Iowa City Liberty maintains lofty expectations for 2025 high school football season

NORTH LIBERTY – Iowa City Liberty’s Reece Rettig knows what it’s like to have talented targets.

He teamed with a corps of playmakers to pass for 2,719 yards and 32 touchdowns last season. If the senior quarterback and Lightning offense plan to match those statistics, they will do it with a different set of wide receivers, graduating the top-three producers from a year ago.

“Obviously, it’s hard to replace guys like that, so we’re not going to try to replace them the exact same,” Rettig said of former teammates Dallas Miller, Sutton Koller and Collin Decker, who combined for 2,432 yards and 27 scores. “We’re going to adapt to what everybody’s good at. It’s my class now. I’ve grown up with them. We go to the field all the time. We’re going to be here working on it.”

The Lightning punched the clock and began work Monday for the first official day of practice for high school football teams across the state. Liberty is coming off its first 10-win season and first state semifinal appearance.

“I think their expectations (last season) were to be a playoff team and compete,” Liberty Coach Scott Chandler said. “Maybe we exceeded those a little bit but what we expect out of our guys is to be able to compete every game. We don’t really spend too much time thinking about where we’re going to get to at the end of the season. It’s just the next game, the next game and then the next game.”

Liberty is in Class 5A District 6 with Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, Davenport Central, Muscatine and Pleasant Valley. The Lightning host Cedar Falls to open the season on Aug. 29.

“The expectations are the same,” Liberty senior Jordan Schroeder said. “We’re going into every game thinking we’re going to win it. We are confident in our ability to be able to do it. We surround ourselves with great teammates and our coaching staff is bar none.

“A bunch of people have experience on this team and we go in confident every game. It’s what we expect to do.”

Last year’s senior class started as sophomores and reached the 4A state quarterfinals in 2022. The first season in 5A was rough but the Lightning rebounded in Chandler’s first season as head coach. The standard was set higher a year ago and the current players maintain those lofty expectations, setting sights on a title.

“The ceiling was set high by the seniors and we lost a lot of them,” Junior Pryor Reiners said. “A lot of us grew from them, so I feel like the team has good chemistry. I think we have the right mindset.”

Rettig took over for all-stater Graham Beckman and earned his own all-state honors. He completed 185 of 253 passes for a 73.1 completion percentage and 202.8 QB Rating. Rettig finished with almost an 11-1 TD-to-interception ratio. Rettig also rushed for 482 yards and six TDs.

Rettig has all the intangibles to run the show and proved that last season. He set the tone, running plays and cutting through the defense during early drills Monday.

“He’s really got a bulldog mentality, growing up as a smaller guy,” Chandler said. “He’s an extremely smart kid. Those two things go a long way. He’s got a lot of leadership qualities that the guys in his grade and younger want to follow him. He’s a really good athlete.”

Tight end Landon Bell returns with the most catches at 12 and three TDs, while Logan Laubenthal comes back with 130 yards and two scores. Schroeder had eight catches and a touchdown.

“We’ve worked on timing,” Rettig said. “We just developed our relationship with each other. I think that helps a lot. Missing people sucks but you have to do that every year, so adapt.”

Rettig added, “It’s just developing trust between everybody. Everybody has different skills. You want better timing with one person or you just want to get the ball in space really quick to somebody else. You just have to know your receivers and the more reps you get with receivers the more you get to know them, trust them and work to their talents.”

Chandler said the ball might get placed in even more hands this season. Nine receivers caught at least three passes seven scored at least once. Teams will have a hard time covering all of Rettig’s options.

“We lost a bunch of weapons,” Schroeder said. “The guys stepping in this year have played football their whole lives. They’ve played this offense, so we’re know our guys can make the plays we did last year.”

The Lighting defense progressed along with the season. They improved in the last half of the season, finding the right places for each piece. Bell is the top-returning tackler with 50.5 and senior Keshawn Wyldon had 47. Junior Pryor Reiners 31 overall tackles and said team chemistry, energy, speed, athleticism and physicality are traits of this year’s squad.

“Our coaches have talked about setting the tone early,” Reiners said about the defense. “Last year, we didn’t get that at the beginning of the year but we started to build on it.

“I think our defense is getting stronger, faster and working more as a team.”

As the official start of the season approached, Chandler witnessed increasing enthusiasm at multiple camps that included a scrimmage with Bettendorf. The Lightning are charged for the first practice with full pads Wednesday.

“We have a lot of guys bring a lot of energy,” Chandler said. “I’m excited about this group. They have a lot of leadership qualities. They’re not afraid of hard work.”

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com