Iowa
Jayden McGregory’s football journey from public parks to Division I | Senior Superlative
Des Moines Register’s Top 10 Iowa high school football players in 2025
Des Moines Register’s Top 10 Iowa high school football players in 2025
This story is part nine of a series on the Des Moines Register’s top 10 Iowa high school football seniors. Each week until the end of the season, we will feature a different senior, showing readers a side of them that goes beyond the Friday night lights.
Sometimes, the best sports stories begin in public parks.
There is a quiet green space on the east side of the Drake neighborhood, Good Park, made up of a large grass field on one end, a pair of basketball hoops and a chain link fence-enclosed row of tennis courts on the other, with three swings, a playground, a gazebo and a splash pad sandwiched in between.
One seemingly unending breeze funnels through the trees, and there’s a city soundtrack produced by an ambulance speeding down University Avenue and cars rolling past on Interstate 235.
Jayden McGregory spent a lot of time at Good Park, one of the places where he played football as a child.
It’s one of the places that turned the Valley senior into the athlete he is: one of the top football players not only in Iowa but in the entire country.
McGregory’s athletic endeavors began early, and never stopped
McGregory was born to be an athlete.
Growing up, he spent plenty of time in the halls of a high school and competed in organized sports by the time he was 2 years old. And his first word, “ball,” was a sign of things to come.
Marissa Townsley doesn’t recall a time when her son wasn’t around sports. She was a sophomore at Des Moines North High School when she had him, and with an athlete for a mom, he tagged along to her basketball games. McGregory can still recall those memories, like when he shot a basketball at halftime of those Polar Bears contests.
That’s the sport he fell in love with first, and Townsley realized early on that athletics were going to be a large part of both of their lives.
“On Saturday mornings, he wasn’t watching cartoons,” Townsley laughed. “He was watching ESPN, and he was like 4 years old.”
She put him in a basketball league for 3- and 4-year-olds when he was 2. He skipped flag football and began playing tackle ball at 5 years old, because he just wanted to be in pads – like the professional athletes he’d started to idolize.
Townsley thought that her son would take one or two hits and be done with football, but that obviously did not happen. During his youth football days – growing up on teams sponsored by the Des Moines Parks and Recreation department – he made all-star teams for sixth and seventh graders when he was still in fourth grade.
McGregory’s life revolved around sports, which meant Townsley’s life revolved around sports.
She started to volunteer with his youth programs. While McGregory practiced or played, Townsley would help with bookkeeping or registration. The pair would wake up early to shoot hoops – on any net they could find – before school and work. Townsley turned into McGregory’s most consistent practice partner.
It wasn’t always easy for the single mother of three – McGregory and his younger siblings, Amari and Mariah – to keep up with her oldest child’s aspirations.
“At times, it really broke my heart because I’m a single mom, and so having to sometimes make those sacrifices or tell him no was hard,” Townsley said. “It was a lot of, ‘If we have the money.’ Financially, that was the hard part. Showing up was the easy part.”
But the work they put in together paid off.
McGregory gravitated toward the quarterback position, and that’s where he played during most of his youth football years and even into his first season at Des Moines North. He didn’t have an easy transition to the high school game, though.
He didn’t register any statistics in the Polar Bears’ first game of his freshman season. In game two – a win over Des Moines East – he was credited with half a tackle. And then came game three.
The freshman receiver caught two passes totaling 32 yards from senior quarterback Nick Crispin. But then, Crispin got hurt in the middle of that game, and then-head coach Eric Addy put McGregory in at quarterback. He completed three of three passes and threw one touchdown pass, but the Polar Bears lost.
That’s when the real work began.
“That Saturday, I had to learn the whole playbook from the quarterback’s standpoint,” McGregory said. “It was a roller coaster, for sure, in my freshman year. But it was a good learning lesson.”
Before the start of his sophomore year, McGregory transferred from North to Valley.
The decision to leave the community that had essentially raised him didn’t come easy. But McGregory and Townsley both knew that getting recruited out of the Des Moines Public School programs was an uphill battle, and they understood that consistently playing against a higher level of competition would only aid his development.
He emerged as one of the top two-way players on the Tigers’ roster in his first year in West Des Moines, recording 247 receiving yards and three touchdowns on offense and 16.5 tackles, one fumble recovery taken 70 yards for a touchdown and two interceptions on defense.
