Friday, August 27, 2010
Hawks Vie for ‘Lincoln League’ Title
EG OPENS SEASON AGAINST MELCHER-DALLAS
East Greene opens the 2010 football season tonight with a home tilt against Melcher-Dallas. After a trip to Twin Cedars (Bussey) in another non-district game next week, the Hawks return home to open District 7 action on Sept. 10 against new district foe Boyer Valley (Dunlap).
The newly aligned District 7 could easily be tabbed the “Lincoln League” as five of the eight high schools are located in communities on U.S. Highway 30, the original Lincoln Highway. Along with East Greene, the other schools on Highway 30 are Glidden-Ralston, Ar-We-Va, Boyer Valley (Dunlap) and Woodbine. Rounding out the “League” are Coon Rapids-Bayard, Charter Oak-Ute and Walnut.
Two of those other three schools are located within less than a dozen miles of U.S. 30—Coon Rapids south of the Lincoln in eastern Carroll County and Charter Oak west of Denison and north of Dunlap in Crawford County, heading along the diagonal that starts at Arcadia and heads down to Missouri Valley. Walnut is the “orphan” of the league. Located less than a mile south of Interstate 80 in the far northeast corner of Pottawattamie County, Walnut is about 40 miles due south of U.S. 30 from Vail.
Not only does D7 encompass five high schools located on the Lincoln, those five school districts among them have 10 towns located on the highway. From east to west, they are: Grand Junction, Ralston, Glidden, Arcadia, Westside, Vail, Arion, Dow City, Dunlap and Woodbine. Grand Junction, however, is the only town to lay claim to being both on both U.S. 30 and the historic Original Lincoln Highway. The original Lincoln spans a point east of Grand Junction—site of the Historic Bridges and Welcome Center—and continues for three miles through Grand Junction along Main Street and Highway 144/Eighth Street to the southwest edge of town, and then on to Jefferson and Scranton, running parallel to “New 30.”
EG vs. Melcher-Dallas
District alignment saw the shifting of Adair-Casey and CAM (Anita) to District 6 while Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, a D7 member last year has moved up to Class A. Filling the gap of those three departures are Ar-We-Va, Charter Oak-Ute and Woodbine from District 1. Boyer Valley, which drops down from Class A, was assigned to D7 making it a full 8-team league.
With the shift of district assignments, the non-district match-ups were adjusted too. EG faced Ar-We-Va and Charter Oak-Ute last year but as they are now D7 foes, EG will face two teams from District 5: Melcher-Dallas and Twin Cedars (Bussey).
The Hawks return nine lettermen from a squad that finished fifth of six teams in D7 at 1-4 and 3-6 overall. Co-coaches Tim Bardole and Tony Beger will be looking to the six senior returning lettermen to lead the Hawks this year: Schyler Bardole, Nic Nicolaisen, Wes Onken, Aaron Lyons, Rob Ritchie and Brett Kersey. Also back is Zach Hiller, who lettered as a junior, and sophomore letterwinners Tory Beger and Reed Ostrander.
Bardole has started in the EG backfield since his freshman year and he has been named to all-district team each of the last three years. He rushed for 822 yards on 52 carries last year and scored 14 touchdowns. He was also the Hawks’ leading receiver with 24 catches for 338 yards. Nicolaisen ran the ball 23 times for 163 yards.
Coaches Bardole and Beger will look to either Tyler Cooklin or Tory Beger to handle the QB duties. They will have big shoes to fill as Tom Beger racked up 1,262 yards last season with a 78-174 completion rate. He threw 16 touchdown passes last year and scored 2 rushing TDs.
Lyons and Nicolaisen will anchor the receiving corps this year. Lyons caught 14 passes for 210 yards and Nicolaisen snagged 9 for 137 yards.
The Hawks have some key holes to fill on defense, but have back two of their top four tacklers—Ritchie and Bardole.
Both of EG’s non-district opponents are located in southern Marion County, south of Knoxville and Pella.
Melcher-Dallas: Melcher and Dallas are not a combined school district like Paton-Churdan or Glidden-Ralston, but actually one town. But they were merged. Dallas was established first in the southwestern corner of the county on one rail line and Melcher, a coal mining town, was formed on a different rail line but the towns were less than a mile apart. The distance grew smaller over the years and they basically grew into each other. The two were officially merged in 1986, but each still maintains its own zip code.
The Saints went 3-2 and finished third in the six-team District 6 last year and 4-6 overall. MD lost to Ankeny Christian 69-28 in the substate round of the playoffs. The Saints are led by returning QB Robert Bingham, one of the top returning quarterbacks in 8-man as he threw for 2,220 yards and 31 touchdowns last season. Also back is offensive end Josh Schrader, who had 661 yards receiving and 7 TDs.
Twin Cedars (Bussey): Predominantly a rural school district, Twin Cedars encompasses six very small towns in the southeastern corner of the county. The towns are Bussey, Attica, Hamilton, Tracy, Marysville and Pershing. When the district was formed in 1961 it was a merger of the existing schools in Bussey, Tracy and Attica. Attica is the most western of the towns while Bussey and Tracy are the most eastern. Tracy is almost right on the Marion-Mahaska county line and Bussey is less than a mile west of the county line.
A new high school was built in the country east of Bussey on County Road G71 across the county line into Mahaska County in 1961, as the school district also encompasses all of Jefferson Township in the southwestern corner of Mahaska. A gym was added in 1970 and a new elementary school built on the site in 1976. The school takes its name from the north and south branches of Cedar Creek that flow through the district.
TC has a BEDS enrollment (grades 9-11 in 2009-10) of 125 while Melcher-Dallas is closer in size to East Greene (81) with a BEDS enrollment of 85. The Sabers finished fifth in D5 last year at 1-4 and were 2-7 overall.
In head-to-head competition last year, Melcher-Dallas beat Twin Cedars 70-28 in the last game of the season.
Lincoln League Title Up for Grabs
With last year’s co-champs—Adair-Casey and CAM—now over in District 6, the race for the top of “Lincoln League” is up for grabs. GR and CRB seem to be getting the most attention as they tied for third last year, ending the season with identical 3-2 and 7-2 marks. Each lost in the substate round to end the year at 7-3.
GR returns much of its punishing ground game from last year while CRB will again feature its high-octane aerial attack. Senior QB Michael Schwenk passed for 2,940 yards and 53 TD’s last year while adding another 637 yards and 13 TDs on the ground.
Ar-We-Va and Woodbine both qualified for the playoffs last year as they ended up with Remsen-Union in a three-way tie for second at 5-2 (all 6-3 overall) just behind D1 champion St. Mary’s (Remsen). But all four of the D1 teams were knocked out of the substate round to their D2 competitors. It was the worst substate performance of any of the 8 districts.
Ar-We-Va loses nine players off that squad and will be in a bit of rebuilding this phase, but the Rockets are always competitive.
Boyer Valley is the mystery team, moving down from Class A where it went 2-4 in District 8, finishing in a three-way tie for fourth. Overall, BV was 4-5. Traditionally, when teams make that first year move from A down to 8-man they do very well. EG went 7-2 in its first year in 8-man in 2001 as did CRB in 2002.
When GR made the move in 2005, the Wildcats went 8-1 and won the District 4 crown with a perfect 5-0 mark. GR did not lose a district game over the next three seasons, qualifying for the playoff each year. GR went undefeated and won the state 8-man championship in 2005 and went undefeated again in 2007 before falling to Ar-We-Va, the team it beat to win the district crown, in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
Overall, D7 was very competitive last year as the teams went 12-3 against the other districts in the weeks before intra-district play got underway. That was topped only by District 6, which includes Lenox and Ankeny Christian, which went 13-3. D6 gets even tougher this year with Adair-Casey and CAM in the mix while Grandview Park Baptist moves over to D5.
Districts 5, 1 and 8 had the worst showings at 5-11 and that prevailed in the playoff round as those districts had the fewest teams advancing from the substate to the first round.
East Greene 2010 Football Schedule
(Game time for all is 7 p.m.)
Aug. 27: Melcher-Dallas H
Sept. 3: Twin Cedars (Bussey) A
Sept. 10: Boyer Valley H
Sept. 17: Charter Oak-Ute A
Sept. 24: Glidden-Ralston H (HOMECOMING)
Oct. 1: Woodbine A
Oct. 8: Walnut H (PARENTS’ NIGHT)
Oct. 15: Coon Rapids-Bayard A
Oct. 22: Ar-We-Va A
EYE ON GJ SAYS: Melcher-Dallas is a good first-game test for EG as the Hawks’ defense was its strong suit last year. If the Hawks can contain Bingham and his aerial attack it will stand in their favor for stronger teams that pass a lot like CRB as the season progresses.
Iowa Sports Connection has CRB ranked No. 5 in its pre-season Top 10. Northeast Hamilton from D3 is getting some attention also as ISC ranks NEH sixth. CRB and NEH square off tonight in Blairsburg in the season opener for both teams.
