Comet Chase Crooks named to Class 3A Football All-State Team

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

It didn’t seem like there were too many more accolades left for Charles City senior Chase Crooks to receive in the wake of his senior football season with the Comets.

During the team’s Awards Banquet, Chase was thoroughly feted for the work he did during the final stanza of his outstanding prep career.

In addition to receiving the team’s Most Valuable Offensive Lineman and Defensive Lineman Awards, as well as the “Iron Man” Award that honors the team’s toughest player, Crooks was named the Comet Football Most Valuable Player for the 2021 season.

As for honors bestowed from outside the team, Crooks recently earned his third-straight All-Class 3A-District 3 Football First Team honor as well as being named to the Academic All-District and Academic All-State football teams.

But there was one distinction that had been eluding Crooks during his career as well as the Comet football team itself for more than a decade — Iowa All-State.

This week, the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association released its All-State Football Teams. Named to the Class 3A Third Team as a “Defensive Utility” player was Crooks.

Often double- and triple-teamed on the defensive line, Crooks still was able to be among the Comets’ leading solo and for-loss tacklers while helping contain some of the state’s most explosive running backs.

To note, Crooks’s All-District honors for the most part acknowledged his work on the offensive line. In addition to being the team’s stalwart anchor within the trenches, Crooks was never flagged for a penalty this season.

Several other local players were tabbed All-State by the IPSWA.

In Class A, North Butler seniors Chet Buss and Kolben Miller were respectively named to First and Second teams.

Buss was noted for his work on the defensive line where he led the playoff-qualifier Bearcats in total tackles (73.5), solo tackles (51) and tackles for losses (14). A two-time heavyweight state wrestling champion, Buss recently signed his letter of intent to wrestle at the NCAA Division 1 level for the University of Northern Iowa.

Miller was feted for his punting as he averaged 39.5 yards per punt. Miller also led North Butler in rushing yards (679) while averaging nearly 9 yards per carry.

Nashua-Plainfield senior Trey Nelson was named to the Class A Third Team as a defensive back. Nelson led the Huskies with four interceptions which he returned for a combined 80 yards, and was one of the team’s better open-field tacklers with 21 solo stops to his credit.

Nelson also rushed for 816 yards and six touchdowns while helping the Huskies qualify for the playoffs.