouldn't have gone to school," said Germer.

Since the death of his mother in January, Germer's oldest son and his family have moved into the old farm house, making three generations to live on the land. And the land is still farmed.

"We grew grain sorghum, corn and cotton, just like I'm doing. Cotton ... we called that our 'money crop.' If you can make a cotton crop, you can make more money, but that isn't the case anymore," Germer said.

He said they used to plant over 1,000 acres a year, rotating cotton and grain.

"We do plant a little bit of wheat, but I didn't plant any, this year, but I usually plant 100 acres. It was so wet in December, and I usually planted my wheat in December," he added.

Germer said he liked to plant the spring wheat rather than the winter wheat because of weather conditions. Although the land is very fertile, it is in an area where floods are likely with big rain storms. This winter, he had to replant his corn because of the late freeze in early March, and his new stand is up several inches.

"It's been real slow growing, but I know as soon as it warms up, it's going to take off," said Germer.

When Germer and his family first returned to Kyle, his plan was to retire and simply farm, but a coach/friend of his needed a defensive line football coach in San Marcos, and Germer needed an income back-up in case of crop failure, he said, so he took the job for seven more "seasons."

During this time, he continued to run the farm with the help of hired hands and his two sons.

Germer said coaching and farming have several similarities -- there will be "good times and bad times.

"You're not going to win every game, and you're not going to have a good crop every year," he said.

He said that each includes working and dealing with people, and in the long run, they are the ones who will help you out if things don't go so well and you need encouragement.

"The farm has been good for us. It's been up and down, you know. You hit your dry years or you get real wet ... nothing abnormal," he said.

Germer now farms about 1,500 acres, but before the housing developments starting creeping in from the Austin area, he farmed almost 1,000 acres more.

He said he has a hard time understanding why people had rather turn rich farm land into developments rather than go somewhere where there are trees and leave the land to the farmers.

As for his children, his oldest son farms, part-time, and works as a mechanic, but all three children developed a love for the outdoors, according to the Germers.

"They learned to work on a farm. They were driving a tractor when they were nine years old, the boys were. They learned how to work and we had lots of exposure to the outdoor living," said Germer.

"We thought that rearing the children out in the country was sometimes a lot better for them than being in the city."

He had cattle for a while, but said the demands on his time, along with coaching were too much, along with worrying about flooding and rebuilding fences.

The hardest part of farming has been the extreme weather conditions, he said.

"Most of the time, the drought is the killer, and, of course, the commodity prices were real volatile. Sometimes, if you could make a good crop and/or get a good price, you can make some money," he added.

Farming was, and is, definitely a big part of Germer's life, but he will always remember the coaching seasons, too.