The online BC Moore pre-season rankings have CRB, NEH and GR at seventh, eighth and ninth. Ar-We-Va comes in at No. 20 and EG is close behind at No. 24.
BC Moore gave the Hawks some good feedback, noting that EG’s improvement over the last five years is second only to that of CWL (Corwith). EG has improved from 46th to 35th to 30th to 29th to 24th since 2006.
In the Associated Press poll released this week, NEH is ranked No. 7 at 1-0 after a season opening win over Twin River Valley (Bode) 65-6 last week. All the other teams are 0-0 as they kick off their seasons tonight. CRB is among six teams that received votes in the poll but not enough to rank in the top 10. Lenox, No. 1 in the AP poll, takes on No. 9 ranked Stanton tonight in Stanton.
The Des Moines Register poll this week has Lenox at the top and Stanton eighth and Northeast Hamilton ninth.
East Greene opens the 2010 football season tonight with a home tilt against Melcher-Dallas. After a trip to Twin Cedars (Bussey) in another non-district game next week, the Hawks return home to open District 7 action on Sept. 10 against new district foe Boyer Valley (Dunlap).
The newly aligned District 7 could easily be tabbed the “Lincoln League” as five of the eight high schools are located in communities on U.S. Highway 30, the original Lincoln Highway. Along with East Greene, the other schools on Highway 30 are Glidden-Ralston, Ar-We-Va, Boyer Valley (Dunlap) and Woodbine. Rounding out the “League” are Coon Rapids-Bayard, Charter Oak-Ute and Walnut.
Two of those other three schools are located within less than a dozen miles of U.S. 30—Coon Rapids south of the Lincoln in eastern Carroll County and Charter Oak west of Denison and north of Dunlap in Crawford County, heading along the diagonal that starts at Arcadia and heads down to Missouri Valley. Walnut is the “orphan” of the league. Located less than a mile south of Interstate 80 in the far northeast corner of Pottawattamie County, Walnut is about 40 miles due south of U.S. 30 from Vail.
Not only does D7 encompass five high schools located on the Lincoln, those five school districts among them have 10 towns located on the highway. From east to west, they are: Grand Junction, Ralston, Glidden, Arcadia, Westside, Vail, Arion, Dow City, Dunlap and Woodbine. Grand Junction, however, is the only town to lay claim to being both on both U.S. 30 and the historic Original Lincoln Highway. The original Lincoln spans a point east of Grand Junction—site of the Historic Bridges and Welcome Center—and continues for three miles through Grand Junction along Main Street and Highway 144/Eighth Street to the southwest edge of town, and then on to Jefferson and Scranton, running parallel to “New 30.”
EG vs. Melcher-Dallas
District alignment saw the shifting of Adair-Casey and CAM (Anita) to District 6 while Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, a D7 member last year has moved up to Class A. Filling the gap of those three departures are Ar-We-Va, Charter Oak-Ute and Woodbine from District 1. Boyer Valley, which drops down from Class A, was assigned to D7 making it a full 8-team league.
With the shift of district assignments, the non-district match-ups were adjusted too. EG faced Ar-We-Va and Charter Oak-Ute last year but as they are now D7 foes, EG will face two teams from District 5: Melcher-Dallas and Twin Cedars (Bussey).
The Hawks return nine lettermen from a squad that finished fifth of six teams in D7 at 1-4 and 3-6 overall. Co-coaches Tim Bardole and Tony Beger will be looking to the six senior returning lettermen to lead the Hawks this year: Schyler Bardole, Nic Nicolaisen, Wes Onken, Aaron Lyons, Rob Ritchie and Brett Kersey. Also back is Zach Hiller, who lettered as a junior, and sophomore letterwinners Tory Beger and Reed Ostrander.
Bardole has started in the EG backfield since his freshman year and he has been named to all-district team each of the last three years. He rushed for 822 yards on 52 carries last year and scored 14 touchdowns. He was also the Hawks’ leading receiver with 24 catches for 338 yards. Nicolaisen ran the ball 23 times for 163 yards.
Coaches Bardole and Beger will look to either Tyler Cooklin or Tory Beger to handle the QB duties. They will have big shoes to fill as Tom Beger racked up 1,262 yards last season with a 78-174 completion rate. He threw 16 touchdown passes last year and scored 2 rushing TDs.
Lyons and Nicolaisen will anchor the receiving corps this year. Lyons caught 14 passes for 210 yards and Nicolaisen snagged 9 for 137 yards.
The Hawks have some key holes to fill on defense, but have back two of their top four tacklers—Ritchie and Bardole.
Both of EG’s non-district opponents are located in southern Marion County, south of Knoxville and Pella.
Melcher-Dallas: Melcher and Dallas are not a combined school district like Paton-Churdan or Glidden-Ralston, but actually one town. But they were merged. Dallas was established first in the southwestern corner of the county on one rail line and Melcher, a coal mining town, was formed on a different rail line but the towns were less than a mile apart. The distance grew smaller over the years and they basically grew into each other. The two were officially merged in 1986, but each still maintains its own zip code.
The Saints went 3-2 and finished third in the six-team District 6 last year and 4-6 overall. MD lost to Ankeny Christian 69-28 in the substate round of the playoffs. The Saints are led by returning QB Robert Bingham, one of the top returning quarterbacks in 8-man as he threw for 2,220 yards and 31 touchdowns last season. Also back is offensive end Josh Schrader, who had 661 yards receiving and 7 TDs.
Twin Cedars (Bussey): Predominantly a rural school district, Twin Cedars encompasses six very small towns in the southeastern corner of the county. The towns are Bussey, Attica, Hamilton, Tracy, Marysville and Pershing. When the district was formed in 1961 it was a merger of the existing schools in Bussey, Tracy and Attica. Attica is the most western of the towns while Bussey and Tracy are the most eastern. Tracy is almost right on the Marion-Mahaska county line and Bussey is less than a mile west of the county line.
A new high school was built in the country east of Bussey on County Road G71 across the county line into Mahaska County in 1961, as the school district also encompasses all of Jefferson Township in the southwestern corner of Mahaska. A gym was added in 1970 and a new elementary school built on the site in 1976. The school takes its name from the north and south branches of Cedar Creek that flow through the district.
TC has a BEDS enrollment (grades 9-11 in 2009-10) of 125 while Melcher-Dallas is closer in size to East Greene (81) with a BEDS enrollment of 85. The Sabers finished fifth in D5 last year at 1-4 and were 2-7 overall.
In head-to-head competition last year, Melcher-Dallas beat Twin Cedars 70-28 in the last game of the season.
Lincoln League Title Up for Grabs
With last year’s co-champs—Adair-Casey and CAM—now over in District 6, the race for the top of “Lincoln League” is up for grabs. GR and CRB seem to be getting the most attention as they tied for third last year, ending the season with identical 3-2 and 7-2 marks. Each lost in the substate round to end the year at 7-3.
GR returns much of its punishing ground game from last year while CRB will again feature its high-octane aerial attack. Senior QB Michael Schwenk passed for 2,940 yards and 53 TD’s last year while adding another 637 yards and 13 TDs on the ground.
Ar-We-Va and Woodbine both qualified for the playoffs last year as they ended up with Remsen-Union in a three-way tie for second at 5-2 (all 6-3 overall) just behind D1 champion St. Mary’s (Remsen). But all four of the D1 teams were knocked out of the substate round to their D2 competitors. It was the worst substate performance of any of the 8 districts.
Ar-We-Va loses nine players off that squad and will be in a bit of rebuilding this phase, but the Rockets are always competitive.
Boyer Valley is the mystery team, moving down from Class A where it went 2-4 in District 8, finishing in a three-way tie for fourth. Overall, BV was 4-5. Traditionally, when teams make that first year move from A down to 8-man they do very well. EG went 7-2 in its first year in 8-man in 2001 as did CRB in 2002.
When GR made the move in 2005, the Wildcats went 8-1 and won the District 4 crown with a perfect 5-0 mark. GR did not lose a district game over the next three seasons, qualifying for the playoff each year. GR went undefeated and won the state 8-man championship in 2005 and went undefeated again in 2007 before falling to Ar-We-Va, the team it beat to win the district crown, in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
Overall, D7 was very competitive last year as the teams went 12-3 against the other districts in the weeks before intra-district play got underway. That was topped only by District 6, which includes Lenox and Ankeny Christian, which went 13-3. D6 gets even tougher this year with Adair-Casey and CAM in the mix while Grandview Park Baptist moves over to D5.
Districts 5, 1 and 8 had the worst showings at 5-11 and that prevailed in the playoff round as those districts had the fewest teams advancing from the substate to the first round.
East Greene 2010 Football Schedule
(Game time for all is 7 p.m.)
