By Keith Brake
Montezuma Magazine Editor
Montezuma High School senior Eddie Burgess can play just about any sport. By most accounts, he’s good at all of them.
What’s his favorite?
Football!
After passing for 9,098 career yards and 137 touchdowns (both Class 8 records); after rushing for 3,483 yards and 75 touchdowns, Eddie the quarterback is headed to Upper Iowa University as a . . .tight end!
Well, he is 6-4 and 230 pounds. He did catch 35 passes for 719 yards and seven touchdowns. He can run. “And, I do have hands,” he said through a grin.
Don’t kid yourself. The Upper Iowa coaching staff has a pretty good idea about what Eddie Burgess can do. So do high school coaches who had to take their teams against him the last four years.
Sean Birks, the coach at Audubon, said this about Burgess to Tom Robinson, a reporter for WesternIowaToday before the game against the Wheelers:
“He (Burgess) throws the ball well and his running ability is just as good. He’s elusive and runs more like a 170- to 180-pound back, with his abilities to cut back and juke defenders.”
“We watched last season’s semifinals game tape against St. Mary’s Remsen, and at times Burgess made the state champions look like they were standing still,” Birks said.
Eddie knows the game. And he sees the field. All of it . . .kind of like a fly sees all that matters to it in its field of vision.
“What really separates Eddie from the other quarterbacks in the state is his ability to make checks and reads at the line to put our offense in the best positions possible,” said Braves Coach John Beck.
“His vision on the field and ability to read a defense is phenomenal,” Beck said.
“Eddie has a great understanding of our offense and defense,” Beck said. “Having his presence on the field is like having a coach out there.”
Eddie comes by it honestly enough. Both parents, Tim and Janel, are coaches and former athletes.
“I’ve been doing it (football) for a long time,” Eddie said. “I’ve been watching football, and watching football . . .” (and asking questions or figuring out, apparently, how everything works).
He doesn’t sound concerned in the slightest that Upper Iowa recruited him as a tight end.
“I want to play football and enjoy it,” Eddie said “The first time I visited their campus it felt like home. I knew it was where I wanted to go.”
Will he play basketball? Or maybe baseball, a sport he likes because of its detail and need for quick decisions and movement?
No, it will be football.
Burgess was in junior high and Montezuma was still an 11-man team when the family moved here. He was a tight end for the Braves’ first eight-man team his freshman year of high school.
“Eight-man made me a better athlete all-around,” Burgess said. “The same (football) principles apply. It’s not a bunch of skinny kids playing two-hand touch,” Burgess said. “Eight-man is a different kind of game. And it moves faster.”
In a game story, I called Burgess, “the master of the maelstrom that is Montezuma’s offense.”
“They do so many different things with their offense,” said Audubon’s Birks. “They’ll use motion, spread, a run-pass option, and play action. Their linemen sell run, even when they throw the ball, and their backs sell run when they’re throwing it,” Birks said.
Did you know the Braves were that complex? And Burgess owned the set of laser-focused “fly” eyes in the control room that sat atop his shoulder pads.
“They’re well-coached, a reason they’re undefeated, and why they’re ranked so high in a lot of the polls,” Birks said.
Burgess has been a standout basketball player for the Braves and now will be in his fourth year as a varsity starter.
He was one of three Braves chosen to the all-tournament team as Montezuma won the Class 1A state championship last season.
“He is a consumate team player . . .does all the ‘dirty work’ and relishes in it,” said Montezuma Coach Derrick Dengler.
“He is a competitor, and I was so pleased to see his hard work pay off at the state tournament,” Dengler said. “Eddie’s passion just boils through.”
Burgess won the “Team Together Award” at last year’s banquet honoring the state champions. The players were asked to vote for the player that was a tremendous teammate and always ‘put the team first.’
Burgess said his favorite athletic moments have included winning the state basketball championship and playing in the UNIDome in the state football semifinals. “Playing in the ‘Dome, that was surreal,” Burgess said.
Burgess said he hasn’t made a career choice. “Maybe teaching, I’m not sure,” he said. “I like impacting people. I would like to coach.”
Burgess knows his role in basketball will change this winter. “I will need to be more of a scorer,” he said. He’s looking forward to working with some younger guys, “who have been working really hard,” he said.
Eddie has been a part of Montezuma’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. “I have enjoyed it. It’s intrinsic,” he said. “It’s something I will take with me.”
Burgess had some words for younger student athletes:
“Life goes by really fast,” he said. “When I was a freshman I thought four years would take forever, but here we are already. You never know about things like the pandemic,” he said. “I say, enjoy every moment, even the smallest one. Take everything in.”
And to the Montezuma community, he says, “thanks for everything. I couldn’t have asked to be in a better place.”
