Cory Quail named new head football coach at Highland

Former Huskies assistant will also be at-risk educator

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 3/23/22

RIVERSIDE

Cory Quail is a Huskie again.

And he couldn’t be happier.

Quail, an assistant in both football and boys basketball at Highland during the 2019-20 school year, is …

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Cory Quail named new head football coach at Highland

Former Huskies assistant will also be at-risk educator

Posted

RIVERSIDE

Cory Quail is a Huskie again.

And he couldn’t be happier.

Quail, an assistant in both football and boys basketball at Highland during the 2019-20 school year, is returning to Highland as head football coach and at-risk teacher next fall. His appointment was approved March 14 by the Highland School Board.

“Highland is a place that’s really special to me,” he said. “I had a lot of great relationships with the people who work there, the coaches I got to coach with, and especially the players that I had an opportunity to coach in both football and basketball.”

Quail has spent the last two school years in the Louisa-Muscatine Community School District as a third-grade teacher at the elementary school in Letts and head coach of the varsity boys basketball team.

He takes over as head football coach in Highland after the resignations of co-head coaches Joe Donovan and Scott Morrel. Quail coached with both of them in 2019.

“I got to start off with Joe and Mo, coach Donovan and coach Morrel,” Quail said. “They both really put a lot of trust in me to be able to take what I have in my background, as I have a long extensive coaching background in football, and they allowed me to be able to help build some things with them.”

Quail, a University of Northern Iowa graduate and a former UNI football assistant, had wanted to remain at Highland two years ago, but a staff position never surfaced. So he went to Louisa-Muscatine, commuting from his family’s home in Tiffin. He traveled past Highland High School every day on his trips down Highway 218 and once a year took his basketball team to Highland to face the Huskies and former coaching colleague Bill Zywiec.

“I got a lot of opportunities to really meet a lot of great people, work with a lot of great people there and work with a lot of kids both on the boys and girls side, also,” Quail said of his time at Highland. “It was a great experience for me. I never wanted to leave Highland. I wanted to stay, but just unfortunately at that time, teaching, there wasn’t a position.”

Zywiec, Highland’s Dean of Students, was happy to help lure Quail back. Highland Activities Director Jody Fink, who is also the Huskies girls basketball head coach, and High School Principal Angela Hazelett also served on the search committee.

“We needed kind of a strong figure coming in with a lot of energy that kind of knew our culture a little bit, knew our kids,” Zywiec said. “With Cory coming in, he has that kind of background. The kids always said in practice that he may be the only one they’ve ever seen louder than me in practice. He has a voice that just carries. He demands a lot out of the kids, both academically and on the field.”

Academics, and football, are important to Quail.

“I’m huge on academics first, commitment to the community second,” Quail said. “If we do those things, it will put us in the right place to be successful in our football arena, too.”

The Huskies won their first two district games last year and made the postseason playoffs with a victory over Pekin in the final game of the regular season. Among the graduating seniors are quarterback Connor Grinstead, who is headed to Upper Iowa University on a football scholarship, and lineman Eli Slaymaker, who is headed for Simpson College football.

“The foundation has been built there by a lot of wonderful people, the coaches who were there with the football program before me,” Quail said. “That gives me a lot of excitement to know that there’s already great things in place. I have the opportunity to build the identity that I want to on top of that.”

Quail is bringing the same energy to his new staff job beginning next August, serving at-risk students in the secondary schools. He grew up in Forest City, where his mom was a behavorial special education teacher.

“I’ve been involved in the at-risk and special ed environment for pretty much my whole entire life,” he said. “I’m really excited to really step into that realm. I think it’s going to be a wonderful transition over to Highland to be able to do those things.”

Highland, football, head coach, University of Northern Iowa, Louisa-Muscatine, Huskies