Aug. 27: Melcher-Dallas H
Sept. 3: Twin Cedars (Bussey) A
Sept. 10: Boyer Valley H
Sept. 17: Charter Oak-Ute A
Sept. 24: Glidden-Ralston H (HOMECOMING)
Oct. 1: Woodbine A
Oct. 8: Walnut H (PARENTS’ NIGHT)
Oct. 15: Coon Rapids-Bayard A
Oct. 22: Ar-We-Va A
EYE ON GJ SAYS: Melcher-Dallas is a good first-game test for EG as the Hawks’ defense was its strong suit last year. If the Hawks can contain Bingham and his aerial attack it will stand in their favor for stronger teams that pass a lot like CRB as the season progresses.
Iowa Sports Connection has CRB ranked No. 5 in its pre-season Top 10. Northeast Hamilton from D3 is getting some attention also as ISC ranks NEH sixth. CRB and NEH square off tonight in Blairsburg in the season opener for both teams.
The online BC Moore pre-season rankings have CRB, NEH and GR at seventh, eighth and ninth. Ar-We-Va comes in at No. 20 and EG is close behind at No. 24.
BC Moore gave the Hawks some good feedback, noting that EG’s improvement over the last five years is second only to that of CWL (Corwith). EG has improved from 46th to 35th to 30th to 29th to 24th since 2006.
In the Associated Press poll released this week, NEH is ranked No. 7 at 1-0 after a season opening win over Twin River Valley (Bode) 65-6 last week. All the other teams are 0-0 as they kick off their seasons tonight. CRB is among six teams that received votes in the poll but not enough to rank in the top 10. Lenox, No. 1 in the AP poll, takes on No. 9 ranked Stanton tonight in Stanton.
The Des Moines Register poll this week has Lenox at the top and Stanton eighth and Northeast Hamilton ninth.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
2010 Volleyball Season Gets Underway
NEW ERA IN ROLLING HILLS BEGINS TUESDAY
East Greene opens the 2010 volleyball season tonight in Rippey against Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside). The Hawkettes are coming off a 14-7 season in 2009 that saw them finish fourth in the West Central Conference at 6-3. It was one of the best seasons in East Greene volleyball history, and came on the heels of a fourth-place conference finish (6-3) in 2008.
EG will be competing in the Rolling Hills Conference this year after 14 years in the 1A-2A West Central. EG’s first-ever RH competition will be next Tuesday’s volleyball conference opener against Orient-Macksburg in Rippey.
This weekend, EG travel to Coon Rapids to participate in a tournament hosted by Coon Rapids-Bayard, ranked No. 10 in the Class 1A preseason poll by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.
East Greene must replace four seniors off last year’s squad, including all-conference and all-district middle hitter Malarie Gilley; Heidi Kiner, second team all-conference; Bobbie Halterman, honorable mention; and Jessie Beaman. Gilley, 6-1, a dominant force at the net will be hard to replace. She was a two-time unanimous first-team all-league pick in addition to being all-state and all-conference in basketball the last two seasons.
Coach Carly Tiffany will be building around a nucleus of five returning seniors: Katlynn Gannon, Molly Neese, Tia Lowe, Jasmine Kinney and Britanee Heaning.
Gannon earned second team all-conference honors as a defensive specialist last year. She had 318 digs (5.4 per game), 10 assists, and was 65 of 69 serving (94%) with four aces. Neese, who garnered honorable mention merit, was 172 of 206 (84%) serving with 30 aces. At the net, she had 56 kills and nine blocks, and on defense she had 42 digs.
EG has been very solid in serving the last several seasons. Along with Gannon’s 94% clip, the Hawkettes will be looking to Lowe, who connected on 147 of 162 serves, a solid 91%, with 13 aces.
As the newcomer, EG will be the wildcard team in the Rolling Hills this year. The conference absorbed Glidden-Ralston last year, but the Wildcats weren’t much of a threat, finishing at 3-6 in the league and tied with Paton-Churdan for seventh. PC joined the Rolling Hills three seasons ago. EG now becomes the third team to leave the West Central, following PC and GR. EG’s moved to the Rolling Hills will be a reunion for the three schools, as they had been conference competitors since 1976, when they became charter members of the Central Valley Conference. All three then joined the Coon River Valley Conference in the late 1980s and then eventually the West Central in 1996.
Exira, last year’s champion with a perfect 9-0 mark, and Elk Horn-Kimballton (1-8) agreed last year to share all sports, so they will be a force to contend with this season. The EHK-Exira alliance took the league from 10 teams down to nine, which opened the door for EG’s membership. The league had also issued invitations to Coon Rapids-Bayard and Ar-We-Va to become the 10th team but both opted to stay in their respective leagues, the West Central and Western Valley South.
Exira won volleyball and basketball championships last year without EHK, which competed on its own, and then the combined EHK/Exira teams won league titles in girls track and softball, so Exira went through the year winning all four major girls’ conference crowns.
The combined EHK/Exira and Iowa Christian look to be the key contenders for the league crown, but CAM, Adair-Casey and Ankeny Christian will all be solid, along with East Greene. Glidden-Ralston had a young squad last year and can’t be taken too lightly. Orient-Macksburg will be rebuilding, and Paton-Churdan and Walnut should be improved.
Here’s a look at the Rolling Hills for 2010:
EHK/Exira: EHK was senior dominated last year with four senior starters on a team that finished just ninth in the league, beating only winless Walnut, and went 2-20 overall. But Danielle Stockwell is back from that team and her team-leading serving skills (196-202, 97%, 21 aces) will figure in nicely in the lineup the coaches will be creating for the combined EHKE team this fall. Just at East Greene lost its dominant force at the net in Gilley, Exira has graduated all-sport standout Hallie Christofferson. She was the lone unanimous first team all-conference pick last year in the conference. Ann Walker was also on the first team last year as a senior, so those two departures leave big holes to fill. But EHKE does return second-team honoree Anna Smith, and honorable-mention pick Erin Kliefoth. Both are seniors this year.
Those two along with Stockwell from the EHK side along with key reserve Maddy Peppers, who played a big role on Exira’s state championship basketball team, will serve as the core of this year’s team. EHKE will also look for significant contributions from seniors Chelsea Nelson and Courtney Peppers and junior Nora Walker from the Exira side and juniors Taylor Petersen and Cassidy Bissen and senior Lesie Waymire from last year’s EHK team.
Exira, 20-6 last year, is a tournament-tested team, having won it all in basketball and advancing to the regional semifinals in volleyball, falling to St. Albert’s (Council Bluffs), which then lost in the regional finals to Southern Cal, the team that ended East Greene’s season in the quarterfinal round.
Iowa Christian Academy: The Blazers will be looking to return to the top of the conference. ICA joined the Rolling Hills in 2002 and finished seventh the first two years, but has not finished lower than second but once since then. ICA won the league title (7-1) in 2007 and has finished as runner-up the last two seasons. The Blazers have improved their showing out of the league too. After going 11-11 in 2006—after four straight losing seasons—the teams has logged winning records of 17-9, 20-8 and 14-11 the last three seasons.
Returning to anchor this year’s squad is junior Karlie Schut. A first-team all-conference pick and one of just six underclassmen named to Class 1A West Central all-district team, Schut is one of four returning starters. She led the Blazer’s offensive attack last year with 198 kills in 465 attempts and 107 errors for a .196 per game efficiency mark and 3 kills per game. Schut had 50 blocks for the season and served 199 of 236 for 84% and 60 aces. Junior Erica Groen served at a 95% clip (223-234) with 30 aces. Groen earned honorable mention all-conference honors last season.
Ankeny Christian Academy: Senior Kaleigh Strong, also an all-district and first-team all conference pick, is back to anchor the Eagles, along with Natalie Heggen, an honorable mention pick last year as a junior. ACA had a very good year in boys athletics as its shared 8-man football team with ICA finished in second in District 6 and qualified for the playoffs, beating Melcher-Dallas in the substate before falling to Tri-County (Thornburgh) in the first round, and the ACA basketball team made it to the Class 1A State Tournament. The ACA girls will be trying to mirror the boys success and move up the ladder in volleyball, after finishing in a tie with CAM for fifth place (5-4) last year but going just 9-16 overall.
CAM: The Cougars have two keys players returning this year in seniors Angela Arp, first-team all conference libero, and Faith McCunn, a second-team all-league pick. CAM went 10-11 last year and was knocked out of the first round of the regional tournament by league rival Orient-Macksburg. CAM had a very good showing in the conference tournament last season, upsetting No. 3 seed Adair-Casey in the quarterfinal round and then upending Paton-Churdan in the semifinals to advance to the championship game against Exira. The Cougars fell again to the regular season champs, but showed they can play with anyone in the league.
Orient-Macksburg: The Bulldogs have big holes to fill as first- and second-team all-league picks Amy Waddington and Ashley West have graduated, leaving OM in a rebuilding stage for 2010. Last year the Bulldogs tied Adair-Casey for third (6-3) and won their opening round match in the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed over Ankeny Christian, but then ran into champion Exira in the semifinal round. OM beat CAM in the first round of the regional tournament but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Stanton, which advanced to the regional final and lost to state qualifier Treynor.
