T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY - The Grundy Center football team has 12 letterwinners back from last year’s Class 1A state championship squad. Pictured (from left) are front row: Judd Jirovsky, Aiden Hook, Brannen Jensen, Pete Lebo, Hayden Geerdees, Eli Wegmann and Brayden Davie; back row: Elliott Vokes, Ryder Slifer, Devin Hinders, Aiden Betts and Britt Meyer.

GRUNDY CENTER — Expectations couldn’t be higher for the Grundy Center football team, which has become a Class 1A powerhouse under the leadership of head coach Travis Zajac, heading into the 2025 season. The Spartans have won three straight state titles after three straight undefeated seasons and return star senior quarterback Judd Jirovsky along with a host of other talent across the field, but Jirovsky and Zajac are still focused on growing and improving every day in practice.

“I think last year, moving from wide receiver to quarterback, I had all the base knowledge down about my position, for sure, but this year, you can kind of start to learn the depths of everything,” Jirovsky said. “And being at quarterback, you’ve gotta know everything — even the line and their protection and things like that. So (I’m) just trying to grow in my knowledge and even week to week, as we prepare for different teams, what we’re gonna see, just keep getting better.”

Grundy Center graduated nine seniors — five of them all-state players — from last year’s squad that defeated county rival Dike-New Hartford 28-7 just down the road from both schools at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. As Zajac noted during an interview with the T-R, some of that production will be tough to replace: Wide receiver Tiernan Vokes, for example, racked up over 1,000 receiving yards and hauled in 16 touchdowns from Jirovsky, and running back Brody Zinkula ran for 754 yards and 13 touchdowns. On the defensive side, Ryker Thoren led the Spartans with 74.5 total tackles and nine sacks.

But Jirovsky, who completed 73.6 percent of his passes for 2,181 yards and threw 25 touchdowns against just a single interception in 2024 to go with 532 rushing yards and 18 TDs on the ground and eight interceptions on the defensive side of the ball, has been encouraged by the younger players working hard in the weight room this offseason and “following the standard” Zajac has set throughout his tenure.

“We lose five all-state players. Can you replace that production immediately? No. It’s gonna be about, again, that consistent improvement throughout the season, which we’ve gotten really good at. I think our staff does an excellent job of developing the kids throughout the season,” Zajac said. “Can we get kids that are maybe not quite there yet? Can we get them ready to go by midseason? Because that just does nothing other than increase your depth.”

Other top returnees include senior running back/linebacker Pete Lebo (402 rushing yards, 2 TDs, and 42 total tackles and three interceptions on the defensive side), senior wideout Devin Hinders (332 receiving yards, 4 TDs), senior lineman Ryder Slifer (39 tackles, 13 for loss and 6.5 sacks) and junior wide receiver/linebacker Aiden Hook (39.5 total tackles, five for loss and two sacks). As the coach often says, each team has a new identity, and the Spartans are currently in the process of finding theirs.

“It’s all part of the privilege of success, but right now, we’re not focused on any of that stuff — consecutive this or whatever — it’s all about this group of kids. Can we get them better from one day to the next? If we can do that and stack those consecutive days of improvement, then I think we’re gonna be OK as long as we can keep the kids healthy,” Zajac said.

Even with the elite heights they’ve reached in the last few years, however, Jirovsky and his teammates welcome the challenge of living up to them again this season.

“Nobody around here really sees that as any added pressure. We’re just trying to be ourselves,” Jirovsky said. “Like I’ve said, we’ve got a lot to figure out within ourselves in the next couple weeks before Week 1. There’s no added pressure. I mean, it is what it is. We’re just trying to keep winning football games on Friday night and prepare to win.”

The quarterback sees the squad’s depth as one of its biggest assets.

“There’s no weakness, and there’s nothing opponents can scout for to kind of pick on us a little bit. We might not necessarily have a strength either — just being balanced, run and pass or special teams being really good too always makes us a tough opponent,” Jirovsky said.

Zajac has full confidence that Jirovsky will continue to elevate the play of those around him and work with underclassmen ascending to varsity play as a senior leader this fall. When asked what the biggest key to success would be in 2025, the coach only had one word — though he said it three times.

“Development, development, development. We pride ourselves on that. I feel like as we continue our season in the playoffs, our team is better every week when we go out and play. Every Friday night, there’s improvement, and if we can continue that sort of trend line in our program, then we’re gonna reach our potential,” Zajac said. “If that means we’re gonna play late in November again, great. If not, at least we met our potential, and no one can hang their heads about it.”

The Spartans open the 2025 regular season at home against Aplington-Parkersburg on Friday, Aug. 29.