CEDAR FALLS – Fort Madison High School football coach Derek Doherty is known for his superlatives, but this week’s Shrine Game has almost left him speechless.
Almost.
Doherty is on the The Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Classic South team coaching staff and said his first experience with the event has been…. amazing.
The event is a yearly all-star game featuring many of the best football players in the state of Iowa, and this year includes two Fort Madison Bloodhounds Tanner Settles and Mateo Lozano.
Doherty showed up on the University of Northern Iowa campus Saturday to meet with coaches, while players arrived on Sunday.
The team is coached by Zach Sweeney, head coach at Winterset. Doherty said Sweeney has been incredible working up a game plan with a new team all in about four days, and creating a kinship among the coaches and players.
“It’s been an absolutely awesome experience for me. We moved in Saturday and right away I’m working with such a fantastic coaching staff. We get along extremely well. They are so bright and I’m just picking brains and learning all the time,” Doherty said.
“But the greatest thing, and I’m a football nerd, is at the end of the day we get to use this game we love to help children.”
The Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Classic game is an annual football game played each July featuring 92 of the best football players in Iowa. To date, the Iowa Shrine Bowl has raised nearly $3 million for Shriners’ children.
Doherty is the running backs and wide receivers coach for the South team. He’s working along side Mack Jorth of Pleasantville and Todd Black of Harlan. Doherty said anyone who knows anything about high school football in Iowa, knows about Harlan’s success.
Doherty said the invitation to coach in the Classic is no glamour detail. He’s had a full week of meetings, practices, presentations and collaboration.
The game will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday in the UNI-Dome and can be watched on the Shriners Facebook Page or on Mediacom Channel 22. A downtown Cedar Falls parade precedes the game.
Doherty said one of the most incredible things is how well the kids come together from all over the state to form a couple teams in less than a week.
“Sweeney does a great job of bringing these kids together. We sat down as a staff and he said we’ve got to be a team in days, not months,” Doherty said.
“The way he leads that and has brought us together as a staff and players is phenomenal.”
Settles is playing outside linebacker for the South and Lozano is a center on the South offensive line. Doherty said he’s had a chance to work with Lozano and Burlington’s Julian Perez-Hall, who both will see time at center. The chances for the two seniors at the Shriner’s game has been beneficial for Doherty’s program in Fort Madison.
“It’s been cool to use that as an assessment. I asked how (Tanner) was doing and they moved him to another outside linebacker spot because of his skill set. They’ve got nothing but praise for him. So proud of our guys for doing this and how they’re committing.”
The preparation for the game on such a short notice is eye-opening for Doherty. He said terminology is different for play schemes and the playbook is unique.
“There has been a lot of learning for me here. But they also ask for my opinion on things and I give it based on what we do. But it’s really kinda cool that people don’t think you’re an idiot all the time.”
Being invited to participate in the game says a lot about what coaches think of Doherty’s program over the past three years considering the Hounds qualified outright for the 4A playoffs last year and qualified in the previous year’s COVID season. Fort Madison won the first-round game that year to get into the regular playoff set.
Doherty has not had a losing season since taking over the program.
He said it’s an honor to work with the best kids in the state.
“These guys are the best in the state without a doubt. A lot of drills I’m putting them through are drills I know. But these kids are so attentive to detail. There’s no doubt about why they are the best.”
And he said many of the kids bring in leadership qualities and many of them are headed for big-time college football programs.
“Some of these kids have natural leadership. One day our quarterback took over the huddle and did a great job talking about love for each other. These guys are from all over the state and he talked about how much he loved each of them,” Doherty said.
“That’s top down from Sweeney setting the tone. It’s great when you see that happen, when you have kids that could be selfish. It’s just a crazy experience.”
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