FORT MADISON – At 0-5 Head Coach Derek Doherty is no longer looking at outcomes, but effort.
Doherty’s Bloodhound football team takes on Mt. Vernon in week 6 on the road at the Martha Parsons Activities Center at the Mt. Vernon High School campus.
Fort Madison is coming off a 60-7 drubbing at the hands of Keokuk last week. A game that saw senior wideout Tateum Schelich’s season come to an end. Schelich fractured his shin in the first half and played the rest of the half.
But a hospital visit Saturday revealed the fracture and the senior wideout and kick returner was placed in a boot and on crutches. However, he deferred a cast to see how the injury will heal.
“Yeah, we lost Tateum. What an absolute monster of a kid. He broke his shin in the second quarter, and he played the rest of the quarter on it. He called me Saturday morning and said he woke up and couldn’t walk. Headed to the ER and they found it was broken,” Doherty said.
“He’s been at practice on crutches and being a leader, but that’s another dagger."
The Hounds also lost Caden Barnes in week 3, so in addition to fielding a fairly inexperienced squad, Doherty is now doing it with kids coming of the bench.
On paper, the IHSAA's Class 3A No. 10 Mustangs look like a fairly average team, but their only loss has come at the hands of Solon 7-6. But they responded with a 59-0 win over Mt. Pleasant and a 46-14 win over Assumption last week.
Quarterback Kellen Haverback has 1000 yards through the air and 11 touchdowns. He’s also rushed for four scores on 85 carries. Haverback likes to throw to Jase Jaspers who has 500 yards on 33 receptions and four scores. He also averages about 16 yards per return in the kicking game. Senior Watson Krob has six touchdowns on 300 yards in catches.
Senior Cooper Hird has six touchdowns on the ground and 346 yards.
Junior linebacker Jaxon Anderson leads the team in tackles with 31.5. Three of those were sacks and six are tackles for loss.
“It’s for sure they are a well-oiled machine,” Doherty said.
“First, I’ve become really good friends with their strength coach and I followed him around for a day and you find out why they're so good up there,” said Doherty.
“They have softball team state titles, volleyball team is good. All of those kids are in the weight room. They make it a priority and it is important there. It’s quite impressive and no secret why they're good."
“Xs and Os, it’s going to be difficult. We put in some game plans, but you have to execute.”
Fort Madison continues to rely on the legs and arm of Marcus Guzman. The senior has had a hand in every touchdown the Hounds have scored this season, including two through the air with seven picks, and seven touchdowns on the ground. His favorite targets have been Schelich and Brody Cashman who have 20 of his 42 receptions. Cashman has 155 yards, most coming in week 4, and a touchdown. The senior also leads the Hounds with 16 tackles.
Doherty said he’s looking for climbers and not campers.
“When things go bad, a lot of people want to camp and weather the storm. We’re going to keep climbing. That’s the separator of people in life. You never ask for things to be easy and, if you can do that, you’’ll be successful,” he said.
He said the Bloodhounds are facing a lot of adversity with records and underperforming and then you get these guys. But the motivation still seems to be there.
“They’re still motivated. More discussions this week obviously about how we choose to lean in on life lessons,” he said.
“You want to win and make playoffs, but as men, we know it’s more than that. Our guys have listened to that this week. Life is tough and at the end of the day we want you to be great men. Great men fight adversity. They keep pushing and keep climbing and that’s the message.
“It's exciting to see. In the past we’ve been in the situations where kids are checking out and these kids keep coming back for more. They’re wanting to compete."
Doherty said he’s happy with the game planning that coordinators Dylan Mussleman and Travis Cullen have been doing. It's just the gap in execution.
“This week I kind of threw out some opinions on what I thought we might try, but I want my coaches to have autonomy. I hire them to do a job and I trust them, and if I didn’t, they wouldn’t be here,” he said.
“I gave (Mussleman) a sheet with some of my ideas and said you can burn it or use it. He’s doing a great job and I think that speaks to the coach in him. He knows this is high school, so he gets that we will have cycles."
The record isn't necessarily a byproduct of being in a low cycle, he said.
“Our record isn’t that great, but we’re facing some pretty dang good teams and and we’re trying to keep all that in perspective,” he said.
“Nobody likes the outcome, but it’s about where the effort is.”
The game kicks off just northeast of Cedar Rapids at 7 p.m. Friday night.
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