Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The game of football is changing.

With seemingly every day at every level offensive and defensive schemes evolve, game plans become more complex and training continues to progress.

At the center of the fast-moving, ever-changing world of football is West High junior safety Cole Mabry.

A teenaged three-sport throwback who prefers hand-writing cards to texts or Tweets and who keeps his own scouting reports on opponents on paper than an iPad.

 “He’s the throwback athlete,” West High defense coordinator Tyler Meade said of Mabry. “He is just a football junkie and a sports junkie. He plays basketball, he runs track, I don’t know what his best sport is but it really doesn’t matter. His 100 percent focus is on whatever he is doing and the same goes with school.”

One of the leaders on defense for Class 4A second-ranked West High (7-0) Mabry is old-school in a digital age.

A 4.0 student Mabry is the ultimate kid next door.

He’s also a 6-foot-2, 190-pound tackling machine who will knock a ball carrier into next week and then offer a hand to help them up.  

“Cole embodies what we expect of our players in this program and that’s you have to be good people first,” West High head coach Garrett Hartwig said. “There is no such thing as just a good football player, you have to do things right on and off the field because it all translates and he embodies that. He’s the perfect example of that.”

As the offensive evolution of football continues every defensive coach is looking for one thing – versatility.

Mabry has it.

The junior is fast enough to cover in the secondary and big enough and strong enough to get off blocks at the line of scrimmage.

“How I play depends a lot on what other teams do,” Mabry explained. “Against heavy passing teams it might be more like a deep safety or against a team like Prairie or Cedar Falls it might be more time up in the box so it can vary no matter what.”

That versatility on the field makes Mabry an invaluable piece to a West High defense that is holding opponents to 16.4 points and 269 yards per game.

His versatility was enough to earn a scholarship offer from Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell who Mabry said likes him as a linebacker in the pass-happy Big 12.

“In the Big 12 linebackers have got to have that versatility and be able to play in space,” Mabry said. “It depends how my body fills out but they see me more as a backer that can play in space.”
It’s the versatility that Mabry possess as a person that makes him so special.

He plays three sports, excels in school and never takes a break, never skips a rep, never misses a chance to cheer on a teammate.

That’s the real versatility Mabry brings.

“He is the stereotypical best teammate ever,” West High head track coach T.J. Craig said. “Every once in a while, the coach will look away and there are probably a few people who take advantage of that. Cole is never that guy. Most high school kids will take a rep off here or there and he doesn’t. He does whatever we ask him to do to get better and its awesome to have that kind of people on your team. He’s an outstanding individual.

Mabry has stood out since arriving at West as a freshman.

He qualified for the state track meet in the 400 hurdles as a freshman. A few weeks after the season Meade, an assistant on the track team got a piece of mail.

“When he was a freshman he sent a handwritten thank you to every single coach,” Meade explained. “That’s when you are just getting to know guys and you get this thank you note at the end of the season. Then you get one after football season the next year, after track season the next year so it’s not just a token thing that’s just who he is.”

After playing on the West High freshman team in 2015 Mabry made the jump to varsity last season as a sophomore.

In his first varsity game Mabry made a team-high 10 tackles including six solo stops in a win over Southeast Polk.

“I can make tendencies automatically, I punch everything in to the program and it gives me percentages. He comes up to me before the first game with his own handwritten notes from watching their film on his own with formations and everything,” Meade said. “At that point I knew he could do everything.”  

Mabry finished second on the team with 63.5 tackles last season including 4.5 for loss as West High returned to the state title game for the first time since 1999.

“Last year as a sophomore he was making our strength calls and making our coverage checks that usually you have a guy that’s been a starter for a few years do and he’s doing it in his first ever varsity game,” Meade said. “He just gets it in all walks of life.”

Mabry went straight from the football field to basketball where he played on the West High sophomore team.

In the spring, he helped West High to a top-10 state finish at the Class 4A state track meet.

How versatile an athlete is Mabry?

With teammate Austin West cemented as the Trojans top 400 hurdle last spring Mabry not surprising told Craig to put him in whatever event would most benefit the team.

He tried everything before giving the high hurdles a try and eventually earned a state medal as a part of the Trojans’ shuttle hurdle relay team.

“He works out with our 800 guys, let’s be honest not a lot of football players or sprinters ask you to be an 800 guy and he works very hard at it,” Craig said. “Never done the highs and won a medal in the shuttle hurdle relay. That’s just the type of special kid he is where he says tell me where to go and I’ll do it.”

Mabry spent the offseason putting 15-20 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame and is enjoying an even better season as a junior.

The rover in the West High defense, Mabry can play on top of the tight end against a run heavy team or line up on a receiver against a spread formation.

Mabry ranks second on the team with 26 tackles this season including 14 solo stops and an interception.

He has also rushed three times for 29 yards and a touchdown as a wildcat quarterback.

It’s the versatility that he loves.

“I love being able to move around,” Mabry said. “Being able to play like a defensive end to a cornerback and then a free safety. I love being able to move around but I’ve got to say that I like being in the box the most being able to be up in the action.”

Iowa State coaches called Mabry a future linebacker when they offered him a scholarship when he attended the Cyclones’ season opener against UNI.

Mabry says he’s a rover, Meade said defensive back but Hartwig has his own description. “We just call him a football player that’s about it, at the end of the day he’s a football player,” Hartwig said. “His behavior and his maturity rubs off on his teammates. He’s a competitor he’s a dog out there and he’s got a huge upside.”