That success continued into his junior season, where he helped Valley to a state runner-up finish, recording 173 receiving yards and one touchdown plus 13.5 tackles and three interceptions – including a pick six – along the way.
And his accomplishments weren’t just limited to the football field.
McGregory earned a spot in the starting lineup of Valley’s basketball team, and he played a large role in the Tigers’ back-to-back state championships in 2024 and 2025.
He missed out on the three–peat, with Valley also winning the title in 2023, since McGregory still played for Des Moines North. In that 2023 season, he led the Polar Bears in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game as a freshman.
McGregory’s athleticism – on the gridiron, on the hardwood – made him a standout in Iowa.
It also made college coaches around the country take notice of his talents.
McGregory’s motivation leads to Division I offers
Quarterback, wide receiver, cornerback, safety, punt returner, kick returner and punter.
“That’s really it,” said McGregory, after rattling off all the positions he played during his four-year, two-program high school career.
So, the ‘athlete’ distinction – given to two-way players who were recruited as both an offensive and defensive player – fit McGregory perfectly. He’ll be a defensive back in college, and that’s by design, since it’s not a position that he just fell into naturally.
The motivation that pushed McGregory to excel in sports at such a young age is also the reason why he stood out at college prospect camps.
Always the quarterback on his youth football teams, he quickly noticed that it was the largest position group at almost every prospect camp he attended. McGregory noticed something else, too: the defensive backs were typically the smallest group.
“He quickly noticed how slim the lines were at the defensive back position,” Townsley recalled. “Everybody wants to be the quarterback, and everybody wants to be a receiver. Jayden just wanted to be seen.”
He’d never really played that position before, but he’d always been athletic, and he took to it easily. And that one decision to camp at a position unfamiliar to him changed McGregory’s life.
In the summer after his freshman year, McGregory landed his first Division I offer. It came from Iowa State, and it came after one of those prospect camps. He earned a second offer – from Minnesota – that summer, but it wasn’t until after his first season at Valley that the floodgates opened.
Over the next year and a half, he picked up offers from Arkansas, Florida State, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, Nebraska, Southern Miss, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
He climbed to a four-star ranking – the second highest in the recruiting world – by 247Sports Composite, making him one of the top 375 players in the country in his senior class.
On July 7 – a date partially picked to coincide with his No. 7 jersey – McGregory committed to Louisville. It marked the end of a recruitment process that had brought him and his mother even closer together.
When his recruitment picked up, Townsley made one thing very clear: education came first, and football came second.
“If his grades were not there, then this does not happen,” Townsley laughed. “I made sure he understood like, Cs are average and please don’t bring me a C because you’re not an average kid.”
She not only pushed him to separate himself academically, but she also did everything she could to foster his football dreams. Townsley spent a lot of time on the road with her oldest son, making sure he set foot on almost every campus where he held an offer.
She spent those hours in the car – long weekends trying to stop at three or four colleges in one trip – trying to prepare McGregory for life after high school.
McGregory wouldn’t change anything about that relationship – from growing up in the halls of Des Moines North to long days on the road chasing his dream. It’s always been him and Townsley, and a dozen-or-so Division I offers didn’t change that.
“Man, my mom’s the reason why I’m here today,” McGregory said with a smile. “She put me in so many great positions, like I can’t thank her enough. It was fun growing up, just me and my mom for a little bit. My mom, she’s a very good one.”
McGregory sets high expectations for senior season
McGregory pulls a cell phone – protected by a bright orange case – from his shorts pocket and presses the power button, illuminating his home screen.
The screensaver is a thrown-together collage of football images, including a screenshot of a list, typed out in the notes application and partially obscured by the white letters and numbers spelling out the date and time.
His eyes hover over each line as he reads down the checklist.
Football state champion, 1,000 receiving yards, zero catches against him in coverage. Ten interceptions, four pick-sixes, at least 70 tackles, seven tackles for loss. Be a great teammate, lead by example, earn first team, all-state honors for defensive back and wide receiver. Player of the year.
During his official visits to college programs during the summer, he thought a lot about what he wanted to accomplish this season and the type of football player he wanted to be in his senior year.