Adair-Casey: AC’s season ended on a low note with a loss in its first match in the conference tourney as the No. 3 seed and a quick exit in the regionals with a loss to Exira. The Bombers had put together a 6-3 mark to finish in a tie for third in the conference with Orient-Macksburg. AC does return first-team all-conference pick Shy Terry, one of the four returning first-teamers. AC will look to build around Terry, a senior, in hopes of another upper division finish.
Glidden-Ralston: A senior dominated team in 2008 led the Wildcats to a 4-5 sixth-place finish in the West Central, while last year’s team struggled to finish 3-6 in the Rolling Hills and 5-14 overall. GR was very young last year so look for a more veteran team to be much more competitive this season. The Wildcats return juniors Jaycie David, a second-team all-conference pick last year, and Jordan Bock, honorable mention.
Paton-Churdan: PC had one of its best showings in several years, compiling a 10-18 overall mark and making the semifinal round of both the CRB and Rolling Hills Conference tourneys. PC was the surprise team at the conference event last year. PC tied for seventh in the league with GR at 3-6 but got the No. 7 seed. The Rockettes beat No. 10 Walnut in the opening round which advanced them to the quarterfinals to face No. 2 seed Iowa Christian. PC upset the Blazers to move onto the semifinal round. They were eliminated in the semifinal round by CAM and then fell in the consolation match to Orient-Macksburg, but the fourth-place finish and reaching double-digits in the win column should give the returning players a lot of confidence. PC loses its top three players from last year’s squad but does return senior playmaker Amy Gaines, who was an honorable mention pick last year. A number of younger players got some good experience last year and will be looked to step into key roles as starters this season.
Walnut: The Walnut girls athletic program has been in a rebuilding program the last few years after a couple of seasons where the school did not field a girls varsity basketball team. Last year the team went winless in volleyball and just 1-16 in basketball to finish in the league cellar in both sports, but in the spring, the Warriors finished seventh of eight teams in conference track and this past summer in softball they put together a 5-5 conference mark to finish in third place, improving upon a 2-8 mark from 2009. So, the Warriors are making progress. Back from last year’s squad are two honorable mention picks, senior Sam Jensen and junior Dakota Brockman.
East Greene: The Hawkettes are the mystery team of the league this year. Granted, they lost several key players off of last year’s team, but they have some solid veterans returning in Gannon, Neese and Lowe. EG most likely would have competed with Exira for last year’s title as the Hawkettes went 3-0 against Rolling Hills teams in non-conference competition. EG beat ICA, the league runner-up, and Paton-Churdan on its way to claiming the crown in the Coon Rapids-Bayard tournament along with a win over Elk Horn-Kimballton in the Walnut tourney, where the host team was winless.
EG has faced some very solid competition in the West Central the last several seasons. Under coach Carly Tiffany, the Hawkettes went from an “also-ran” to a contender in the West Central, which is pretty impressive as each year the West Central became a much more difficult league to compete in. Back in 2000, the league expanded from a team of seven 1A schools and one 2A school to a nine-team league with the addition of West Central Valley, a 2A school formed by the reorganization of Stuart-Menlo and Dexfield (Redfield). Two years later, the conference added Earlham, which had been a member of the Rolling Hills. As the years moved forward, some of the area 1A teams closest to Des Moines, like Earlham, Des Moines Christian and Van Meter continued to grow so that by last season in volleyball, six of the 10 teams were in 2A and just four in 1A. East Greene has always been comparable in size to Glidden-Ralston and a bit larger than Paton-Churdan, but when those two schools left the conference, EG was by far the smallest school in the West Central and by a significant margin.
But the Hawkettes moved up from a last-place finish in 2003 (0-8) and next-to-last in 2004 (1-8) to the upper division in 2005, tying with Earlham at 4-5 for fifth place. EG dropped down to 1-8 the following year, just ahead of PC (0-9) so it looked dire for the 2007 season as PC would be out of the league that year, replaced by Madrid. PC’s BEDS (Basic Educational Data Survey) enrollment is 35 while Madrid’s is 132, so that was a considerable shift in the competition. Yet EG really stepped up, improving to 4-5 for seventh place and just one game behind Madrid, Guthrie Center and Earlham who tied for fourth at 5-4. The next year EG moved up to a tie for fourth place at 6-3, beating perennial league power Des Moines Christian for the first time in many years. That was an especially tough group of teams as Coon Rapids-Bayard, league champions at 9-0, went on to win the regional tournament and become the first conference team to ever advance to the state tournament.
Another challenge came last year as GR also had moved on to the Rolling Hills and was replaced by Woodward-Granger, which was coming off a championship season in the Heart of Iowa-Small. GR’s BEDS enrollment is 102 while Woodward-Granger’s is 160. WG went 18-6 the previous season and won a predominantly 2A conference. But EG met the challenge head-on and in an even tougher 2009 league, the Hawkettes secured fourth place with another 6-3 conference record. Six of the West Central opponents were in 2A and just three in 1A. EG went 4-2 against its 2A foes, losing to just WG and league champion Guthrie Center, and 2-1 against 1A foes, beating CRB and Madrid but falling to DMC. EG came the closest of all the top teams to upending Guthrie, taking the Tigerettes to an extended fifth game in a five-game match: 27-29, 16-25, 25-22, 25-15, 17-15.
EG took a 14-6 mark into its regional quarterfinal match with Southern Cal, which had advanced to the regional finals each of the previous two seasons and moved on to state in 2007, but fell in three games to the Mustangs, who went on to beat Ar-We-Va in the semifinal round and St. Albert (Council Bluffs) in the championship to make their second trip the state tournament in three years.
EG has a solid freshman class coming into high school this year and several players who got significant experience on the JV and freshman teams last year against a tough slate of teams from the West Central, so look for some of younger players to step up and blend with the EG veterans to put a very competitive team on the floor.
Tiffany should have a pretty good idea of how her team stacks up after tonight’s season opener against Southeast Webster-Grand, a team it has beaten rather handily the last two seasons. SWG is also in somewhat of a rebuilding years as it needs to replace four players who each started for three consecutive seasons.
Saturday’s tournament at CRB should show how the conference race will fare as six of the eight teams in the event are from the Rolling Hills. Along with EG, CRB and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) the rest of the field are conference foes EHK/Exira, Adair-Casey, Iowa Christian, Ankeny Christian and Paton-Churdan.
CRB, EG, PC and Ankeny Christian are in one pool with EHKE, AC, ICA and St. Mary’s in the other. Each team plays one best-of-three match against its other three pool opponents. Then, the top two teams in each pool advance to the championship. The top team of each pool plays the runner-up of the other in the semifinal round and the winners of those two matches advance to the finals. In the consolation round, the teams that finish third in their pools play each other as do the teams that finish fourth.
Last year, EG finished first in its pool and advanced to the semifinals against PC, which had finished second to CRB in its pool. EG beat the Rockettes to advance to the final, where it beat the Crusaders on their home court to win the championship match.
EG will return to action on Tuesday, Aug. 31 to face Orient-Macksburg in the conference opener in Rippey, and then will venture to Churdan on Thursday, Sept. 2, to take on Paton-Churdan.
In other non-conference matches this year, EG will face former West Central opponents Guthrie Center and Madrid. The Hawkettes will also travel to Walnut to compete in the Walnut Tournament on Oct. 9. The conference tournament is Oct. 14 at Elk Horn and the Class 1A regional tournament begins Oct. 18.
2010 EG Volleyball Schedule
Thurs., Aug. 26 Southeast Webster-Grand @ Rippey
Sat., Aug. 28 Coon Rapids-Bayard Tourney @ Coon Rapids
Tues., Aug. 21 Orient-Macksburg @ Rippey
Thurs., Sept. 2 Paton-Churdan @ Churdan
Tues, Sept. 7 CAM (Anita) @ Rippey
Tues., Sept. 14 Adair-Casey @ Rippey
Thurs., Sept. 16 Ankeny Christian @ Ankeny
Tues., Sept. 21 Iowa Christian @ Rippey
Tues, Sept. 28 Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira @ Elk Horn
Thurs., Sept. 30 Guthrie Center @ Rippey
Tues., Oct. 5 Glidden-Ralston @ Rippey
Thurs., Oct. 7 @ Madrid
Sat., Oct. 9 Walnut Tourney @ Walnut
Tues., Oct. 12 @ Walnut
Thurs., Oct. 14 Rolling Hills Conference Tourney @ Elk Horn
Mon., Oct. 18 Class 1A Regional Tournament
EYE ON GJ SAYS: Let the games begin! This should be an interesting season for EG as there are many unknowns. How will EG fare in the new conference? How will the team do compared to last year’s successful season? How good will the combined EHK and Exira teams be this season? How good is CRB? The IGHSAU has them ranked No. 10 in its preseason poll while Grandview Park Baptist is No. 3.
