Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports  

IOWA CITY – Last week City High took a significant step toward its first state semifinal appearance in a decade with a convincing win over ninth-ranked Urbandale in its postseason opener.

The first step City High needed to take in its breakthrough season came well before Friday night’s opening-round contest with the J-Hawks.

Before the Little Hawks could lock up a playoff berth, prep for a postseason game, picture a return to the UNI-Dome or dream of a state title they had to believe any of that was even possible.

Simple belief. That was step one.

“The belief, everyone believing what we could accomplish something special, that was really important, maybe the most important thing,” senior lineman Aaron Stalkfleet said. “We hadn’t had success so we needed to change what we thought we could do.”

What started with belief has a chance to turn to reality for the Little Hawks on Friday when fourth-ranked City High (9-1) takes on top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy (10-0) in a Class 5A quarterfinal at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids at 7 p.m.

In its first quarterfinal appearance since 2016 City High is seeking its first trip to the state semifinals since finishing runner-up in 2010.

“We all had that goal to lock in and go to the Dome our senior year and we believed that,” City High senior Darren Richardson said. “Now we have to make that dream come true.

Coming off four consecutive two-win seasons including a Covid-shortened 2-4 mark a year ago City High entered the offseason running low on belief.

Enter Mitch Moore.

Within a couple of months of his hiring in December the first-year head coach had bolstered the belief within the program that City High was capable of big things.

Not only in the future but immediately.

“He really believed in us and believed in the program and that really brought some confidence to us,” Senior linebacker John Klosterman said. “That helped.”

The belief that began to build at City High during the offseason quickly built steam when the season started.

A 41-0 win at Liberty High in the season opener stopped a two-game losing skid to the Lightning and lit a powder keg of belief with the Little Hawks.

City High rattled off lopsided wins over Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Ames the next two weeks.

“It started with our work ethic in the offseason, and you talk about the things that you want to do but when we started getting some results it just built that belief,” City High senior Gable Mitchell said. “We come out right away against Liberty and we dominate and then week after week we were rolling teams and every week we realized we were getting closer and closer to what we want to accomplish.”

The belief got another big boost in week four when City High used a late touchdown to top perennial 5A powerhouse West Des Moines Dowling 21-17.

That’s when more than just the players in the City High locker room started to belief.

“It really clicked after the Liberty game but the Dowling game was another one,” Klosterman said. “Everyone was bought in after that point.”

Moore points to both the Liberty High and Dowling games as belief checkpoints in a season that few outside the City High locker room saw coming.

However, Moore also points to the lone blemish on the City High record, a 31-14 loss at eighth-ranked Pleasant Valley as another point he saw his team buy in to believing in one another.

“We had some validation check points along the way,” Moore said. “Number one you beat a Liberty team that has good athletes and good coaches, you go in there and knock them off immediately. Then week four you have a Dowling program coming in and they are well coached and the way we beat them. The other validation point was we found out that when we didn’t play for each other and with each and we played as individuals we are going to get beat no matter how good we are or how much star power we have. The star power doesn’t matter if we don’t play together.”

City High has certainly stuck together.

Entering this fall the seniors in the program had watched the Little Hawks go a combined 6-18 the past three years.

This season that group has been largely responsible for the highest win total for a City High team since the 2010 squad went 13-1.

“We had lost a lot of games so we needed to change something and coach Moore came in and did a great job,” Stalkfleet said. “A lot of what we are doing now is him but also the guys having that belief that we can do great things. I think coach Moore started it and the seniors followed that up.”

The success for City High this season has come as a surprise to some and rightfully so.

Of the eight teams in the 5A quarterfinals on Friday half won at least eight games last season and City High is the only team with fewer than four wins a year ago.

Over the past two seasons the combined win totals for the other seven 5A quarterfinalists are 20, 18, 17, 16, 14, 14 and 11. City High won four games in those two years.

Still, City High believes it belongs with the big boys in Class 5A football.

“This isn’t a surprise to us at all,” Stalkfleet said. “When coach Moore came here in December we hit the ground running and even last January we were talking how we wanted to change 58 to 59 the number of championships our school had.”

City High has perhaps its greatest challenge yet on Friday in the form of top-ranked Kennedy, the lone remaining unbeaten in 5A.

The Cougars are no strangers to postseason success and are seeking a second trip to the state semifinals in the past three seasons after a quarterfinal exit a year ago.

“They are a really well-coached team,” Moore said. “This last decade Kennedy has played some good football, this isn’t a one-hit wonder, this isn’t a team that is going to get flustered easily, these guys have won a lot of football games, it’s a winning football program.”

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