Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – There was the usual disappointment in the Clear Creek Amana locker room following a 34-7 loss to Pella in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs last November.

Before the Clipper bus had arrived back in Tiffin following the season-ending loss last season Clear Creek Amana coach Lance Pedersen had seen that disappointment begin to turn to motivation.

“Our guys after our first playoff game on the way home our guys were already starting to talk about this year and what they needed to do to prepare,” Pedersen said. “It was one of those things where they got that taste and they hadn’t had that taste in a long time and they want to have that be a consistent thing.”

Clear Creek Amana won five of its final seven games last season to advance to the postseason for the first time since 2021 in Pedersen’s first season as head coach.

The challenge for the Clippers this season is to turn build off last season’s strong finish to make back-to-back postseason appearances for just the fourth time in program history.

“With coach Pedersen being his first year and a lot of things changing I think that was an amazing start last season,” Clear Creek Amana senior linebacker Dylan Schrock said. “Our culture really started to change last year halfway through and towards the end it really changed. Now we have to keep that going.”

The experience and talent returns for Clear Creek Amana to keep building this season.

Ten starters return from last year’s team that went 6-4 after getting off to a 1-2 start, capping the regular season with back-to-back wins over Cedar Rapids Xavier and Clinton.

“We know that we can compete with those teams,” Clear Creek Amana senior quarterback Conlan Poynton said. “Every team is beatable and we just know that we have to keep being underdogs.”

Poynton returns to lead a Clipper offense that averaged 26.9 points and 338 total yards per game last season.

In his first season a full-time quarterback Poynton completed 66 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,228 yards and 12 touchdowns and also rushed for a team-high 901 yards and 16 touchdowns.

“There is a determined look in every guys’ eyes,” Poynton said. “You could see it in the weight room during the offseason and you can see it translate onto the field.”

Poynton will have a talented group of skill players around him.

Senior Ethan Vice (6-0, 185) and junior Noah Collis (5-8, 169) return in the backfield after combining to rush for 625 yards and three touchdowns last season.

Clear Creek Amana must replace its top three pass catchers from last season but brings back a talented group led by junior Tay Seals (5-9, 143) who had 12 receptions for 191 yards and three touchdowns last season.

Senior Nick Daniel had 11 receptions for 180 yards and a touchdown last season and Avery Sorensen (6-4, 217) and Aren Schlemme (6-1, 171) also return with experience.

The key for the Clippers will be rebuilding an offensive line that lost four seniors to graduation.

“I think the cohesion of our offensive line will be very, very important to our success this year,” Pedersen said. “We know Conlan is going to be a great job, we know our receivers are going to do a great job, we have three really good tailbacks now it’s just a matter of putting all 11 guys working together.”

Senior linebackers Dylan (6-1, 220) and Aidan Schrock (6-1, 200) return to lead a Clear Creek Amana defense that was stout down the stretch last season.

The Clippers held opponents to 22.3 points and 300 yards of total offense last season allowing just 18.7 points per game over the final seven contests.

“We really grew together throughout the season,” Schrock said. “We don’t have a lot of guys that we lost from last year and the guys that had to step up did step up and are doing really well.”

Dylan Schrock ranked second on the team with 61.5 tackles and 11.5 tackles for loss last season while Aidan Schrock added 20.5 tackles with 4.5 for loss.

Senior safety Aren Schlemme (6-1, 171) returns to anchor a talented defensive backfield that also features Vice and Seals.

A three-year starter, Schlemme has 40.5 tackles the past two seasons while Vice had two interceptions last season and Seals had a pick.

“It’s all about tackling and pursing to the football and getting there with a bad attitude when you get there,” Pedersen said. “We try to keep our defense simple so they can just go play the game but I am really excited for what those guys can do this year.”

The schedule is challenging with six teams that had winning records last season including 4A runner-up Pella, semifinalist North Scott and perennial power Cedar Rapids Xavier.

Toss in Newton who was a 4A playoff qualifier last season, Grinnell which went 6-3 in 3A last season and Davenport North which was 5-4 in Class 5A and the schedule is tough top to bottom.

“We know there are a lot of challenges,” Pedersen said. “If you look at our schedule I think we have four of the top eight teams in Class 4A so our schedule is very difficult but we are going to take it one game at a time and the most important game on our schedule right now is Davenport West. We just have to make sure every game we continue to get better.”

Despite the challenging on the schedule the Clippers have their sights set on moving forward and adding to their win total.

The strong finish to last season showed the Clippers are capable of competing with the best.

“We want to do better and we think we can do better,” Schrock said. “We are really taking on that underdog mentality. Not a lot of people see CCA as a great team and we are really building off of that and using that as motivation.”

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