CRB has been an upper division team the last several years in the West Central and won the league title two years ago (9-0) and went on through the playoffs to win the regional tournament and secure a state berth. Grandview Park Baptist has been to state three times in the last four years, advancing last year to be sidelined by Tripoli, a dominant 1A powerhouse that went on to win its seventh state title in the last 10 years.
Grandview Park has now made six appearances in the state tournament. Back for the Defenders this year is Amanda Bell, who was first team all-state in 1A, in addition to be being named first-team all-district (West Central) and all-conference (Heart of Iowa-Small). GPB is also the defending HOI-S champion.
Another area 1A powerhouse, Southern Cal, is sharing sports with Rockwell City-Lytton as South Central Calhoun, which will be in 2A. Another very strong team the last few years, Schaller-Crestland, a former conference foe of EG, PC and GR in the Coon River Valley Conference, is now sharing with Galva-Holstein as Ridge View, also a 2A team. Ridge View is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A. Also ranked in the 2A preseason poll are Kuemper (Carroll), 5th; East Sac County, 11th; and IKM-Manning 13th.
EG will most likely be grouped in a regional that includes either CRB or Grandview Park Baptist. Three other former West Central foes are in 1A this year: Earlham, Guthrie Center and Madrid. EG will face the latter two in head-to-head non-conference matches.
Des Moines Christian moves up to 2A this year. So with all teams like Exira and EHK combining into one team and Schaller-Crestland, Rockwell City, and Southern Cal no longer competing in 1A in addition to DMC, it’s hard to determine where EG might end up when regional assignments are made. Alta remains a very strong team to the northwest and is ranked 6th in the 1A preseason poll while Martendsale-St. Mary’s to the south is ranked 4th. MSt.M had a very successful season in girls and boys sports last year with the girls advancing to state in both basketball and softball and the boys winning the 1A state baseball title. MSt.M was knocked out in the first round of the regional last year by GPB.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Hawks Fall In Substate
LAST INNING RALLY FALLS SHORT, LOSE 3-2
It couldn’t have been much closer. East Greene had just cut a 3-1 deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the last inning in the substate finals at Denison on July 20. A return trip to the State 1A Baseball Tournament seemed very, very possible.
Yet the rally was short-lived. With two outs and a runner on first, senior slugger Tom Beger was at the plate, poised to score the tying and go-ahead runs. Hopes were high for EG boosters, but then quickly dashed. Beger hit a flyball to the outfield and the game was over. The Ar-We-Va Rockets were doing the celebrating for their first-ever trip the state finals.
Ar-We-Va moved on with a 13-13 record and became the surprise team of the 2010 1A field, much like East Greene had been last year with a 14-14 record. EG ended the season with a 19-12 mark and its second consecutive district championship.
The Hawks got on the board first, scoring a run in the bottom of the second inning. Wes Onken hit an infield single to lead off the inning and Jessie Priest walked. Josh Neese then lined a single to the outfield to load the bases. Zach Dearborn grounded out, allowing Onken to tag up and head home.
The Hawks still had two runners on base with just one out, but Ar-We-Va pitcher Neil Liechti struck out Alex Gordon and Tory Beger to end the threat.
The Hawks’ lead held up until the top of the fourth when Derrick Cornelius walked and was driven home on a single by Liechti to tie the game at 1-1. Liechti advanced home on a bloop single by Matt Dalton, putting the Rockets up 2-1.
The Hawks threatened in bottom of the fifth when Dearborn singled and Gordon advanced him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Four consecutive balls sent Tory Beger to first, and the fourth pitch got by the catcher, advancing Dearborn to third. With Tom Beger up, AWV coach Phil Snyder made a pitching change. Liechti and catcher Ryan Schurke switched places.
Schurke snuffed out the EG rally when Tory Beger was thrown out while leading off at first and Tom Beger grounded out to second.
Heading into the seventh, EG pitcher Tyler Cooklin had already struck out nine batters, but the Hawks bats just were not humming as they had in big wins over Coon Rapids-Bayard and Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira in the district tournament. And the Rockets really put the pressure on in their half of the inning—sensing a victory and a trip later in the week to Principal Park, site of the four-class state tournament.
A throwing error by Tom Beger on a shot up the middle by Dalton pulled first baseman Dearborn off base, putting Dalton on. A wild pitch by Cooklin got by catcher Tory Beger, allowing Dalton to get to second. Jacob Kraus then hit a single to left field, advancing Dalton to third and still no outs.
EG coach Dana Fink called a meeting at the mound, but he left Cooklin in the game. The situation looked really dire when Quentin Thomsen hit a bloop single to centerfield which allowed Dalton to score, although a throw from center fielder Aaron Lyons to Tory Beger almost got him out at the plate. The next batter popped up for the first out, and then Cooklin struck out Elliott Koch and Ross Pawletzki was out on an infield blooper to send the Hawks back to the plate for a much-hoped comeback.
Neese opened the bottom of the inning by striking out, but then Dearborn hit a chopper to third that was overthrown at first, giving the Hawks some hope. Alex Gordon walked putting runners on first and second. Reed Ostrander hit into a force-out to second giving the Hawks their second out but that allowed Dearborn to head home from second, which cut the Ar-We-Va lead to 3-2. The Hawks had generated some momentum, but Thomsen squelched the rally and gave the Rockets the win when he snagged Tom Beger’s fly ball to right field.
It was the errors that did the Hawks in, as all else was even and the Hawks had the better pitching. Liechti and Schurke gave up 5 hits, walked 2 and struck out 4, while Cooklin gave up 5 hits, walked 2, and struck out 10. But the Rockets had just 1 error and Hawks had 3, plus Ar-We-Va had 2 stolen bases to none for EG. “Too many errors and mental mistakes,” said EG coach Dana Fink after the loss.
Wes Onken led the EG hitting brigade, going 2 for 3 and scoring a run; Neese was 1-3 with a single; Dearborn was 1-3 and a run; and Tom Beger was 1-4 with a single. Ar-We-Va had two stolen bases to none for the Hawks.
AWV 000 200 1 3 5 1
EGR 010 000 1 2 5 3
EYE ON GJ SAYS: This was another terrific season for the Hawks. Sure, it ended on a disappointing note. That 20th win of the season and another trip to Principal Park were right there after EG beat undefeated and No. 4 ranked EHK/Exira in the district finals, but Ar-We-Va was the team that played like a champion and earned the right to advance to the 1A State Tournament.
As it was, the Rockets were somewhat embarrassed in the opening round by eventual champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s, 16-0, in a game shortened to 5 innings by the 10-run rule. MSt.M, seeded second at state, rolled on with victories over Preston, 10-2, in the semifinals and St. Mary’s (Remsen), 3-0, in the championship game—winning the title with a perfect 43-0 record.
St. Mary’s advanced to the title game with an exciting 9-8 win over top-seed and defending champion Newman (Mason City) in the semifinals. Newman sidelined East Greene in the opening round of last year’s tournament on its march to the 2009 championship.
Newman was the only team from last year’s tourney qualifiers to make it back to the state tourney, and Newman and EG were the only two teams from the eight-team field to make it to the substate.
Other highlights of the season included the third straight win over neighbor and rival Jefferson-Scranton, a Class 3A school. The Hawks dispensed with the Rams 6-0 in the first week of the season. EG was runner-up in both the I-35 and EG baseball tourneys with both losses coming in the championship game to I-35, a 2A team that made it to state both this year and last year and battled conference foe Martensdale-St. Mary’s for league honors in the Pride of Iowa Conference.
The Pride of Iowa actually had three teams in the state tourney field as Southeast Warren (Liberty Center) qualified in Class 1A after beating Orient-Macksburg, 8-3, in the Substate 6 championship played at Dowling High School in West Des Moines. SEW finished its season at 16-11. In Class 2A, Solon dropped I-35 in the first round, 4-0. I-35 finished the season at 19-7 while Solon rolled on to the 2A championship with a 41-2 mark.
Ar-We-Va was the surprise team of the 1A state field but Orient-Macksburg was the big news in the district and substate round. While EHKE was winning by big margins on its way to an undefeated season and taking the Rolling Hills Conference crown with a perfect 12-0 record, OM finished last in the RH with a 2-10 mark. Heading into district play the Bulldogs were just 6-14 but they drubbed Mormon Trail (Garden Grove) 15-0 in 4 innings in the first round and beat Murray 2-1 on Murray’s home diamond in the semifinals to advance to the District 6 championship game at Bedford against Bedford, which had sidelined Lenox, a team that had advanced to state last year.
OM got the win over Bedford 7-6 to move on to the substate against Southeast Warren. The loss there ended the Bulldog’s season at 9-15.
