Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Last season is in the past.

A year ago an 0-6 start turned into a 2-7 season and snapped a string of four consecutive winning seasons for City High under head coach Mitch Moore.

Entering this season the Little Hawks have left the disappointment of last season behind – mostly.

“We’ve forgotten about it for the most part but it’s still in the back of our mind that we were 2-7 last year,” City High junior linebacker Seth Barnett said. “We know that is our record until we change it and prove everyone wrong.”

With a strong group of returning talent and the addition of several talented newcomers at key positions City High is intent on flipping the script from a year ago while leaving the sting left by last season fully in the dust over the next several months.

While a two-win season last fall was the exception and not the norm under Moore last year’s results are also serving as a learning experience for the returning Little Hawks.

“We have to use it as motivation,” City High senior defensive back Shepherd Stanton said. “We saw what our mistakes were last year and we are trying to fix them. We are taking it harder with everything. In film in the weight room, we know we can’t give half effort in anything.”

City High has the talent in place to make sure last season was just a blip on the radar.

It starts on offense where the Little Hawks have a mix of returning starters and newcomers that should boost a unit that averaged 23.9 points and 349 total yards per game last season.

City High brings back a pair of big-time players up front to lead its offensive line in senior three-year starter Preston Mensah (6-4, 300) and junior Lucas Goodrich (6-5, 280).

“I just think it’s so important to have those seasons where you are faced with a lot of adversity because that’s the game of football, you are going to run into that,” Goodrich said. “Having that last year was certainly a wake-up call. Coach Moore has always had a winning season and last year was different but I think we can take a lot from that and applying it to this year.”

Goodrich returns at left tackle while Mensah started at right tackle last season.

The duo gives the Little Hawks a nucleus to build around on an offensive line that also features senior center Toby Friday (5-8, 195) and juniors Austin Klauke (6-1,237) and William Meis (6-1, 220) and should emerge as a strength.

“Our goal is just to dominate and lead,” Mensah said. “Last year there were a lot of guys playing both ways and this year I am the only guy playing both ways so I think just dominate and be leaders on the team.”

Senior transfers Jackson Grabinski (6-0, 205) at quarterback and Savion Miller (5-10, 200) at running back figure to be major sparts in the offensive backfield.

Grabinski comes to City High after passing for 1,738 yards and 18 touchdowns at DePaul College Prep in Chicago, Illinois last season.

“One of my big goals coming in here when I transferred in March was getting the guys to believe we have the talent to go win a state championship,” Grabinski said. “I think that’s a huge thing is making sure that everyone believes that from our best seniors to the guys that are on the scout team. I think we have a really good belief as a team and no one is worried about last year.”

Miller rushed for 1,068 yards and 16 touchdowns and caught 16 passes for 338 yards and nine touchdowns at Regina last season while earning first team Class 1A all-state honors a year ago.

“I really love what our offense is doing,” Miller said. “We have some really talented dudes and I think we are going to be really dangerous on offense.”

Senior Chayse Newton (5-8, 160) returns at receiver after leading the Little Hawks in receptions each of the past two seasons.

Newton caught 60 passes for 728 yards and six touchdowns last season and has 96 catches for 1,154 yards and nine touchdowns the past two seasons.

“I’ve thrown with Chayse for years before I moved so that’s probably my strongest connection so Chayse is going to get the ball same as last year,” Grabinski said. “Then having Savion not only to run but to catch the ball too I think that’s going to be huge for the offense and we’ve all season what he can do running the ball. I think it’s a really good, diverse offense and I think people are going to see that.”

On defense City High returns four of its top 10 tacklers from a unit that allowed 34.7 points and 342 total yards per game last season.

Junior linebacker Marshall Sheldon returns in the middle after ranking second on the team with 74.5 tackles and leading the Little Hawks with 19 tackles for loss.

Barnett (5-10, 195) returns at linebacker after making 21.5 tackles with 6.5 for loss and junior Coden Kurtz (5-11, 180) and Stanton (6-2, 170) return in the secondary after combining for 30.5 tackles last season.

Junior Lawrence Jones (5-10, 262) returns on the defensive line after making 5.5 tackles for loss last season and sophomore defensive end Joseph Majerus (6-2, 225) appears in line for a breakthrough season.

“I think this season started after our last game,” Stanton said. “We’ve done a lot to turn it around since then with the returning guys and we have a lot of younger guys stepping up that are going to be in the mix too.”

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