Washinton (Iowa) produces another talented dual-threat quarterback

Ryan Reighard dreamed of playing football for his hometown Washington Demons, but never saw himself as the starting quarterback.

'I went to a lot of running back camps growing up,” Reighard said. 'That's what I always played.”

Now Reighard (pronounced Rick-erd) runs the Washington offense as a multi-dimensional quarterback, a guy who used his feet to rush for 1,453 yards and his arm to pass for 1,216 in nine regular season games.

Not bad for a sophomore who never threw a pass in a game before this year's season-opener against defending Class 3A champion Pella.

'That was nerve-wracking,” said Reighard, who nonetheless ran for 117 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-24 loss. The Demons ran off seven straight wins before dropping their season finale last week against Davenport Assumption, 33-24.

Reighard is a big reason the Demons (7-2) finished second in Class 3A District 5 and earned the school's fifth straight playoff berth. Washington hosts Solon (5-4) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

'I knew we would win games with (Reighard) at quarterback,” second-year Washington Coach Garrison Carter said. '(And) I thought he would run for a lot of yards. But he's advanced faster than I thought he would.”

When last season ended, Carter knew he had to find a replacement for Daryn Sebelius, a three-year starter at quarterback. Sebelius guided the Demons to a 12-1 record and second-place state finish as a junior. Last season he was one of 10 players in the state to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 1,000 yards.

Carter said he and his staff decided they needed to find their best football player and put him at quarterback. They zeroed in on Reighard, but his transition was far from smooth.

'We brought him into the gym in mid-November to play catch and he struggled to throw the ball 10 yards,” Carter said. 'By the spring he was throwing good routes downfield. Now he's doing anything our senior quarterback did last year.”

Reighard is one of four players in the state, so far this season, to crack the 1,000-yard barrier in both rushing and passing. He has rushed for more than 200 yards in four games, and scored at least one rushing touchdown in each game. He also has completed 64 percent of his 165 passes with 12 touchdowns.

'I thought I'd do pretty good running the ball, but passing, I didn't think I'd do that good,” Reighard said. 'The hardest part for me was to step up in front of the team as a sophomore and be accepted as a leader.”

Reighard said a mentoring class with Carter helped him develop as a leader. Off-season practice with his wide receivers and Sebelius, work at team camps and individual attention at the Midwest Quarterback Camp helped develop his passing skills.

'At the beginning of summer I was fighting for the job,” Reighard said. 'But by the end of the summer I felt pretty confident.”

Reighard is one of five sophomores in the Washington starting lineup. One of those sophs, wide receiver Jaivonn Willis, was the starting quarterback on last year's freshman team until he was called up to the varsity midseason to play wide receiver.

'He kind of made the decision (to move Reighard to quarterback) for us,” Carter said of Willis, who has 48 receptions for 750 yards and 10 touchdowns. 'He's a phenomenal athlete, a big athletic kid.

'He caught two touchdown passes in his first game, against Solon. We built around that. It's worked out well for us.”

Washington and Solon are playing for the second time this season. The Demons beat the Spartans, 28-14, on Sept. 25 at Washington. Reighard ran for 231 yards and three touchdowns.

'There are pros and cons to facing a team you've played with a short week of practice,” Carter said of the four days since the regular season ended and a playoff opponent was assigned last Friday. 'You know what they did against you before, but you don't know what kind of adjustments they are going to make.

'Regardless of how Solon finished, it has been one of the top five programs in Class 3A and maybe the state. Our first victory was a program maker. Hopefully, the kids will be ready for them again this time.”