By Ross Shinberg
Regional Sports Editor
West Liberty head coach Jason Dumont is ready to help bring winning football back to West Liberty.
The allure of building up a new program brought Dumont out of a brief retirement this winter and he is ready for the challenge of starting anew.
“What excites me the most is the opportunity to go in there and take a program that historically has had a great tradition, and has maybe struggled the last couple of years, and get them back to a level where I know they can be,” Dumont said.
Of course, there will be an adjustment period with a new team and coach. This includes implementing an entirely new system in a two-month window.
No contact is allowed between coaches and players until June. Once the team got together, patience was required with the learning curve.
“The kids have really bought in. The kids that are on the team have done everything we’ve asked,” Dumont said. “We’re putting in a brand-new system. That’s not easy. But I’ve been really happy with the progress we’ve made. We’ll be a much better team four or five games from now than we are right now. But I like where we’re at.”
Dumont spent the last three seasons as the head coach at Iowa City Regina. There, he was also an associate head coach and defensive coordinator for the Regals for the previous 14 seasons.
He is bringing his philosophies on the defensive side of the ball to West Liberty which require discipline and quick-thinking pre-snap adjustments.
It will become second nature for the Comets in time. But Dumont was thrilled with other aspects of the defense in last Friday’s scrimmage against Mid-Prairie.
“One thing that we were very happy with is that everybody was running to the football and playing extremely hard,” Dumont said. “Everything that we saw in the scrimmage that we didn’t do well defensively is very fixable.
“You can’t coach running to the football. You can’t coach playing hard. Either they do or they don’t. One thing that was encouraging Friday night was everybody playing hard. Everybody is running hard and trying to finish blocks. If you have that, the rest will come. And we’re not that far away.”
The Comets are returning their two top leading tacklers from last year in seniors Cameron Iske and Ryker Dengler.
Dengler will be back in the secondary along with senior Seth Axsom and junior Owen Daufeldt.
There is also excitement surrounding junior Bryson Garcia anchoring the team’s defensive line.
“Bryson is an excellent defensive end. He’s up there with some of the better ones I’ve coached,” Dumont said.
There will be a handful of underclassmen in the starting lineup this year too, including sophomores Briggs Collins, Tully Griffith and Kaden Wiele.
“We have some younger kids who will have to play just because we have smaller numbers in our senior and junior classes,” Dumont said. “So far, they’ve embraced it.”
One huge boon to the squad, however, is a senior quarterback. Dumont gave high praise to Dengler who will once again be a big part of the equation this season.
“Ryker is probably the most overall athletic quarterback that I’ve been around in 20-something years of doing this, as far as athleticism and speed,” Dumont said. “What he’s going to have to work on is making sure he’s sitting in the pocket and delivering a good football. That’s not something he’s had the opportunity to do a lot of in the past.
“He is a guy that can make plays with his feet. He is a very intelligent kid. He throws a good ball. We just need to work on when is a good time to scramble and when is a good time to step up and throw.”
Dengler is at the helm of two new systems. On offense, it is one that will give him more freedom when he breaks the huddle.
“The quarterback is going to have a lot more options when he’s at the line of scrimmage on what he wants to do,” Dumont said. “I think that’s different than what they’ve done in the past, which is fine, but it will take some time getting used to.”
Last season, Dengler led the team in both passing yards and rushing yards. That will change in 2024.
“Number one, our quarterback will not be our leading rusher this year. If he is our leading rusher, we’ve got problems,” Dumont said. “That’s not a position you want to be in to be successful.
“I think you’ll see carries between Owen Daufeldt and Seth Axsom. Of course, Ryker will always be a run threat in our offense.”
Axsom will also be a prime target on the outside after catching 46 balls last season for 570 yards.
Blocking for these playmakers include Garcia, junior Perry Lehman and sophomore Crager David.
When they get into the endzone, soccer star junior Uriel Andrade will be there to tack on the extra point. He will also handle kickoff and field goal duties while Dengler will take punts again like last season.
The Comets football team will take to the field for the first time this Friday against, as fate would have it, Iowa City Regina.
A large crowd and an intense environment are expected, but Dumont is keeping his focus on the field.
“All of those coaches (at Regina) are good friends of mine. We coached together for a long time. I just want to make it about the kids and not about that,” Dumont said. “At the end of the day, we just have to approach it like any other game. I know it sounds cliché, but you have to take it one at a time.”
When West Liberty passes through its non-district opponents of the Regals, Wilton Beavers and West Burlington Falcons, they will return to its district with talent across the board.
“That 2A district will get good competition every single night. There won’t be any easy nights,” Dumont said. “Here’s what I told the kids: you look at the schedule and we can win every game. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean you’re going to win them all. If we can put things together, stay healthy, I think the fans will be pretty happy with the product we put on the field.”