Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Liberty High

Head coach: Mitch Wieland (1^st season)

Assistant coaches: Chuck Benda; Tony Burrier; Nate Wieland; Garrett Rettig; Ray Boyum; Evan Downes; Nick Dolezal; Aaron Blom; Evan Hartman; Brad Beane; Matt Eckhardt; Kaleb Williams; Keenan Davis; Isiah Stevens; David James

Last season: 11-2 (Class 5A semifinals)

Returning starters: Pryor Reiners, Sr., WR/DB; Adrian Clerry, Sr., WR/DB; Ben Mohr, Sr., OL/DL; Brody Beaver, Sr., RB; Leo Rozz, Sr., RB/WR/DB; Alex Strunk, Sr., LB; Eric Strunk, Sr., LB; Hank Thompson, Sr., DL; Cash Hennings, Sr., DL; Cooper Lester, Jr., DB/WR

Other returning letterwinners: Ethan Meidlinger, Soph., TE/DL; Lance Sanchez, Jr., OL; Tate Rettig, Jr., WR/DB

Newcomers to watch: Cooper Lester, Jr., LB; Santos Correas, Jr., LB; Emerson Berner, Sr., QB; Jacob Karstens, Sr., TE/DL Pierce Beckman, Sr., TE/DL; Victor Nakihinga, Sr., WR

Playoff history: 5 appearances (2019, 2020, 2022, 2024, 2025)

Circle the date: September 4 against Southeast Polk. Liberty High faces perennial 5A power Southeast Polk for the third time in the last two seasons after downing the Rams twice last season including a 31-28 win in the 5A quarterfinals in North Liberty.

Headliner: A three-year starter, senior two-way standout Pryor Reiners (5-10, 160) is a big-time playmaker on both sides of the Lightning. On offense Reiners led Liberty High with 55 receptions for 631 yards and seven touchdown and also rushed for 170 yards and a touchdown. On defense Reiners made 19 tackles with two for loss and forced a fumble.

Ready for a breakthrough: Described by head coach Mitch Wieland as a gunslinger, senior quarterback Emerson Berner (6-2, 185) steps in to lead the Liberty High offense and will look to continue a string of impressive quarterback play started by all-staters Graham Beckman and Reece Rettig. The strong-armed Berner completed 66 percent of his passes last season (19-of-29) throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns in a back up role that included going 8-of-12 for 54 yards against West Des Moines Dowling in the 5A title game.

Unsung hero: Senior offensive tackle Ben Mohr (6-4, 210) returns as the leader of a Liberty High offensive line that will look to build off its success last season when it helped the Lightning average 388 total yards, 176 rushing yards and 35 points per game.

Keep an eye on: Junior Cooper Lester played all over the field last season (quarterback, wide receiver, running back and defensive back) and produced at every spot. Lester rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown, caught seven passes for 35 yards and made 24 tackles with 2.5 for loss, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble.

Remember the name: Senior wide receiver/defensive back Adrian Clerry is an explosive athlete and a big play waiting to happen any time he touches the ball. The versatile Clerry had 40 receptions for 357 yards and four touchdowns, rushed for 92 yards and three touchdowns had 28 tackles and two interceptions including one returned for a touchdown while also averaging 26 yards per kick off return and 17.7 yards per punt return last season.

Biggest strength: Experience. Liberty High returns 10 starters from last year’s state runner-up team a list that includes the Lightning’s second leading rusher, four of their top five receivers and five of their top seven tacklers from a year ago. There are gaps to be filled, most notable at quarterback and on the offensive line but the list of returners with big-game experience is long.

Biggest question: What does Liberty High look like under first-year head coach Mitch Wieland? The early answer to that question is like – very similar to past seasons. Other than the change at the top, where long-time assistant Wieland replaces Scott Chandler who led the program the past two seasons, Liberty High coaching staff returns intact. Wieland, a former City High prep, will no doubt add his own finger print to the program but the Lightning don’t expect to change much on both sides of the ball schematically following the two most successful seasons in program history.

Quotable: “Obviously I’m not Scott Chandler. There is zero secret he is the elite of the elite and we are not at this point right now without him so I want to give him all the flowers, all the kudos because he absolutely deserves it. He poured his heart and soul into this program and I feel super fortunate to learn under him,” Liberty High coach Mitch Wieland said. “We came in together six years ago so a lot of the stuff that he did is stuff we worked on together. We share a lot of the same things philosophically so there is a lot that we are keeping the same but I don’t want it to seem like I am just trying to copy and paste coach Chandler. The reality is a lot of the stuff that we’ve done, we worked on together or its stuff that I see that he’s done and it works so if it’s not broke we aren’t going to fix it.”

2026 Schedule

Date/Opponent/Record in 2025

August 28: at Cedar Falls (7-3)

September 4: Southeast Polk (6-5)

September 11: at Linn-Mar (4-5)

September 18: Johnston (8-3)

September 25: West High (8-3)

October 2: at Davenport Central (1-8)

October 9: Pleasant Valley (5-4)

October 16: at City High (2-7)

October 23: at Muscatine (1-8)

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