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Matt Hughes tapped to lead WB football
by Gregory Norfleet · Sports · April 09, 2025
After a brief stint with the San Francisco 49ers, a former Hawkeye linebacker and father of quarterback Tye Hughes will take over the West Branch High School football program.
Activities Director Jake Stenberg made the announcement Friday that Matt Hughes would lead the Bears starting with the 2025 season, two years after his son excelled at quarterback for West Branch.
“This coach is someone who has had success on the football field his entire life. From playing for the Hawkeyes and in the NFL to coaching at the collegiate and high school levels both as a head coach and a coordinator,” Stenberg said as Hughes waited in the wings of Little Lights on the Lane’s banquet hall. “He is a man with strong integrity. He believes in showing appreciation and respect to earn trust. He believes in an aggressive, hard-nosed brand of football getting 11 guys to the ball on every play.”
Speaking to the crowd of the team’s 16th Annual Trivia Night fundraiser, Stenberg said Hughes brings a “unique understanding” of West Branch football both through Tye’s experience “and our tradition of success.”
“He will build a program that believes in one another and can get every athlete pulling in the same direction to create a successful outcome,” Stenberg added.
The three-year starter with the Hawkeyes who earned Academic All-Big 10 honors from 1995 through 1998 called it a “wonderful honor” to stand before the Bears’ football family.
“There’s not a lot of things that I get excited about, but coaching and West Branch football, ever since this community welcomed my family two years ago and showed us what community is all about,” Hughes, 48, said. “It’s just an honor to be here.”
He thanked his wife, Brandi, for supporting him in his decision to pursue the position.
“It’s going to be hard work. We’re going to put a lot of time in because I don’t accept anything less than success,” he said.
Hughes and his father, Ron, served as co-head coaches at Clear Creek-Amana from 2013 to 2017. Together, they took a losing team and turned it around, qualifying for the playoffs twice in those four years.
Matt Hughes said the team will chase success with “sportsmanship, character, class, and integrity.”
He said he wants to get to know the players, from their skills to their families.
“And we’re going to have a lot of fun,” he said.
Hughes will inherit a Bears team that went 3-7 in 2024, its first losing season in decades. However, the team became the first four-seed to defeat a one-seed when it beat Sigourney-Keota in the first round of the playoffs.
That same team will bring back 19 to 20 seniors in 2025, according to Pete Swisher, who served as the night’s Master of Ceremonies.
Hughes said he prepared more to say that night, but forgot a lot of it when he stood in front of the large crowd.
“The one person I wanted to honor in those remarks was Butch Pedersen,” he said. “He means so much to me and my family. To walk the same sideline as him as a coach is going to be one of the biggest honors in my life.”
Hughes said Pedersen made an impression on him and his family during Tye’s time at West Branch, but the legendary head coach’s influence on Matt Hughes dates back to 1994 when the two met during his freshman year at Iowa.
“I know the tradition at West Branch. It’s big shoes to fill,” he said. “Let’s face it. There will never be another Butch Pedersen. But I’m going to do the best that I can to carry on his legacy and to teach these kids what it means to have good character and integrity and really play, not only on the football field but in the game of life.”
Hughes said he wanted to tell the crowd about his coaching history, personal side, coaching philosophy, and West Branch.
“They did a good job with the introduction,” he chuckled. “But it just shows the support of this community. It validates the reason why this is what I want to do. I’m excited to roll up my sleeves, put a coaching staff together, get to know the kids, and start playing some football.”
Stenberg’s announcement of Hughes as coach comes before the West Branch Board of Education takes action to make it official. However, a majority of the school board attended Trivia Night and applauded the announcement. The school board’s next regular meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 14.
According to the Iowa Hawkeyes’ alumni website, Hughes attended Eastland High School in Texas, and was named All-State as a running back and a defensive back in 1993 and 1994.
He signed with Iowa in 1994 to play linebacker.
At Iowa, he was a co-captain, earned an honorable mention All-Big 10 in 1996 and 1998, and played in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
After graduating from the university, he signed with the San Francisco 49ers, “but suffered through a shoulder injury.” Hughes then went on to play for several years in indoor football leagues.
The Hawkeyes’ history page states that the University of South Dakota hired him as an assistant coach before he returned to the Iowa City area to work at Clear Creek.
He and his father collected a 23-15 record during those four years with the Clippers, going 4-5 in 2013, 7-3 in 2014, 5-5 in 2015, and 7-2 in 2016.
Ron “Ronnie” Hughes served as an assistant coach at West Branch during Tye’s time here and about 20 years before then, according to WestBranch.Football.
Matt Hughes will replace Head Coach John Nestor, who resigned after the Bears went 3-7 in 2024.
The new coach will also lead West Branch as it leaves Class 1A football for the first time since 1997, some 27 years ago. The Iowa High School Athletic Association announced a month ago that the Bears will bump up to Class 2A under the third year of the state organization’s weighting factor to reorganize teams.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association on Monday released the Bears’ District 5 schedule for the 2025 season (* indicates District 5 team): Aug. 28 at West Liberty, Sept. 4 against Regina, Sept. 11 at Camanche, Sept. 18 at Monticello*, Sept. 25 against Alburnett*, Oct. 2 against Tipton*, Oct. 9 at Anamosa*, and Oct. 16 against Bellevue*.
According to West Branch Football’s Facebook page, Trivia Night raised nearly $19,000.
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