Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Jaryn Sertterh has a lot of the qualities coaches that make up a good offensive lineman.

The Liberty High senior is smart, tough and athletic.

Sertterh has good agility and can move, he’s strong and has good hands and footwork.

Perhaps the most essential asset for Sertterh as an offensive lineman is he plays with an edge.

“He’s got this competitive mindset that not a lot of people have where he can just flip a switch,” Liberty High senior quarterback Reece Rettig said. “He’s the nicest, funniest dude out here and then flips that switch and he’s the meanest dude when the play is going on.”

One typical offensive lineman feature Sertterh doesn’t posses is prototypical size, a trait he shares with the rest of his Liberty High offensive line teammates.

That one missing piece of the perceived total offensive line package hasn’t stopped Sertterh and the Lightning front from excelling this season.

In fact, being an undersized by Class 5A offensive line standards line has become a rallying point for the Liberty High line.

“We know we are smaller but we know our strengths,” Sertterh said. “Moving is our strength, our quickness is a strength, we are smaller so we have to be able to move and we turn that into an advantage. We feed off it.”

With Sertterh as the only player returning with varsity experience up front the offensive line was a major question for Liberty High as the season started.

Behind the play of its senior leader in Sertterh the line has become a strength for Liberty High (11-1) which will face top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling (11-1) in the 5A title game on Friday at 7 p.m. at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

“They have grown throughout the year,” Liberty High coach Scott Chandler said. “Our right tackle played tight end on JV last year, our right guard played defensive line on JV last year our center played JV last year our left tackle played JV half of this year. Those guys have just started to get more reps, they’ve improved, they’ve taken it on themselves to spend a lot of time watching film and getting with the coaches to learn and make sure they understand what to do and how to do it the best.”

The first step to building an offensive line according to Sertterh was getting closer as teammates.

As the lone returning starter Sertterh took that upon himself early in the season.

“You just have to become friends, that’s the best way I can say it,” Sertterh said. “We’ve become friends and really formed a bond.”

Liberty High was solid on the offensive line early on.

The later the Lightning have played into the season the better that group has gotten.

Last week in a semifinal win over second-ranked Waukee Northwest the offensive line group of seniors Blake Sehmann, Josiah DeShaw, Pete Hansen and Sertterh and junior left tackle Ben Mohr was excellent.

Liberty High rushed for 186 yards and averaged six yards per carry in a 31-15 win.

“It’s just trusting the guy next to you, trust is a big thing on the offensive line,” Sertterh said. “If one guy messes up on the offensive it can mess the whole play up so you have to trust that everyone is going to do their part so you can have a good play.”

The semifinal performance continued a strong late season stretch for the Liberty High offensive line that has been key in an eight-game winning streak that has led the Lightning to the first state title game in program history.

Liberty High is averaging better than 190 rushing yards per game in three playoff wins including 257 yards on the ground in a quarterfinal win over Waukee.

“We started to become one group,” Sertterh said. “We’ve improved together and every week we’ve gotten better.”

Rettig has reaped the benefits of an improved offensive line.

The senior quarterback has more than 3,200 yards of total offense, including a team-high 942 rushing yards, and 35 total touchdowns.

He’s quick to credit the guys in front of him who’s contributions often go unnoticed by many.

“They’ve done a great job, we know it’s not the job that’s going to get all the glory but they all they know they don’t get a lot of glory but they’ve done a great job of owning that and they come in each day and put in the work.”

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