In addition to EG, Lenox and Newman, other teams in the 2009 1A field were Tri-County (Thornburgh), Alta, Calamus-Wheatland, Kee (Lansing) and Adair-Casey, also a member of the Rolling Hills. AC and Tri-County lost in the first round of districts; Calamus-Wheatland went down in the semifinal round; and Kee lost in the district championship. Alta aligned with Aurelia this season and moved up to Class 2A and was beaten in the district semifinal round.
BEATING CRB: The big win over EHKE in the district championship was major, but more satisfying was finally getting by rival CRB in the semifinals, especially as wins over the Crusaders have been few and far between over the years.
CRB had been celebrating the 500th career win (all at CRB) of veteran Crusader coach John Waddle a few weeks before meeting the Hawks in the district face-off in Coon Rapids. CRB had just drubbed the Hawks 17-6 the week before districts in the second of their two conference match-ups, so it seemed likely that CRB and EHKE would be the teams advancing to the championship. But the intrepid Hawks had other ideas.
It must be getting frustrating for CRB fans. Since 2001, they have finished first or second in the West Central Conference with the exception of a fourth-place showing in 2003, but have not advanced out of the substate but once since then. The Crusaders bowed out in the semifinal round the last two years in the districts, and in 2008 they fell in the district finals. And all these games were played in Coon Rapids.
The Crusaders were conference co-champs this season (with Woodward-Granger) and in 2008 (a four-way tie with Des Moines Christian, Panorama and Van Meter). Last year the Crusaders were runners-up to co-champs DMC and Panorama. Of course, the fact that the last three West Central titles have ended in ties attests to how competitive the league is and how solid CRB plays against the other schools, a good half which are 2A schools. CRB did make it to state in 2007 and 2001, along with a trip in 1995.
From 1966 to 1983, Coon Rapids only had two winning seasons in baseball. The turnaround came in 1984 when Coon Rapids secured the first of three straight conference championships with a 12-2 mark and finished 15-6 overall, pretty impressive considering the Crusaders had finished a combined 4-33 in the previous two seasons. The next year, officially aligned with Bayard (some years in the early 1980s the two schools shared summer sports), Coon Rapids-Bayard finished 19-5, went undefeated in conference play, and won the district tournament but lost in the substate game. Since then, CRB has won seven more district titles and the three substate wins that put them in the state tournament.
Of course, in the glass half-full/half-empty perspective, the Crusaders have advanced to substate eight times but won just three of those contests. In a “tale of two cities” reality (or in this case, high school baseball teams) in the last decade, East Greene finished in the lower half of the original eight-team West Central in 2001 while CRB won the title along with district and substate crowns. In the following years, the disparity between CRB and EG finishes in the conference went like this, with CRB listed first/EG second: 1st/4th, 4th/5th, 1st/7th, 1st/4th, 2nd/7th, 2nd/7th, 1st/5th, 2nd/7th, and this year, 1st/5th. In 2003, when the Hawks were just behind CRB in fifth, they did get the upper hand in the district tournament in Coon Rapids, beating CRB in the semifinal round 8-4 but falling to Adair-Casey 4-2 in the finals.
Overall, Waddle has coached CRB to 24 winning seasons, 11 conference championships and the three state tourney appearances, and 34 of his players have earned all-state honors. He was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame earlier this season.
So, any victory over CRB is worth savoring.
LOOKING AHEAD: EG loses four key players off this year’s squad but has a very solid nucleus returning next year, including all three of its top pitchers: Tyler Cooklin, Wes Onken and Reed Ostrander, along with veteran outfielder Aaron Lyons, catcher Tory Beger, and infielders Alex Gordon and Zach Dearborn, and a number of key reserves.
The Ar-We-Va substate game was the last appearance in an EG uniform for Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Josh Neese and Jessie Priest. Each of the four graduated seniors were standouts in football, basketball and baseball with Priest, Neese and Beyerink also participating in golf. Beger is headed to Simpson College this fall while Beyerink and Priest are headed to UNI, where Priest plans to major in business.
Priest and Beyerink were also members of East Greene’s championship team in the West Central Conference Academic Brain Bowl this past spring.
The four were the core of the EG infield this year, as Priest played right field and first base, Beyerink was at second base, Beger at shortstop and Neese at third.
The Hawks—-who finished fifth among 10 teams—-were not given much consideration by the league coaches when it came to all-conference picks this season, as post-season honors went only to Onken, a second-team pick, and Lyons and Priest, both named honorable mention. EG had just one player named to the first and second teams, while Earlham, which was just one game ahead of EG in the standings had one on the first team and three on the second, and Van Meter, which finished behind EG in sixth place, had two on the first team and two on the second.
Panorama, which finished seventh, managed to get a player named to each of the first and second teams, and West Central Valley, which won only 4 of 18 conference games, also had a player on the first team. Each team gets two players named honorable mention so the final tally for the teams behind EG in the standings: VM 4, Panorama 4, and WCV 3, compared with EG’s 3, and no first-team honorees for the Hawks.
One of the posters on the Iowa Preps message boards in baseball noted that since East Greene was leaving the West Central, it was snubbed by the coaches in the all-conference selections. Clearly. And the coaches and administrators yammer on about sportsmanship and fairness, and then you see something like this happen.
The Hawks got the last laugh by being the only team in the West Central to win its district in either 1A or 2A as all the others fell by the wayside in the first two rounds and only Woodward-Granger made it to the district championship game, which it lost. All the 2A teams lost in the first round with the exception of Earlham, which advanced only because it beat at another conference team, last-place Guthrie Center. Earlham then lost to Audubon in the next round.
The coaches in the 1A Central District were far more respectful to the Hawks as they voted Onken and Neese to the all-district first team and Cooklin to the all-district second team. Also named to the all-district Central team from the West Central Conference were Ryan Shumaker and Jack Manning, WG; Colin Frye and Josh Arment, DMC; and C.J. Manthe, Madrid. Second team honorees were Luke Finley and Ben McIntosh, DMC, and Lucas Geneser, WG. In the 1A Southwest District, Jacob Esdohr was named to the first team along with two players from EHK/Exira and four from state champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s. Tyler Boeke and Jay Carstens of CRB were named to the second team along with two from MSt.M.
While the five 1A schools had eight players earn all-district honors, only one player was so honored among the conference’s five 2A teams, as J.C. Watts of Panorama was named all-district on the 2A Southwest first team. Ben Fisher and Trenton Marks of Van Meter named to the second team along with Cole Kearns of West Central Valley. Comparatively, the 1A teams had seven players with second team honors.
It looks even more spurious to see Neese—a senior—named first-team all-district when he could not even get an honorable mention in the conference. And last year, both Beger and Cooklin got honorable mention nods (along with second-team honors for two EG seniors, Jesse Luther and Brad Clark) when the Hawks finished seventh, but the team moves up to fifth this season and gets a measly three all-league picks. It would seem reasonable that a senior like Beger would get some kind of recognition by the all-league voters (coaches).
The Hawks will be a clear contender in the title chase next summer in the Rolling Hills, with both Onken (6-2) and Cooklin (6-5) returning on the mound along with Ostrander, Lyons, Gordon, Dearborn and Tory Beger. EHKE had almost its entire starting lineup receive all-conference honors as eight players were named first team, second team and honorable mention.
EHKE loses its entire pitching staff (Carson Smith 11-1, Travis Stevens 8-0, and Nolan Himmelberg 6-0—all seniors) along with outfielder Devin Lickteig. All four were unanimously voted to the first team as was Walnut senior Cole Becerra, an outfielder. Smith and Himmelberg were named 1A Southwest first-team all-district while Stevens was voted to the second team.
Back for the Spartans next year are second-team all-RHC picks Ryon Rasmussen, a junior outfielder; Dayton Rasmussen, a sophomore infielder; and Beck Benton, a freshman catcher. Tony Santisteban, a junior honorable mention pick at utility/infielder, also returns. So, clearly, EHKE will be solid.
EHKE and Iowa Christian Academy (11-8) were the only Rolling Hills teams to finish with winning records while Glidden-Ralston had one of its better seasons in many years, reaching the .500 mark at 10-10. Those were the top three teams in the RH with Walnut (12-13) fourth. Adair-Casey went from conference runner-up and 1A state tournament finalist in 2009 to fifth place, finishing at 8-15 overall. CAM (Anita) ended the season at 4-15 and finished just ahead of Orient-Macksburg.
Orient-Macksburg could be a very strong team next season, building on its post-season success this year. It graduates three key seniors, which handled much of the pitching, but returns Nick Ray, a utility/infielder with a 2-3 pitching record. The three seniors were OM’s only all-league picks, but the voting was conducted before the Bulldogs’ tournament run, so OM’s younger players certainly stepped it up at the end of the season, which shows good coaching, team motivation and perseverance.
Iowa Christian won the league in 2009 and they will be looking to return to the top in 2011. The Blazers return two key all-league first-teamers: Nick Schroeder and Colton Barton (an all-district Central second-team pick in 2009), along with two second team picks and two named honorable mentions. GR returns first-team pick Zack Rohrbeck and HM honoree Wade Hoyle.
