Maurice Blue steps down at Cedar Rapids Washington

CEDAR RAPIDS - He wants to go back to his football roots. That’s defense only.

Maurice Blue said he has stepped down as head coach at Cedar Rapids Washington after seven seasons. He informed his team and Washington parents Wednesday afternoon.

Blue compiled a 26-39 record, his teams qualifying four times for the state playoffs. A Washington graduate, he has been part of the program as a player or coach for roughly 30 years, including as a defensive coordinator prior to taking the head coaching job, helping the Warriors reach the Class 4A/5A championship game twice.

He was the first Black varsity head football coach in Metro history.

“It’s just time,” he said in a text. “I’m going back to doing what I think I do well. Just have to figure out where that will be.”

Though it has a history of tremendous success in football,, Washington went 1-8 this past season and is a school that has seen its enrollment steadily decline. It went down to Class 4A for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, making the playoffs both years, but the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s new classification system, based on a formula that takes enrollment and student free-and-reduced-lunch ratios into account, moved it back to 5A this season and for next season.

It would seem the school will teeter on that 4A-5A line in future years.

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