Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – With nine starters returning the Regina offense will have a familiar feel this fall.

The offense may look the same but a couple of the key players for the Regals enter 2023 noticeably different.

Senior quarterback Gentry Dumont and top target Jackson Naeve spent the offseason in the Regina weight room and the dedication is immediately evident.

Both Dumont and Naeve have packed on pounds and enter the season intent on helping Regina improve on a 5-4 record from last season that including a 31-0 loss to Pella Christian in the opening round of the Class 1A playoffs.

“Over the winter we had a lot of guys in there grinding it out in the weight room and that’s what our motivation was, that 5-4 season,” Dumont said. “We were just trying to focus on the next season and getting back to that standard.”

Dumont and Naeve will be at the forefront, along with an experienced offensive line, of a Regina offense that hopes to experience significant growth in 2023.

Regina averaged 22.7 points per game last season but was shutout three times and scored just seven points in its four losses last season.

With eight seniors among the nine returning offensive starters the expectation is for bigger point totals for Regina this fall.

“We are a lot more motivated I feel like, not that we weren’t motivated last year but I think there is a different sense of urgency this year,” Naeve said. “This is the last year for a lot of guys and with a lot of starters coming back we now this is the time.”

In preparation to help Regina gain yards this season Dumont and Naeve spent the offseason getting bigger, stronger and even taller.

Both starters two seasons ago, Naeve and Dumont have each undergone significant physical overhauls.

“(Jackson) has matured a lot in the past year and a half,” Gentry Dumont said. “Last year he was about this high (motioning toward his eye line) and then I was standing next to him in class in the winter and he was like ‘I think I’ve got you’. He’s definitely grown and matured a lot throughout this offseason.”

The Regals’ leader in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown grabs last season Naeve has grown three inches and added 40 pounds since his sophomore season.

Naeve grew an inch and added nearly 20 pounds from the end of a junior season in which he caught 31 passes for 550 yards and eight touchdowns and also rushed for 181 yards.

“I’m definitely bigger and stronger, I’ve put on 20 pounds,” Naeve said. “I don’t consciously think about (being bigger) but I do notice when I play that I can make plays now that I wasn’t making before.”

The added height helps Naeve as a receiver while the extra weight and strength could make him more potent out of the backfield where he got 29 carries last season.

Naeve is also a threat in the return game averaging 19.9 yards per kick off return with a 78-yarder for a touchdown.

“I have full confidence in myself now, I know that I can make plays and I know that other guys are counting on me so I have to be at my best,” Naeve said. “I like returning kicks because that’s really exciting and I like playing running back too. I just like getting the ball and making plays.”

Dumont underwent his own impressive physical makeover during the offseason.

After starting two years ago as a 170-pound sophomore Dumont enters his final prep season 35 pounds heavier.

“After football season I took the winter off and I lifted twice a day, five days a week and I put on 30 some pounds which wasn’t very easy,” Dumont said. “That 5,000^th calorie of the day wasn’t always easy to get down but it was worth it.”

Dumont also grew an inch during the offseason and is up to 6-foot-2, 205-pounds and is full of confidence and experience.

Last season Dumont completed 50 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,049 yards and 12 touchdowns.

“Our chemistry has really improved and Gentry has gotten a lot better,” Naeve said. “I know he is going to put the ball where it needs to be and he knows I am going to be where I need to be.”

Dumont can already feel the benefit of the strength he added in the offseason

“I just feel more in tune with my body, I felt last year I was behind with it and I didn’t have much power running or throwing,” Dumont said. “This year I definitely feel like I have more power throwing.”

With experience at quarterback, receiver and six players returning with starting experience on the offensive line the time is now for the Regina offense.

“I think the sky is the limit for our offense this season and I think we can do some really good things,” Dumont said. “If everyone does there job I think we can do really well.”

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