Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Ever since the 2018 football schedules were released by the Iowa High School Athletic Association last spring Liberty High players and coaches have been counting down the days to their first varsity contest.

Literally, the Lightning have been counting days.

“Ever since the schedules came out in the weight room coach Gordon had a countdown up,” Liberty High junior linebacker Dawson Zimmerman said. “Every time it hit a key moment like 150 days or 100 days we’d get so keyed up.”

After two years of playing freshman and sophomore level games Liberty High will make its varsity debut on Friday at City High.

As it turns out Gordon had been counting down the days to Friday’s opener a lot longer than anyone else.

“It started nine years ago knowing that someday North Liberty would have a high school,” Gordon said. “I just always had it in the back of my mind.”

Truthfully, the countdown started for Gordon a lot longer ago than that.

Gordon is a North Liberty native.

Standing in an endzone at the newly constructed stadium at Liberty High Gordon motioned toward midfield.

“We used to ride our four wheelers right here when we were kids,” he said with a smile.

Gordon loves football.

He won a state championship at West High, played collegiately at San Jose State and has been coaching at different levels for 12 years.  

“Next to my family the greatest thing in my life has been sports,” Gordon said. “Football is something that I love.”

That love began in his hometown.

When Gordon heard that a high school in North Liberty was becoming a reality he had his dream job.

“Three years ago, I knew it was going to be posted and my wife wouldn’t be able to live with me if she had to hear me complain about not having a chance,” Gordon said. “All I really focused on was making sure (Liberty high principal) Scott Kibby knew who I was. I just wanted to hopefully get an interview.”

Gordon got his interview.

First, he got the job coaching the Liberty High freshman team in 2016, a group of 20 then-West High freshman without a practice field, a conference or even a school.

“We have a million-dollar weight room now and the first weights they lifted for us were coach (Clint) Feuerbach’s weights that we’d throw out of the back of his car.”

Gordon got a teaching job at Liberty High when it opened last school year and coached the sophomore team to a 6-3 record.

His tenacity in chasing the position he wanted paid off when Gordon was named the first varsity coach last January.

“What the boys have seen is that half the time in life when people want to dream they give up on it themselves because they listen to someone say ‘you can’t do that’. I had coaches around call and say ‘Who is going to be varsity coach?’,” Gordon said. “I hope the boys see that if they want something you work for it. You work for it and hopefully you get it and then you just run with it.”  

There are challenges.

Liberty High couldn’t practice in its newly constructed stadium until a few weeks into the preseason.

The Lightning will be young with 28 freshman, 11 sophomores and just two seniors.

Wins could be tough to come by against a district that features a pair of quarterfinalists from a year ago in North Scott and Davenport Assumption.

You won’t hear Gordon make excuses.

“What do we have to complain about?” Gordon said. “We don’t have to go 20 years of traveling somewhere else to play we have a home right now. We are going to be thankful and be humble for it and to not take it for granted.”

Gordon makes no bones about it, he’s tough on his players.

The players agree and say they wouldn’t want it any other way.  

“I think it’s been really difficult because they’ve been with us three years since freshman and they just keep pushing and pushing,” Zimmerman said. “Any time we think we are in our comfort zone they find a way to make it hard.”

The moment Gordon has waited so long for comes on Friday.

He admitted he’ll be nervous but says he’s ready. He believes after two year’s his team is ready.

More importantly Gordon believes his home town is ready.

“If we can do anything on the field it’s going to be special around here,” Gordon said. “ It is going to be unique and even though they call it Iowa City Liberty it can be something that is unique for North Liberty that they have never had.”