Cedar Rapids RoughRiders draft the son of a former University of Iowa football quarterback

CEDAR RAPIDS - He was the quarterback this past fall for his high school team in the Twin Cities suburbs. That had to be a given, right?

Cade Sherman’s dad, Matt, was starting QB for the Iowa Hawkeyes for three seasons in the 1990s. The apple, the tree, etc.

But the son has decided football isn’t his biggest passion. It’s hockey.

And he’s headed back to his pop’s (and his mom’s) old stomping grounds to play it.

The 17-year-old left winger was a fourth-round pick of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in Tuesday’s United States Hockey League Phase II draft. The Rosemount (Minn.) High School senior has committed to play college hockey at Augustana University in South Dakota.

“Hockey has always kind of been my first love,” Sherman said late Tuesday afternoon. “I obviously played football because of my dad. He got me into it, put me in there, and I loved it. But hockey is what I gravitated towards. It’s what I truly decided to do. So I knew that if I ever got the opportunity to play at the next level, it was a no brainer.”

He’ll play at least a year in the USHL first.

Sherman said he was having lunch at school when a RoughRiders coach called him to tell him he he’d been drafted by the club. He had 23 goals and 27 assists in 27 games this past season, describing himself as a good offensive player who can provide grit, saying the word “handsy” best sums up his game.

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“It was a cool experience and a fun day today. I’m very excited about the RoughRiders,” he said. “My grandma is from Iowa City and still lives there. I’ve been to Cedar Rapids, been to a couple of games. So this is kind of surreal in a way: watching them and now being in the position I am today. I’m pumped and excited for what’s to come.”

Ironically, Matt Sherman now works in the athletics department at the University of Minnesota, obviously, one of Iowa’s biggest rivals. His mother Betsi is an Iowa City West High School graduate.

“Our staff here got a chance to see Cade play quite a bit,” said RoughRiders Coach-General Manager Mark Carlson. “He had a really good year there at Rosemount. We think he’s really going to grow into his body. He’s a tremendous athlete, his best days are ahead of him. We are really looking forward to him being a RoughRider.”

The club drafted 34 players in the two rounds of this year’s draft: 15 in Monday’s Phase I portion (kids with a 2009 birthdate) and 19 more Tuesday. Braiden Scuderi, a forward from Mount St. Charles Academy in Rhode Island, recently was signed as a pre-Phase I tender and must remain with the team this upcoming season and play a certain amount of games.

The RoughRiders’ first-round pick in Phase II was defenseman Karson Young, who played this past season for Cloquet (Minn.) High School and the Minnesota Wilderness of the lower-level North American Hockey League.

“We watched him quite a bit,” Carlson said. “He has really improved over the last couple of years. Was really good in Cloquet for Cloquet High School there. Got into quite a few games there for the Minnesota Wilderness in the NAHL and played very well. Good mobile defenseman, good on the power play, good all-around D. Really good character guy.”

The RoughRiders now have 50 players under their USHL control. That includes tender Scuderi, these draft picks, possible returning players from this past season and those on the club’s affiliate roster.

It will conduct its annual tryout camp next month at ImOn Ice Arena.

“It was a lot of players in two days, for sure,” Carlson said. “The staff did a great job. We tried to stick to our plan of simplicity. We focused on a few different areas and felt like we stuck to the plan pretty well.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com