The goals are lofty, almost unattainable, especially for a player who spends little time catching his breath.
This season, he threw one pass for 24 yards and a touchdown, has racked up 434 receiving yards and seven touchdowns through the air, and recorded 4.5 tackles and a fumble recovery on defense.
So, he has some catching up to do on some of those preseason goals.
But it was never about checking each of those things off the list; it was about making his mark. And, even before the season started, McGregory’s done that.
The Valley senior partnered with Back 2 School Bash – an event that provides free school supplies, haircuts, food and resources for local families – in an NIL deal this summer. It was an event that McGregory and Townsley attended when he was growing up.
He wanted to remind people where he came from and how he got to where he is now.
“He’s just such a role model in his community where he’s from, which is really the inner city,” Townsley said. “Yes, we’re at Valley now, but everybody knows where he started. And there’s just so many kids in that community that really look up to and idolize Jayden because they know him.”
McGregory accomplished a lot in his 18 years of life, and there is a lot more to come.
It’s too early to know if his final season of high school football will end with a state championship or how he’ll play in college.
But McGregory made a name for himself in Des Moines – and showed other children what’s possible in the process – and that’s enough, at least for now.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
Jamie Pollard to step down after 22 years
Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard to retire after 22 years; leaving by June 30, 2027 after 24 Big 12 titles, $400M+ projects.
When Jamie Pollard was first introduced as Iowa State’s athletics director on Sept. 19, 2005, he quickly marked his — or rather, the Cyclones’ — territory.
After unranked Iowa State football upset then-ranked No. 3 Iowa, 23-3, in that season’s Cy-Hawk game, Pollard commissioned a billboard in Hawkeye territory over in Cedar Rapids that read, “It’s a Cyclone state.”
It was bold, unique and different. It was also indicative of what to expect from Pollard, who is unafraid to express himself, passionate about the Cyclones and from the outset had a vision for Iowa State athletics, which had long been deemed little brother to its rival in the eastern half of the state.
The billboard riled up those with Cyclone and Hawkeye allegiances. The initiative is still discussed years later and occasionally referenced.
Pollard is still around, too, although his time as an athletics director is coming to a close.
On July 10, he announced his retirement, which will be effective on June 30, 2027, or whenever Iowa State has hired his successor — whichever comes first.
“My wife, Ellen, and I look forward to the next chapter in our life’s journey and it is important to us that we transition now, while we are both healthy and young, so we can fully enjoy our retirement years,” stated Pollard. “I am grateful to President (David) Cook for allowing me to share this news now and hopefully it will allow the university plenty of time to properly transition new leadership to our department during a transformational time in college athletics.
“When we moved to Ames in 2005, we did not anticipate the impact being a Cyclone would have on our family. The personal and professional opportunities our family has experienced during the past 21 years have been truly amazing.”
Pollard is entering his 22nd year as athletic director at Iowa State, is the longest-tenured athletic director in school history and the longest-tenured active power-conference AD in the country.
The Oshkosh, Wisconsin, native first arrived in Ames after serving as associate and deputy athletics director roles at Wisconsin from 1998-2005. He also had administrative roles at Saint Louis and Maryland.
The nationwide search for a new athletics director is expected to begin this fall. Until then, Pollard plans on making sure his successor will be in good standing going forward.
“A big thing for Ellen and me, is there is a ‘next,’ and we want to physically and mentally be able to enjoy ‘next,’ but, at the same time, I want to make sure when that day comes, that we hand it off in as good a spot as can be,” Pollard told the Register in June. “… At some point in time, you have to transition it to whatever comes next and unfortunately, our industry, the ground’s changing under our feet as we talk. We’re going to have to figure out how to deal with that part of it, and I think a big part for Iowa State is just making sure our financial situation is as solid as it can be. It’s not clearly what it once was, but we’re never going back to those days, either.”
From upgraded facilities, key coaching hires, to recent athletics success, Cyclone and Hawkeye fans will continue the endless debate about superiority with or without the infamous billboard. But there’s no doubting the growth and change across Iowa State athletics throughout Pollard’s time as AD.
Iowa holds the edge in the all-time series records for the Cy-Hawk rivalry, but recent years have shown that the Cyclones now have a seat at the big-boy table nationally.