East Greene went 3-0 against the Rolling Hills this season, beating each of the top three teams: GR 13-7 early in the season; Iowa Christian 4-2 in late June; and EHKE 8-3 in the District 15 championship game.
Rolling Hills Final Conference & Season Records
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12–0, 22–1
Iowa Christian Academy 9–3, 11–8
Glidden-Ralston 7–5, 10–10
Walnut 5–7, 12–13
Adair-Casey 4–8, 8–15
CAM 3–9, 4–15
Orient-Macksburg 2–10, 9–15
West Central Final Conference & Season Records
West Central Final Season Records
Woodward-Granger 17–1, 24–5
Coon Rapids-Bayard 17–1, 26–7
Des Moines Christian 13–5, 15–10
Earlham 9–8, 14–14
East Greene 8–9, 19–12
Van Meter 8–10, 16–14
Panorama 7–11, 8–15
West Central Valley 4–14, 7–20
Madrid 3–15, 5–19
Guthrie Center 3–15, 5–22
It couldn’t have been much closer. East Greene had just cut a 3-1 deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the last inning in the substate finals at Denison on July 20. A return trip to the State 1A Baseball Tournament seemed very, very possible.
Yet the rally was short-lived. With two outs and a runner on first, senior slugger Tom Beger was at the plate, poised to score the tying and go-ahead runs. Hopes were high for EG boosters, but then quickly dashed. Beger hit a flyball to the outfield and the game was over. The Ar-We-Va Rockets were doing the celebrating for their first-ever trip the state finals.
Ar-We-Va moved on with a 13-13 record and became the surprise team of the 2010 1A field, much like East Greene had been last year with a 14-14 record. EG ended the season with a 19-12 mark and its second consecutive district championship.
The Hawks got on the board first, scoring a run in the bottom of the second inning. Wes Onken hit an infield single to lead off the inning and Jessie Priest walked. Josh Neese then lined a single to the outfield to load the bases. Zach Dearborn grounded out, allowing Onken to tag up and head home.
The Hawks still had two runners on base with just one out, but Ar-We-Va pitcher Neil Liechti struck out Alex Gordon and Tory Beger to end the threat.
The Hawks’ lead held up until the top of the fourth when Derrick Cornelius walked and was driven home on a single by Liechti to tie the game at 1-1. Liechti advanced home on a bloop single by Matt Dalton, putting the Rockets up 2-1.
The Hawks threatened in bottom of the fifth when Dearborn singled and Gordon advanced him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Four consecutive balls sent Tory Beger to first, and the fourth pitch got by the catcher, advancing Dearborn to third. With Tom Beger up, AWV coach Phil Snyder made a pitching change. Liechti and catcher Ryan Schurke switched places.
Schurke snuffed out the EG rally when Tory Beger was thrown out while leading off at first and Tom Beger grounded out to second.
Heading into the seventh, EG pitcher Tyler Cooklin had already struck out nine batters, but the Hawks bats just were not humming as they had in big wins over Coon Rapids-Bayard and Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira in the district tournament. And the Rockets really put the pressure on in their half of the inning—sensing a victory and a trip later in the week to Principal Park, site of the four-class state tournament.
A throwing error by Tom Beger on a shot up the middle by Dalton pulled first baseman Dearborn off base, putting Dalton on. A wild pitch by Cooklin got by catcher Tory Beger, allowing Dalton to get to second. Jacob Kraus then hit a single to left field, advancing Dalton to third and still no outs.
EG coach Dana Fink called a meeting at the mound, but he left Cooklin in the game. The situation looked really dire when Quentin Thomsen hit a bloop single to centerfield which allowed Dalton to score, although a throw from center fielder Aaron Lyons to Tory Beger almost got him out at the plate. The next batter popped up for the first out, and then Cooklin struck out Elliott Koch and Ross Pawletzki was out on an infield blooper to send the Hawks back to the plate for a much-hoped comeback.
Neese opened the bottom of the inning by striking out, but then Dearborn hit a chopper to third that was overthrown at first, giving the Hawks some hope. Alex Gordon walked putting runners on first and second. Reed Ostrander hit into a force-out to second giving the Hawks their second out but that allowed Dearborn to head home from second, which cut the Ar-We-Va lead to 3-2. The Hawks had generated some momentum, but Thomsen squelched the rally and gave the Rockets the win when he snagged Tom Beger’s fly ball to right field.
It was the errors that did the Hawks in, as all else was even and the Hawks had the better pitching. Liechti and Schurke gave up 5 hits, walked 2 and struck out 4, while Cooklin gave up 5 hits, walked 2, and struck out 10. But the Rockets had just 1 error and Hawks had 3, plus Ar-We-Va had 2 stolen bases to none for EG. “Too many errors and mental mistakes,” said EG coach Dana Fink after the loss.
Wes Onken led the EG hitting brigade, going 2 for 3 and scoring a run; Neese was 1-3 with a single; Dearborn was 1-3 and a run; and Tom Beger was 1-4 with a single. Ar-We-Va had two stolen bases to none for the Hawks.
AWV 000 200 1 3 5 1
EGR 010 000 1 2 5 3
EYE ON GJ SAYS: This was another terrific season for the Hawks. Sure, it ended on a disappointing note. That 20th win of the season and another trip to Principal Park were right there after EG beat undefeated and No. 4 ranked EHK/Exira in the district finals, but Ar-We-Va was the team that played like a champion and earned the right to advance to the 1A State Tournament.
As it was, the Rockets were somewhat embarrassed in the opening round by eventual champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s, 16-0, in a game shortened to 5 innings by the 10-run rule. MSt.M, seeded second at state, rolled on with victories over Preston, 10-2, in the semifinals and St. Mary’s (Remsen), 3-0, in the championship game—winning the title with a perfect 43-0 record.
St. Mary’s advanced to the title game with an exciting 9-8 win over top-seed and defending champion Newman (Mason City) in the semifinals. Newman sidelined East Greene in the opening round of last year’s tournament on its march to the 2009 championship.
Newman was the only team from last year’s tourney qualifiers to make it back to the state tourney, and Newman and EG were the only two teams from the eight-team field to make it to the substate.
Other highlights of the season included the third straight win over neighbor and rival Jefferson-Scranton, a Class 3A school. The Hawks dispensed with the Rams 6-0 in the first week of the season. EG was runner-up in both the I-35 and EG baseball tourneys with both losses coming in the championship game to I-35, a 2A team that made it to state both this year and last year and battled conference foe Martensdale-St. Mary’s for league honors in the Pride of Iowa Conference.
The Pride of Iowa actually had three teams in the state tourney field as Southeast Warren (Liberty Center) qualified in Class 1A after beating Orient-Macksburg, 8-3, in the Substate 6 championship played at Dowling High School in West Des Moines. SEW finished its season at 16-11. In Class 2A, Solon dropped I-35 in the first round, 4-0. I-35 finished the season at 19-7 while Solon rolled on to the 2A championship with a 41-2 mark.
Ar-We-Va was the surprise team of the 1A state field but Orient-Macksburg was the big news in the district and substate round. While EHKE was winning by big margins on its way to an undefeated season and taking the Rolling Hills Conference crown with a perfect 12-0 record, OM finished last in the RH with a 2-10 mark. Heading into district play the Bulldogs were just 6-14 but they drubbed Mormon Trail (Garden Grove) 15-0 in 4 innings in the first round and beat Murray 2-1 on Murray’s home diamond in the semifinals to advance to the District 6 championship game at Bedford against Bedford, which had sidelined Lenox, a team that had advanced to state last year.
OM got the win over Bedford 7-6 to move on to the substate against Southeast Warren. The loss there ended the Bulldog’s season at 9-15.
In addition to EG, Lenox and Newman, other teams in the 2009 1A field were Tri-County (Thornburgh), Alta, Calamus-Wheatland, Kee (Lansing) and Adair-Casey, also a member of the Rolling Hills. AC and Tri-County lost in the first round of districts; Calamus-Wheatland went down in the semifinal round; and Kee lost in the district championship. Alta aligned with Aurelia this season and moved up to Class 2A and was beaten in the district semifinal round.
BEATING CRB: The big win over EHKE in the district championship was major, but more satisfying was finally getting by rival CRB in the semifinals, especially as wins over the Crusaders have been few and far between over the years.
CRB had been celebrating the 500th career win (all at CRB) of veteran Crusader coach John Waddle a few weeks before meeting the Hawks in the district face-off in Coon Rapids. CRB had just drubbed the Hawks 17-6 the week before districts in the second of their two conference match-ups, so it seemed likely that CRB and EHKE would be the teams advancing to the championship. But the intrepid Hawks had other ideas.
It must be getting frustrating for CRB fans. Since 2001, they have finished first or second in the West Central Conference with the exception of a fourth-place showing in 2003, but have not advanced out of the substate but once since then. The Crusaders bowed out in the semifinal round the last two years in the districts, and in 2008 they fell in the district finals. And all these games were played in Coon Rapids.
