By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – As his junior season ended Matt Brimeyer assumed the adjustment part of his high school football career was behind him.

Brimeyer spent his sophomore season getting acclimated to the varsity level while making 28 tackles during a 5-5 season for Clear Creek Amana in 2015.

Last fall Brimeyer transitioned offense where he led the Clippers in rushing in his first season as a varsity tailback.

As he began prepping for his senior year Brimeyer assumed the adjustment period was over.

“It has definitely been a transition every year,” Brimeyer said. “I’ve learned a lot of the last two seasons just about what it takes to play at this level.”

Then came one more big change when Gabe Bakker was hired in April to replace co-head coaches Matt and Ronnie Hughes.

The coaching change was supposed to be the biggest shakeup yet for Brimeyer and his teammates but instead the senior running back says it has been smooth transition.

 “I feel like the transition has been pretty smooth,” Brimeyer said. “We want to come out here and play football, obviously we care who our coaches are but as long as somebody is here to lead us we are ready to play football for anybody.”

The Clippers don’t just have anybody leading them this season, they have Bakker, a former walk-on at Iowa State and assistant at West Des Moines Valley that spent the last five seasons turning Pleasantville into a consistent winner.

Bakker went 29-20 in five seasons at Pleasantville, going from 3-6 his first season to three consecutive playoff appearances in his final three years.

There is no major rebuild in front of Bakker this time with Clear Creek Amana coming off a 7-2 season. More like a few minor adjustments which Bakker said his team has made on the fly.

 “I think it’s gone really well and that’s a testament to our kids and to our assistant coaches,” Bakker said. “They have welcomed me and bought in from day one. Yes, we are changing things and we are trying to change the culture of the whole program but they have all bought in and it’s been great.”

In his first year leading the program Bakker expects to lead on Brimeyer who has seen a little bit of everything in his varsity career.

Brimeyer has experience starting on both sides of the ball and is coming off a season in which he rushed for a team-high 731 yards and scored six touchdowns.

The 5-foot-9, 172-pound Brimeyer is expected to be a rock on both sides of the ball this fall.

“He’s just an electric player on both sides of the football, he’s one of those guys that I don’t know if we can afford to get him off the field but we are going to have to be very smart with how we use him,” Bakker said. “I’m excited for his senior year he really could have a breakout year.”

Brimeyer was a part of a running back by committee approach last season that helped the Clippers roll up better than 240 yards per game on the ground.

As the season went on, Brimeyer became a bigger and bigger part of the Clipper offense.

He eclipsed the 100-yard mark in four of the final six games, rushing for 587 yards and averaging 6.2 yards per carry during that span.  

Brimeyer rushed for a career-high 134 yards in the season finale and expects to pick up where he left off this season.

“At the start of the year last year I didn’t have much varsity experience but going into this year I have already noticed how much I learned from last year,” Brimeyer said. “I learned a lot last year just about what it took to prepare and play.”

Clear Creek Amana will utilize a different offensive approach this season under Bakker.

The Clippers attempted just 75 passes in a run-dominated offensive attack last season but Bakker expects a much more balanced approach this season.

Expect Brimeyer to be at the forefront of the new-look offense.

“Our kids have to play fast,” Bakker said. “We are going to go no-huddle offense, that doesn’t necessarily mean up-tempo all the time but we aren’t going to huddle.