“I’ve been witnessing all the stuff that he’s done and I think — I don’t know technically who is going to be on the Mount Rushmore of Iowa State athletics, but I think he’s got to be there because of what he’s done for all of us,” longtime Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly said. “You embrace who you are, you don’t apologize for what you’re not and I think he learned quickly like, ‘Hey, we can’t change the weather here, we can’t change the population.’ We have to change our facilities, we have to make Iowa State fans really proud of who we are and what we’re about. How do we do that? He really did a great job of it.
“You don’t stay in a job like that this long without being really good at it, but at the same time, being respected within the building.”
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard gives Cy-Hawk game update
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard gives a Cy-Hawk game update.
While former athletics directors Gene Smith and Bruce Van De Velde began fundraising efforts at Iowa State, Pollard exponentially accelerated and revolutionized the Cyclones’ fundraising success.
Athletics fundraising increased from $9 million the year prior to his arrival to $53 million during the 2025-26 academic year.
The administration invested more than $400 million in new facilities and building upgrades. Some of the most impactful completed projects include the construction of the Stark Performance Center, the Sukup Basketball Complex and the pedestrian bridge, as well as renovations to the Bergstrom Football Complex, Jack Trice Stadium and the south end zone project.
“You step foot in the facilities now, and there’s nothing to laugh at anymore,” said Dan McCarney, who coached Iowa State football from 1995-2006. “… When I walk in those facilities over there right now, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to my former assistant coaches I would have just loved one day, just one month, I would have loved to bring recruits and their families, former players and fans into those facilities now that have been built under Jamie’s leadership.
“There’s commitment, it is big-time. Is it the best in America? I don’t know and I don’t care. I just know it’s the best in the history of Iowa State athletics and that doesn’t just happen. You got to have vision, you got to be a dreamer and then you got to have a path and a plan to get you there, and I think that’s what will be a big part of Jamie’s legacy.”
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard on potential CFP expansion
Should the College Football Playoff expand to 24 teams? Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard shares his thoughts on the potential idea.
Pollard made integral coaching hires, such as football coach Matt Campbell, who became the winningest coach in program history and established consistency over his decade-long run with the Cyclones before departing for Penn State.
In men’s basketball, Pollard hired hometown legend Fred Hoiberg, whose banner was hung in the rafters of Hilton Coliseum in 2010. “The Mayor” returned to coach his alma mater despite not having any prior coaching experience. Hoiberg broke a 14-year drought by leading the Cyclones to their first Big 12 Tournament title and Sweet 16 appearance in 2014. His team followed up with another Big 12 Tournament crown the following year, Hoiberg’s last before leaving for the Chicago Bulls.
Pollard made another instrumental basketball coaching hire by bringing in former assistant T.J. Otzelberger to become head coach. Otzelberger inherited a 2-22 team and restored the Cyclones into the national spotlight. The Cyclones have made the NCAA Tournament each year and reached three Sweet 16s under his watch.
Women’s basketball has been a frequent NCAA Tournament participant and won a Big 12 Tournament title in 2023.
There has also been success in Olympic sports. Wrestling also returned to national relevance with the hiring of Kevin Dresser and is now in the midst of a transition period with new head coach Brent Metcalf and the introduction of women’s wrestling. Iowa State continues to be a power in cross country and track and field. Women’s golf won its first Big 12 team title in 2026.
Throughout Pollard’s two decades in Ames, the Cyclones have won 24 Big 12 team championships across eight different sports. They’ve registered all-time program-best finishes in nine different sports and crowned 24 NCAA individual champions. Iowa State has won four of the last five Cy-Hawk Series and 11 titles overall.
Pollard earned Division I FBS athletics director of the year honors from NACDA in 2019 and 2023.
“Excited for him, but it’s hard to see him go because it’s all I’ve ever really known is him working in college sports and especially Iowa State,” said his eldest son Thomas Pollard, the Cyclones men’s basketball director of recruiting. “Knowing how much Iowa State means to him and everything he’s put into this place, it’s hard to put it all into words.”
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard on 76-team NCAA Tournament
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard on 76-team NCAA Tournament expansion.
There were some tough times and challenges that came during the climb to improve Iowa State athletics.
