Where are they now?: Jared DeVries
Jared DeVries was a famous face in Iowa on the football field in high school and college, before moving on to a lengthy NFL career.
DeVries, a member of Aplington-Parkersburg’s state championship team in 1993 and an all-American at Iowa, is a fixture in Iowa again. Now 36, DeVries, who spent his entire 12-year career in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, lives in Clear Lake with wife Jamie and two sons Jaylen and Easton.
He is keeping busy with a number of business ventures. DeVries owns Brothers Market, a set of grocery stores in Parkersburg, Cascade and Lisbon. He also partnered with former Parkersburg and NFL star Casey Wiegmann on a small farming operation called Pigskin Farms. He’s also passing on his knowledge to football players at Clear Lake, where he works as a volunteer coach.
Earlier in the month, DeVries was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Football Hall of Fame.
Q: What have you used from your playing days that you’ve passed along to some of the players you coached?
A: “First and foremost, intensity. Hard work will overcome all. My personal opinion is that you don’t have to be super-talented, you just have to work harder than everybody else and you can overcome a lot.”
Q: When you were inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Football Hall of Fame this month, you were escorted onto the field by former Aplington-Parkersburg coach Ed Thomas’ wife, Jan. Why did you want to make sure she was part of your celebration?
A: “Her family is part of who I am. Coach Thomas is a big part of who I am.”
Q: What is your most memorable moment in the NFL?
A: “Everybody asks me that. It’s more of the locker room. It’s not a game. It’s not a player. It’s not a trainer. It’s the friends you make.”
— Tommy Birch
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