The Crusaders were conference co-champs this season (with Woodward-Granger) and in 2008 (a four-way tie with Des Moines Christian, Panorama and Van Meter). Last year the Crusaders were runners-up to co-champs DMC and Panorama. Of course, the fact that the last three West Central titles have ended in ties attests to how competitive the league is and how solid CRB plays against the other schools, a good half which are 2A schools. CRB did make it to state in 2007 and 2001, along with a trip in 1995.
From 1966 to 1983, Coon Rapids only had two winning seasons in baseball. The turnaround came in 1984 when Coon Rapids secured the first of three straight conference championships with a 12-2 mark and finished 15-6 overall, pretty impressive considering the Crusaders had finished a combined 4-33 in the previous two seasons. The next year, officially aligned with Bayard (some years in the early 1980s the two schools shared summer sports), Coon Rapids-Bayard finished 19-5, went undefeated in conference play, and won the district tournament but lost in the substate game. Since then, CRB has won seven more district titles and the three substate wins that put them in the state tournament.
Of course, in the glass half-full/half-empty perspective, the Crusaders have advanced to substate eight times but won just three of those contests. In a “tale of two cities” reality (or in this case, high school baseball teams) in the last decade, East Greene finished in the lower half of the original eight-team West Central in 2001 while CRB won the title along with district and substate crowns. In the following years, the disparity between CRB and EG finishes in the conference went like this, with CRB listed first/EG second: 1st/4th, 4th/5th, 1st/7th, 1st/4th, 2nd/7th, 2nd/7th, 1st/5th, 2nd/7th, and this year, 1st/5th. In 2003, when the Hawks were just behind CRB in fifth, they did get the upper hand in the district tournament in Coon Rapids, beating CRB in the semifinal round 8-4 but falling to Adair-Casey 4-2 in the finals.
Overall, Waddle has coached CRB to 24 winning seasons, 11 conference championships and the three state tourney appearances, and 34 of his players have earned all-state honors. He was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame earlier this season.
So, any victory over CRB is worth savoring.
LOOKING AHEAD: EG loses four key players off this year’s squad but has a very solid nucleus returning next year, including all three of its top pitchers: Tyler Cooklin, Wes Onken and Reed Ostrander, along with veteran outfielder Aaron Lyons, catcher Tory Beger, and infielders Alex Gordon and Zach Dearborn, and a number of key reserves.
The Ar-We-Va substate game was the last appearance in an EG uniform for Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Josh Neese and Jessie Priest. Each of the four graduated seniors were standouts in football, basketball and baseball with Priest, Neese and Beyerink also participating in golf. Beger is headed to Simpson College this fall while Beyerink and Priest are headed to UNI, where Priest plans to major in business.
Priest and Beyerink were also members of East Greene’s championship team in the West Central Conference Academic Brain Bowl this past spring.
The four were the core of the EG infield this year, as Priest played right field and first base, Beyerink was at second base, Beger at shortstop and Neese at third.
The Hawks—-who finished fifth among 10 teams—-were not given much consideration by the league coaches when it came to all-conference picks this season, as post-season honors went only to Onken, a second-team pick, and Lyons and Priest, both named honorable mention. EG had just one player named to the first and second teams, while Earlham, which was just one game ahead of EG in the standings had one on the first team and three on the second, and Van Meter, which finished behind EG in sixth place, had two on the first team and two on the second.
Panorama, which finished seventh, managed to get a player named to each of the first and second teams, and West Central Valley, which won only 4 of 18 conference games, also had a player on the first team. Each team gets two players named honorable mention so the final tally for the teams behind EG in the standings: VM 4, Panorama 4, and WCV 3, compared with EG’s 3, and no first-team honorees for the Hawks.
One of the posters on the Iowa Preps message boards in baseball noted that since East Greene was leaving the West Central, it was snubbed by the coaches in the all-conference selections. Clearly. And the coaches and administrators yammer on about sportsmanship and fairness, and then you see something like this happen.
The Hawks got the last laugh by being the only team in the West Central to win its district in either 1A or 2A as all the others fell by the wayside in the first two rounds and only Woodward-Granger made it to the district championship game, which it lost. All the 2A teams lost in the first round with the exception of Earlham, which advanced only because it beat at another conference team, last-place Guthrie Center. Earlham then lost to Audubon in the next round.
The coaches in the 1A Central District were far more respectful to the Hawks as they voted Onken and Neese to the all-district first team and Cooklin to the all-district second team. Also named to the all-district Central team from the West Central Conference were Ryan Shumaker and Jack Manning, WG; Colin Frye and Josh Arment, DMC; and C.J. Manthe, Madrid. Second team honorees were Luke Finley and Ben McIntosh, DMC, and Lucas Geneser, WG. In the 1A Southwest District, Jacob Esdohr was named to the first team along with two players from EHK/Exira and four from state champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s. Tyler Boeke and Jay Carstens of CRB were named to the second team along with two from MSt.M.
While the five 1A schools had eight players earn all-district honors, only one player was so honored among the conference’s five 2A teams, as J.C. Watts of Panorama was named all-district on the 2A Southwest first team. Ben Fisher and Trenton Marks of Van Meter named to the second team along with Cole Kearns of West Central Valley. Comparatively, the 1A teams had seven players with second team honors.
It looks even more spurious to see Neese—a senior—named first-team all-district when he could not even get an honorable mention in the conference. And last year, both Beger and Cooklin got honorable mention nods (along with second-team honors for two EG seniors, Jesse Luther and Brad Clark) when the Hawks finished seventh, but the team moves up to fifth this season and gets a measly three all-league picks. It would seem reasonable that a senior like Beger would get some kind of recognition by the all-league voters (coaches).
The Hawks will be a clear contender in the title chase next summer in the Rolling Hills, with both Onken (6-2) and Cooklin (6-5) returning on the mound along with Ostrander, Lyons, Gordon, Dearborn and Tory Beger. EHKE had almost its entire starting lineup receive all-conference honors as eight players were named first team, second team and honorable mention.
EHKE loses its entire pitching staff (Carson Smith 11-1, Travis Stevens 8-0, and Nolan Himmelberg 6-0—all seniors) along with outfielder Devin Lickteig. All four were unanimously voted to the first team as was Walnut senior Cole Becerra, an outfielder. Smith and Himmelberg were named 1A Southwest first-team all-district while Stevens was voted to the second team.
Back for the Spartans next year are second-team all-RHC picks Ryon Rasmussen, a junior outfielder; Dayton Rasmussen, a sophomore infielder; and Beck Benton, a freshman catcher. Tony Santisteban, a junior honorable mention pick at utility/infielder, also returns. So, clearly, EHKE will be solid.
EHKE and Iowa Christian Academy (11-8) were the only Rolling Hills teams to finish with winning records while Glidden-Ralston had one of its better seasons in many years, reaching the .500 mark at 10-10. Those were the top three teams in the RH with Walnut (12-13) fourth. Adair-Casey went from conference runner-up and 1A state tournament finalist in 2009 to fifth place, finishing at 8-15 overall. CAM (Anita) ended the season at 4-15 and finished just ahead of Orient-Macksburg.
Orient-Macksburg could be a very strong team next season, building on its post-season success this year. It graduates three key seniors, which handled much of the pitching, but returns Nick Ray, a utility/infielder with a 2-3 pitching record. The three seniors were OM’s only all-league picks, but the voting was conducted before the Bulldogs’ tournament run, so OM’s younger players certainly stepped it up at the end of the season, which shows good coaching, team motivation and perseverance.
Iowa Christian won the league in 2009 and they will be looking to return to the top in 2011. The Blazers return two key all-league first-teamers: Nick Schroeder and Colton Barton (an all-district Central second-team pick in 2009), along with two second team picks and two named honorable mentions. GR returns first-team pick Zack Rohrbeck and HM honoree Wade Hoyle.
East Greene went 3-0 against the Rolling Hills this season, beating each of the top three teams: GR 13-7 early in the season; Iowa Christian 4-2 in late June; and EHKE 8-3 in the District 15 championship game.
Rolling Hills Final Conference & Season Records
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12–0, 22–1
Iowa Christian Academy 9–3, 11–8
Glidden-Ralston 7–5, 10–10
Walnut 5–7, 12–13
Adair-Casey 4–8, 8–15
CAM 3–9, 4–15
Orient-Macksburg 2–10, 9–15
West Central Final Conference & Season Records
West Central Final Season Records
Woodward-Granger 17–1, 24–5
Coon Rapids-Bayard 17–1, 26–7
Des Moines Christian 13–5, 15–10
Earlham 9–8, 14–14
East Greene 8–9, 19–12
Van Meter 8–10, 16–14
Panorama 7–11, 8–15
West Central Valley 4–14, 7–20
Madrid 3–15, 5–19
Guthrie Center 3–15, 5–22
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