Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – When Dustin Elsbury sat down with his team to set goals prior to his first season as head coach last fall he noticed something.

“When we set our team goals they were a little hesitant to say they wanted to make the dome,” Elsbury explained.

Regina narrowly missed its first semifinal appearance since 2020 last season falling to Wilton 21-14 in the Class 1A quarterfinals.

When the team met this preseason to discuss goals for the upcoming season there was no doubt what was at the top of their list.

“There was no doubt in their mind that the Dome was the goal,” Elsbury said. “Making the quarterfinals was awesome and we were so close and that kind of sat with a lot of the returners. That last loss stung with them all offseason and kind of fueled them and they are very excited and focused and locked in and they have an end goal in mind.”

The raised expectations for the Regals seem to be warranted.

Regina returns 12 starters, including its starting quarterback, top rusher and receiver from last year’s 9-2 squad.

The Regals bring back five players that earned all-state honors last season led by senior quarterback Kyle Tracy, senior two-way standout Drew Greve and two of the top-ranked junior recruits in the state in running back Savion Miller and receiver/linebacker Tate Wallace.

“Our goal is state, it’s always been state so the goal is a state championship,” Greve said. “That’s our goal going into the season and we feel like we have the guys to do it but we are going to take it one week at a time.”

Tracy (5-11, 180) returns to lead the Regina offense after throwing for 1,901 yards and 19 touchdowns and rushing for 751 yards and nine touchdowns.

Wallace (6-3, 235) led Regina with 51 receptions for 752 yards and eight touchdowns last season and Miller (5-11, 200) averaged 5.8 yards per carry while rushing for a team-high 922 yards and eight touchdowns.

“I think we are going to be very explosive,” Wallace said. “Coach Hinkel always sets up a game plan that is going to work and we have depth. That’s one thing that I think 1A teams don’t have is the depth that we have.”

Greve (6-0, 165) caught 23 passes for 290 yards and five touchdowns and senior Hudson Koch (6-2, 170) had six receptions for 99 yards and a touchdown.

Elsbury expects an expanded role for sophomore running back Gabe Hegelheimer (5-11, 200) who rushed for 114 yards and a TD last season.

“Offensively we have a plethora of weapons,” Elsbury said. “Talking with our offensive staff we’ve said how are we going to get all these guys the ball because we do have a ton of depth and athletes out there.”

The questions for Regina lie largely on the defensive side of the ball where Regina lost three of its top four tacklers to graduation.

However, experience and talent return on defense as well led by senior safety Aaron Honore (6-2, 190) who had 31.5 tackles, three interceptions and a fumble recovery last season.

“We have a great group and our goal is to get back to where we want to be,” Honore said. “We want to get back to that winning standard that we have at Regina. We return a lot of starters, we lost some big guys from last year on the defense but we have guys to replace them so I think we can be right there.”

Greve and Koch return in the secondary along with senior Edwin Gangba (5-9, 160) who ranked fifth on the team with 40.5 tackles last season.

At linebacker junior Roan Eckhoff (6-1, 210) and senior James Whisler (5-11, 170) both return after ranking third and sixth on the team in tackles respectively.

Wallace will make the move from linebacker to defensive edge this season where he will look to build on his 27.5 tackles and four tackles for loss last season.

“We talked about how pressure is a privilege,” Elsbury said. “You are going to have outside expectations from people, a lot of people are expecting a lot because we did return 12 starters from last year. We have a lot of guys that have played significant snaps in the playoffs and meaningful games that are coming back and it’s a pretty cool thing that we can build upon that.”

The playoff loss to Wilton, a team the Regals defeated 20-8 in the regular season finale certainly stung for most of the offseason.

That loss has remained a motivational point this fall.

“It definitely motivated us, that was a tough loss,” Honore said. “The guys have put in the work, we have a great coaching staff and they have helped us get back on top to where we want to be.”

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