Denison

High school bands have a familiar repertoire at football games and parades.

The music programs in Denison, Iowa, add something else to the mix.

Mariachi.

Now, schools in the Southwest with large Latino populations often have mariachi programs, but in Midwestern states like Iowa, that is rare.

Mariachi is just saying so much without having to say anything.

People listening to you, they understand how you feel just from listening to you.

Leila Jaime is a Denison High School junior who plays the violin.

When Denison High School band director Ruben Newell came to the district in 2009, about 40% of students in the school were Latino, but they were only 10% of the band.

She was the most wonderful woman in the world.

She was from Denison, Iowa, met my grandfather, Douglas, on a train to Chicago, where he was driving back from World War II, and they fell in love and settled in New Jersey, where he opened his practice as an optometrist." Wow, that sounds like it could've been one of those rom-coms.

Or not com, just rom.

Oh, yeah, just rom.

And when we moved to some small towns, you know, all these kids had been together and known each other since they were in kindergarten.

And so we moved the middle of my junior year to a small town, Denison, Iowa, and I hated it.

I stuck out like a sore thumb.

So anyway, I told my dad over the last five to 10 years of his life, Dad, I love you.

But I love you even more now that I realize that experience shaped who I am.

And and it gave me like when I worked on the radio, I was well, I was 16 when I was first on the radio.

in where I graduated high school in Denison, Iowa.

But a few years later, I'm working on the radio in Creston, Iowa.

Of course, the Hawks are honoring one of their all-time greats in Brandon Sheriff.

Denison, Iowa, stand up and take a bow.

Brandon will be here this weekend.

His name will be the next to go on that very special A&F wall of honor.

Station ID time on the Hawkeye Radio Network.

You're listening to Hawk Talk with Coach Ferentz from View Rooftop.

And riding along tonight around the state on the Hawkeye Radio Network, we've got Brandon Scherff's hometown out in Denison.

KDSN Radio, 1530 on the dial.

The A&F Wall of Honor recognizes Hawkeyes who embody the work ethic, character, and determination of Iowa farmers.

Those values were instilled at an early age for Brandon Scherff, who grew up in Denison in Crawford County, surrounded by agriculture.

Scherff cherished every moment he could spend on his mom's family farm near Holstein.

You know, I loved going to the farm with my uncles and my cousins, whether it was moving pigs around, you know, taking cattle wherever they needed to go, hopping in the tractor with my cousins, racing the four-wheeler, checking the moisture on the bales, doing all that kind of stuff.

So I'm excited to, you know, I did a lot of pheasant hunting, spending time in Okoboji and fishing with my kids and my wife and some friends.

So it's been a, it's been a lot of fun and it's just, it's just nice to, to get away and relax.

And you've got a nice travel triangle there of Sioux City, Rock Valley, and Denison.

And, you know, we talk all the time about how the farmers take care of the land.