Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

There will be new head football coaches at four different schools in the Your Prep Sports area this fall.

With all the shuffling on the sideline this season Your Prep Sports is helping area fans get to know the new coaches with series of question and answer sessions that have published leading up to the season.

Liberty High is one of three area programs with a head coach that is new to the school with former Washington head coach James Harris taking over for the 2021 season.

A 2002 Washington graduate, Harris had been coaching at his alma mater since 2012, compiling a 21-7 record in three seasons as the head coach.

Liberty High went 2-3 last season falling to Dubuque Hempstead in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs.

The Lightning open the season August 27 at home against City High.

Your Prep Sports: Give me a little history of how you got into high school coaching. Did you always know you wanted to coach in high school?

James Harris: Actually no, not really. After college I was working in Albuquerque as a personal trainer and started volunteering with some youth football, junior high teams and I really enjoyed it and saw an opportunity to make a difference. I went back to school to get my teaching certificate and came back here and the rest of really kind of history.

YPS: What was it about Liberty High that made this opportunity appealing to you?

I think it was a lot of things. First off, the school itself, the faculty, the kids, everything about Liberty was appealing. Having the opportunity to coach at this level of a 4A, future 5A program was a great opportunity, a great challenge for me as a coach and that was really exciting.

Then also just the opportunity to live in Iowa City which is a great community and what I think is a really neat town and just an exciting environment.

Those things and being able to coach this level of athlete, some of the best athletes in the state was something that caught my attention right away.

YPS: You have a defensive background as a coach. What do you want someone to say about a Liberty High football team that you coach.

Harris: I hope they say that we are fast and physical and we fly to the rock. Pretty simple.

YPS: What did you learn in three seasons as a head coach Washington?

Harris: You don’t know what you don’t know. So, I saw a lot of the things that are involved from an administrative standpoint. The scheduling, the communication, the extra lines in your email inbox from everyone from parents to players to administration all of those things. I knew a lot of that, you have some of that to an extent as a coach, but just not the same as you do as a head coach.

Then what you lose is a little bit of the coaching element as a head coach. As a position coach you have your guys, your players that you are around all the time that you coach every day and as a head coach you don’t have that same feel. That is part of why I am calling the defense, that is the last part of that coaching that I am holding on to because I enjoy that so much. That’s probably getting a little sappy but I love that coaching part of it with the kids.

YPS: When you take a job like this how do you go about putting together a coaching staff?

Harris: We have quite a few guys that have stayed on staff and then we were able to add some coaches and we have a great group of volunteers that have shown up. I think it really gives us a unique and accomplished group of coaches.

Scott Handler is a nine-year NFL vet, Ronnie Hughes has more than 50 years of coaching experience, Matt Hughes is a former Big 10 linebacker, Eric Thigpen is a former NFL player, Joe Williams is a Pan Am games gold medalist wrestler, a world class athlete. Former Iowa lineman Landan Paulsen is out there helping us out, Jeremy Mims is a great coach and was a tremendous athlete so we have a really great group of guys and we have a bunch of young guys like Evan Downes who are hungry and excited to be out here helping out.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.