T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - The Grundy Center football team won last year’s Class A state championship and brings back 15 letterwinners as the Spartans get promoted to Class 1A this fall. Those returning letterwinners for Grundy Center pictured above are (from left) front row: Jacob Hoy, Harry Brekunitch, Keon Vanhorn, Klayton Freed, Tanner Laube and Justin Knaack; back row: Brody Zinkula, Colin Gordon, Tiernan Vokes, Tate Jirovsky, Trent Cakerice, Ryker Thoren, Ryder Ross and Clay Saak.

GRUNDY CENTER — Grundy Center football moves up to a bigger class this fall.

But the approach that led the Spartans to an undefeated Class A championship last season will remain the same.

“We never talked about playing in the state championship game until we got there,” said Spartan head coach Travis Zajac. “It’s always been taking everything a week at a time. This year I’ve attacked it head on to make sure our kids know that the last thing we want to happen is for ego to get in our program’s way. We want that hunger again, we want to be back in the chase.”

However, even against bigger competition, Grundy Center enters the season as heavy favorites to challenge for a state title once again.

That doesn’t have to do with ego as much as what the Spartans’ opponents can see on paper. Grundy Center returns five all-state players, all first-teamers in 2022: Colin Gordon at quarterback, running back Justin Knaack, wide receiver Tate Jirovsky, lineman Trent Cakerice and linebacker Clay Saak — though Saak is currently out with a knee injury.

And behind those all-staters are the kind of hungry Spartans looking to put a stamp on their own season like the seniors did before them last year at the UNI-Dome.

“Last year’s team only had six seniors on it,” Zajac said. “We’re very deep, the quality of player that we have returning is very high. We’ve got a couple position groups to sort out and a spot on the offensive and defensive lines that opened up after [Class A all-state captain] Patrick Brown III’s graduation.”

Gordon threw for over 2,000 yards and 25 touchdowns last season; Justin Knaack rushed for 890 yards and 19 touchdowns; Jirovsky caught 29 passes for eight touchdowns and 580 yards and won’t catch many double teams with Tiernan Vokes (461 yards, 10 touchdowns) and Tanner Laube (233 yards, 3 TDs) running routes as well.

“We’ve got all-state caliber players in the backfield, all-state players on the perimeter. Just a matter of distributing the ball where it needs to go on Friday nights,” Zajac said. “We’re a pretty tough matchup because the ball is going to find its way to where there’s more green grass and we’ve got kids that can take advantage of that.”

Many of those impact players on offense will be a handful on defense as well — Grundy Center returns seven of its top ten tacklers, led by Iowa preferred walk-on Trent Cakerice who had five sacks and 11.5 total tackles for loss last season.

“The vast majority of these kids were big-time contributors last year,” Zajac said. “It’s just a matter of remembering the mental and emotional strength that it takes week in and week out to lead our football team.”

The next two years will bring a mixture of old and new opponents for Grundy Center in Class 1A District 4. The season opener at Dike-New Hartford renews what’s become an exciting rivalry in recent years, and the Spartans will follow that with home games against Aplington-Parkersburg and Pella Christian before heading into the district schedule at East Marshall on Sept. 15. Waterloo Columbus, South Hardin, Alburnett and Hudson round out the Spartan slate.

“It’s interesting, geographically they could have sent us three different ways and they chose to send us east,” Zajac said. “We’re going to be pretty battle tested in those first three weeks. … Then it’s going to be a dogfight in the district where the team that can stay healthy the longest is the one I think will come out on top.”

2023 SCHEDULE

Aug. 25 at Dike-New Hartford

Sept. 1 APLINGTON-PARKERSBURG

Sept. 8 PELLA CHRISTIAN

Sept. 15 at East Marshall

Sept. 22 at W’loo Columbus, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 29 SOUTH HARDIN

Oct. 6 ALBURNETT

Oct. 13 at Hudson

* all games 7 p.m. unless noted