There are a number of new faces on the coaching staff of new Greene County head football coach Mitch Moore. One of those is Cole Jaeschke, the Rams’ quarterbacks coach. The former Prairie Valley (Gowrie) and Upper Iowa University (Fayette) standout quarterback, talked to Raccoon Valley Radio about his journey to NFL Rookie Camp, and back to rural Iowa. “I played high school ball at Prairie Valley and was a three-year starter there and made the playoffs semifinals a couple of years. Then, I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship at Upper Iowa, a Division II school in northeast Iowa. I red-shirted the first year and then was a four-year starter at quarterback. We had the first couple winning seasons in their Division II history. They were pretty new to DII, so I was a part of that success. After college, I had enough interest to try and play professionally and was in Rookie Camp with the Carolina Panthers. I had some tryouts with other NFL teams and had some other things going on, but didn’t quite make it any further than that.”

The coach said there are some adjustments to being a player at a high level, to coaching high school athletes. “You definitely have to slow it down because of the difference in the amount of time spent, if for no other reason. Our time with the kids is so much more limited. In college you spend two weeks of 12-14 hour days where you’re learning football, but we only get these kids a couple of hours a day, so we dumb it down, so to speak, and you’re normally limited on numbers. We’ll get more in depth as we get further along in camp.”

The Rams begin official practice on Monday, Aug. 7. The Gridiron Football Camp was held Aug. 1-3 at Greene County High School in Jefferson.