By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Evan Flitz considers himself a pretty quick study.

The West High senior quarterback is a standout in the classroom who wants to major in chemistry and has drawn the interest of ivy league schools.

With that type of intelligence, it came as no surprise to West High coach Garrett Hartwig that Flitz was able to grasp the offense quickly in his first season leading the Trojans.

“Evan is a very brilliant kid,” Hartwig said. “He is smarter than me which isn’t saying a whole lot but he’s an incredibly bright young man so we knew he’d be able to pick up on things.”

Flitz caught on quickly enough last season to pass for 2,237 yards and 22 touchdowns while directing West High to the Class 4A title game in his varsity debut season

The scary thought for West High opponents this season is the cerebral Flitz returns with a full season of experience under his belt and a higher understanding of the Trojan offense.

“I really feel like we are picking up where we left off,” Flitz said. “We are a really experienced team and I feel like overall our average level of knowledge coming into camp is a lot higher and we are doing things a lot faster than we did last year.”

Flitz and his offensive teammates performed at a fairly high level last season.

Behind the play of Flitz, West High averaged better than 32 points per game last season and scored more than 24 points in three straight playoff wins to reach the 4A title game.  

“Having a year of connection with Traevis (Buchanan), Austin (West) and those guys that caught a lot of passes and coming in not on step one is really helpful,” Flitz said. “I feel like we are quite a bit further along than we were last season.”
Improving on last season’s numbers would be an impressive task for Flitz who completed 70.3 percent of his passes and threw just five interceptions in 246 attempts.

Flitz lost his top target and one of the best prep receivers in the country in Michigan signee Oliver Martin but likes the group of receivers that return.

Buchanan caught 30 passes and West grabbed 16 last season.

“We have a really good group of guys catching the ball,” Flitz said. “I think those guys can be very dangerous.”
Flitz missed a pair of games last season with a knee injury and then back-up quarterback Ethan Postler directed the Trojans to wins over Burlington and Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

Postler transferred to Clear Creek Amana during the offseason but Hartwig has been impressed with the progress of juniors Joey Kuehn and Noah Aanestad.

“I have been impressed with our two junior quarterbacks because they have come a long way,” Hartwig said. “Joey Kuehn and Noah Aanestad have picked things up and we are getting to the point where if we have to win a varsity game with them we can.”

West High Quarterback

The Starter: Senior Evan Flitz (6-1, 175) established himself as one of the most accurate passers in the state last season connecting on better than 70 percent of his throws while passing for 2,237 yards and 22 touchdowns.

Flitz also ran for 150 yards and two touchdowns a year ago all while missing two games with an injury.

Key Players: Hartwig raved about the improvement of juniors Joey Kuehn and Noah Aanestad who are both in their first season of varsity action.

Both Kuehn and Aanestad had strong summers on the 7-on-7 circuit and picked up where they left off during fall camp.

Statworthy: West High was 8-3 with Flitz as its starting quarterback last season. The Trojans averaged 247 yards passing in the eight wins and 137 yards through the air in the three losses.

Why it’s a strength: Flitz is one of the top quarterbacks in the state and should be in for a huge senior season. The question at quarterback is always depth and the Trojans appear to have a pair of viable varsity options behind their senior standout.