After going 0-9 in 2024, Derek Doherty is ready for some football. SGI caught up with the Fort Madison head football coach and asked him what he’s most looking forward to as the season approaches.
“The obvious answer is just playing the awesome game of football, competing, and working with our guys. I think adding the opportunity to get the 0-9 taste out of our mouths is also an exciting opportunity. Last season did not go anywhere close to as planned. We hope that our team learned a lot from it and our culture has gotten stronger due to the fixes that needed to happen.”
Fort Madison lost a big group of seniors, 18 of them according to their 2024 roster on GoBound. The graduation of a large class and just five incoming seniors from a winless team might scare some coaches, but not Doherty and his staff, as they’re giddy to see who will step up to the plate. “A bulk of our team will be first-year starters. Offensively, we will only return one true starter but have a few guys who got reps last season. Defensively, we return our middle linebackers and a defensive back along with some
defensive linemen who got game reps last season. We have a lot of position battles going on because of our turnover of players. We have a really small senior class but several younger guys who are excited to build. We have a lot of fresh ‘play-dough’ to shape but we are intrigued by the challenge,” Doherty explained.
The Bloodhounds will be members of Class 3A’s District 4 along with Keokuk, Solon, Washington, Mount Pleasant, and Fairfield. They won’t see any district action until week five against Keokuk as they begin 2025 with non-district contests on the road against Burlington, home games with West Burlington/Notre Dame and Central Lee (Donnellson), and they conclude non-district play on the road against 2024 Class 3A semifinalist Mount Vernon.
Doherty spoke very candidly and positively about his opposition and what he thinks about Fort Madison’s 2025 schedule. “The thing I like most is the travel. When you go 0- 9, it’s not difficult to fill your non-district schedule as everyone comes calling. We have some teams who wouldn’t schedule with us in the past who are now open to playing so that makes the travel nice. We lost Mount Vernon in our district assignment but picked them up non-district. They’re obviously a powerhouse and a great test to have on our schedule.
The district will be interesting as high school football usually is. A few teams in our conference portion of our district graduated some good players but I am positive they will have guys hungry to reload. Solon is the new addition to our district, and we have seen them several times over the last several years as either part of the district or in the playoffs. They are a great program and Coach Stanton and staff do a wonderful job with them. They will no doubt have them ready to make a deep push, which is the
expectation there.
Keokuk has a lot of buzz with Marvin McNutt (former Iowa Hawkeye) being their coach and coming off a good season. Mount Pleasant is in a similar boat with having Coach Bowlin, who is an alumnus of there, as their head coach. They made huge strides last season, and I am positive they will continue to.
Fairfield was young and physical and ran the heck out of the ball on us. Coach Jones is a great coach and will have them ready to do the same as they return a big group.
Washington is always a tough out and will continue to be. Coach Williams and his staff always have them playing with their hair on fire.
At a place like Fort Madison, you have to accept and prepare that there will never be an easy game. It will always be an uphill sprint. As a competitor, that should excite you in my opinion.”
To go along with the praise Doherty heaped onto the programs and staffs they’re preparing to face, Doherty also shouted out those who help make his life easier. “I also am excited to work with my staff. I am biased, but I feel I have the best staff. These guys do it the right way, for the right reasons, and I appreciate that greatly about them. They are all team guys, looking for zero recognition, so I would like to give them some. I have been fortunate enough to have a core nucleus of coaches with me my entire time as head coach. Coach Travis Cullen will be returning as our defensive coordinator and secondary coach. He is a phenomenal man and has grown tremendously as a coach.
Coach Josh Wykert is our O-Line coach. This guy is awesome. He has turned several skill and big skill guys into linemen for us over the last several years and even put some on very tough all-district teams. Andrew
Cartwright will be back with us full-time as our linebackers coach. He was made to be a linebacker coach. He has fire and a great connection with kids. TJ Schelich will be returning for year two with us and has been promoted to defensive line coach. He has been working diligently on becoming a great d-line coach.
Patrick Lamb has been our running backs coach and does a great job with them. He is a previous head coach, and I appreciate his help in all aspects of our program. Chuck Banks is another previous head coach and does a great job with our futures program and helping out in any way we need. He is a program dude!
Ross Vance will also be coming into year two and has taken over our special teams. He was a great addition to our program last year, and I can’t wait to see him take the special teams over and do what he does.
We have officially added three coaches to our staff, and I am beyond ecstatic about them. Ben Rooney will be coaching our receivers. He was a NCJAA All American at Ellsworth and then went on to play at Grand View. The kids love him!
Abram Lorence is a former player of mine who has been helping with our program in a lot of ways, but will be helping on the offensive side. He is a smart kid, and we are excited that he is back in the program. We will also have assistance from Ryan Peters, who is a Girls Wrestling Coach and teacher at our school. He is a great man, and I am blessed to have him around our program.”
When asked about 2025 goals, the Bloodhounds staff have some straightforward goals. “I know it is not a check yes or no goal, but I always want to maximize our potential. On the outside that is often unclear, but when you’re on the inside and with the team every day, you have a pretty spot on feeling if you got the most out of the squad or not. Last year we did not. The 0-9 record is evident but how we did things was far from our standard. That has been an immediate focus to fix. Other goals are to get our younger guys as many games as possible. We will be young and need to develop, so we need games and experience. Plus, kids come out for football to play.
Football is different because at varsity you are only guaranteed nine games, and you do a whole lot of
practicing. We want football to be fun and to use it as a vehicle to produce great young people. We have to keep them out and interested in order to do that.”
The Bloodhounds will be an interesting program to follow in 2025 and beyond with their youth and potential.
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