Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – For the first time in more than a decade there will be a new head coach at Regina.

The Regals will also have a new quarterback, new running back and a largely new set of receivers from its Class A state title team from a year ago.

Despite the head coaching switch and breaking in a few new key positions nothing has really changed at Regina.

“It’s business as usual,” first-year head coach Jason Dumont said. “The good thing is all the staff stuck around, all the rules have remained the same. We aren’t doing much different.

After spending the previous 14 seasons as defensive coordinator at Regina Dumont takes over the head coaching duties for Marv Cook who stepped down in May after directing the Regals to an astonishing 159-20 record and seven state titles over 14 seasons.

Regina rattled off 11 consecutive wins last season on its way to winning the Class A state title.

Dumont retained nearly the entire coaching staff from last season including long-time offensive coordinator Ed Hinkle.

“I rely on Ed to help with some of the head coach administrative duties and there have been some changes in how we run practice and scheduling and things like that,” Dumont said. “Beyond that we aren’t going to try to fix something that isn’t broken.”

One thing that certainly hasn’t changed at Regina is the expectations.

Even with a move up to Class 1A and a couple of key holes to fill on offense the Regals should be in state title contention once again.

“It feels very similar to past years, there have been some small changes here or there but nothing too big at all,” senior linebacker Blake Chambliss said. “Our expectation is to earn it every season, last season means nothing now. We are starting 0-0 and we are going to continue to try to improve every week.”

Regina must replace its key three offensive players from a year ago in three-year starting quarterback Ashton Cook, the state’s career reception leader in Alec Wick and 1,500-yard rusher Theo Kolie at tailback.

Junior Jack Tierney (5-11, 170) and sophomore Gentry Dumont (6-1, 175) appear the most likely candidates to take over for Cook at quarterback while the Regals should get a boost from Tipton transfer Levi Daniel (6-2, 215) who rushed for 625 yards and seven touchdowns last season as a sophomore.

The strength for Regina will lie upfront where the Regals return five players with starting experience on the offensive line in all-stater Josh Gaffey (6-3, 230) and all-district picks Andy Wiese (6-4, 245) and Aiden Udell (5-8, 180) along with Caden Shetler (5-10, 220) and junior Ronan Poynton (6-1, 230).

“We have a couple of young quarterbacks that know the system pretty well and then really a lot of the receivers are coming back as well they just weren’t catching every ball with Alec out there,” Dumont said. “We were able to get things installed a lot quicker than last year but we are going to have to rely on that front seven both offensively and defensively to get started because we have to bring some young guys along.”

Senior Sam Aitchison (5-8, 160) caught 17 passes for 197 yards a year ago and Chambliss (6-0, 185) caught six passes for 103 yards both will be in for larger workloads on offense.

“Our roles are greatly increased all throughout the team,” Chambliss said. “We have a whole new spread of guys after all those guys graduated last year so we are all taking on new and bigger roles this year.”

There are significantly fewer questions defensively where Regina returns five of its seven starters in the front seven including its top three tacklers from a year ago.

Udell was an all-state pick after recording a team-high 63.5 stops while Aitchison had 47 tackles and Chambliss had 41.

Senior Carson Jensen is also back to bolster the receiver corps and secondary.

“Our front seven is going to be key for us this year,” Chambliss said. “We rely on them a lot and I think I learned a lot over the past few years from the older guys.”

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