Webster City's Jaxon Cherry, despite a stellar football career, might be Iowa's best kept secret

Nothing about Webster City senior Jaxon Cherry’s career has been subtle.

Since getting some playing time on varsity as a freshman, Cherry has accumulated 3,455 rushing yards and 60 rushing touchdowns on offense. He's racked up 135 tackles, 10.5 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss on the other side of the ball.

In his junior season, he led all of Class 4A in all-purpose yards (2,162 yards), rushing yards (1,804), rushing touchdowns (31) and was 21st in 4A with 61 tackles.

We haven’t even touched on the early parts of his senior season or his wrestling and track career yet.

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Despite that, Cherry carries himself quietly, in person and on social media. In an interview with The Des Moines Register, he credited his team's improvement as a reason he’s seen his production increase this season, going from 8.7 yards per carry to 10.7. You’ll see the occasional social media post about a recruiting visit he’s heading to or an offer he has received. However, you’ll see just as many posts and retweets about his teammates’ success.

“He's very humble, he's very introverted and he doesn't promote himself,” said Webster City head coach Bob Howard. “Whether or not that fits in the 21st century, I don't know, because he has character and leadership. Everything is a plus with Jaxon.”

“He is the outstanding athlete”

In two games this season, Cherry is already up to 587 yards on the ground, eight touchdowns and is the team leader in tackles, sacks and tackles for loss. It’s very much a repeat of his success in 2022, where he led his team the same way.

Cherry’s career outside of football has been quite good as well. In addition to finishing in fifth place at the state wrestling meet in the 220-pound weight class at the 2A level, he holds the school’s discus record and was the anchor of the school’s best 4x100 relay time.

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Despite having success in every sport he’s tried, his heart remains tied to football. After his high school career comes to an end, he's solely focusing his recruiting search on the gridiron. Many coaches like their kids to specialize in a sport, but Howard views Cherry’s diverse interests as a major asset in his ability to handle adversity. Cherry also sees both track and wrestling as great conditioning opportunities, but particularly wrestling as a great teacher for his football career.

“Wrestling actually really helps for defense I feel like,” Cherry said. “Makes me a better tackler and keeps me in shape all year 'round.”

Standing at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds and benching 370 pounds while running a 4.45 40-yard dash, according to Howard, he currently has only one Division I offer, Marshall. As a kid with as much success as Cherry has had combined with the athletic ability and character Howard speaks to, the coach is baffled at the lack of recruitment for his running back and linebacker.

He knows one way or another, it’ll end up taking care of itself.

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“I thought it (success on the field) was enough, but apparently not,” Howard said. “It's one that'll take care of itself. I think what people don't see is how humble he is and how team-first he is. He could carry the ball 40 times or he could carry the ball four times, whatever it takes for us to try to win.”

Cherry has said much of the recruiting process can be confusing as coaches begin to talk to him and then fall off the map. Currently, he does not have a timeline for making a decision for himself and hasn’t narrowed his choices. Right now, it’s all about this football season and making the playoffs before he can really begin to make that decision.

Wherever he does go, he wants a place that will help him succeed the most after football.

His offer from the Thundering Herd came when he was preparing for a track meet this spring. His phone rang and Marshall defensive coordinator Jason Semore was on the other end with an offer. That clearly motivated Cherry because right after he helped break Webster City's school 4x100 relay record with a 43.09 time.

“I was pretty energetic,” Cherry said.

Cherry, somehow, might just be the state’s best-kept secret despite going on nearly three years of sustained success at the varsity level in several sports.

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Howard knows the Lynx’s success rides on the back of Cherry staying healthy. Even though Howard’s got one of the lengthier track records in the state, he to this day hasn’t seen someone like him.

“To be honest, in 47 years and three state championships at Sigourney-Keota and all the kids we had there, kids that have played at Iowa and UNI, he is the outstanding athlete,” Howard said.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @EMcKown23.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Webster City senior Jaxon Cherry might be Iowa's best secret