Financial struggles, uncertainty surrounding conference realignment, the COVID-19 pandemic, adapting to the new age of college athletics with NIL, transfer portal and revenue share, the elimination of the gymnastics program, and the inability to retain successful coaches such as Campbell, Hoiberg, former wrestling coach and alumnus Cael Sanderson, and former gymnastics coach K.J. Kindler, who became an eight-time national champion at Oklahoma.
Some financial issues remain. Last year, Iowa State athletics projected a $147 million budget deficit through 2031, which the school said was due to the House settlement that allowed for revenue sharing with student-athletes.
However, Pollard told the Register in June that through internal decisions and alterations, Iowa State has been able to cut that deficit to approximately $75 million over the next five years.
Regardless of the obstacles, Pollard has persisted. A 22-year run as a power-conference athletics director stands out in an ever-changing college landscape, from systems to personnel.
His retirement wasn’t a surprise to those close to him. Pollard’s ability to stay for as long as he did didn’t shock them, either.
“Number one, Jamie’s very smart,” Dresser said. “Number two, he’s very driven. And number three, I think you’ve got to have this — he’s not afraid to make hard decisions that are going to upset people. He sees the big picture and he’s got a vision. Any time you’re in charge, you’re going to hurt feelings and step on toes, and he accepted that part of his job and he might not have liked it all the time, but he did the things he had to do to make Iowa State continue to progress.”
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
The Iowa State Cyclones will start a new era when the 2026 college football season kicks off next month.
For the first time in a decade, they have a new leader on the sidelines. Jimmy Rogers, hired away from the Washington State Cougars, will be replacing Matt Campbell, who accepted the head coaching position with the Penn State Nittany Lions and brought along almost the entire coaching staff and most of the eligible roster along with him.
The roster purge left Rogers and Iowa State in a tough spot. He and his staff have done as good a job as possible to restock the talent, but they are certainly facing an uphill battle in the Big 12 in 2026.
So much so, predictions aren’t in their favor. Over at CBS Sports, Brad Crawford has projected game-by-game results for every team in the conference. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t believe the Cyclones are going to find much success in Year 1 under Rogers.
Iowa State predicted for tough 2026 season in Big 12
He has predicted Iowa State to finish 4-8 on the season and 2-7 in the Big 12. Their victories will come against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks, Bowling Green Falcons, West Virginia Mountaineers and Cincinnati Bearcats.
That means losses against the Iowa Hawkeyes, Utah Utes, BYU Cougars, Arizona Wildcats, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Baylor Bears, UCF Knights and Kansas State Wildcats.
As Crawford notes, a major reason for his predictions unfolding in that fashion is their signing class being near the bottom of the Power 4 ranks. Rogers has experience working with revamped rosters; the Washington State group in 2025 had 75 newcomers on the team.
Cyclones predicted to struggle on the road
However, he is facing a much bigger challenge integrating so many new players, from all levels of college football, into a Big 12 program. As a result, the toss-up games against teams thought to be on their tier, such as Baylor, UCF and Kansas State, are all predicted to be losses.
Another interesting takeaway is that the Cyclones aren’t predicted to win a single game away from Jack Trice Stadium in 2026. The lack of Power 4 experience certainly plays a role in that, as winning on the road is a tall task; doing so in hostile conference environments most of the roster has never been part of is even tougher.
Rogers knows how to get the most out of what looks to be an overmatched roster. Iowa State shouldn’t be counted out from being able to secure a spot in a bowl game, but they will need a lot to go right and in their favor during the season.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) — Several hundred Iowans turned out for the Republican Party of Iowa’s Lincoln Dinner fundraiser Friday night that served largely as a tribute to Gov. Kim Reynolds, the state’s first female governor who is retiring after her term expires in January.
One of granddaughters described Reynolds as her “best friend,” a moment that brought tears on stage.
Two of Reynolds’ daughters praised their mother’s work ethic and commitment to their family.
A video played during the evening included a salute for Reynolds from Terry Branstad, the former governor who had chosen Reynolds as his running mate.
Republican governors from Nebraska, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Georgia also offered their compliments for Reynolds in videos.
So did Trump administration officials including U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins .
Reynolds, first elected lt. governor in 2010, became governor in 2017 after Branstad resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to China.
Copyright 2026 Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau. All rights reserved.
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