Hoopsters Continue EG’s Winning Ways

HAWKS’ SUCCESS ON FIELD EXTENDS TO BB COURT

The big news this fall and winter in Grand Junction has been the success of the boys’ high school athletic teams. The football squad qualified for the 8-man playoffs this year for the first time in school history. It was also EG’s first post-season appearance since qualifying three years in a row in the late 1980s in Class A.

This year’s EG grid squad finished third in District 7 with a 5-2 mark and advanced to Stanton where they took on the Stanton Vikings, a veteran playoff team. The final score of 44-6 is a bit misleading, as the Hawks were behind by just 14-0 at halftime and 20-6 well into the fourth quarter.

Fumbles and miscues had plagued the Hawks all night and things went from bad to worse and then some as the Viking’s responded quickly after EG’s fourth-quarter score with a 38-yard run for a TD and a 28-6 advantage. The Stanton defense then turned a fumble on the next Hawk series into another 38-yard touchdown and after the kickoff following that score, the Vikings picked of QB Tory Beger and ran the ball back for a 35-yard TD. Just like that—three quick TDs—saw Stanton with 44 points on the board while the Hawks were stymied. The Vikings moved on to the second round to face EG’s longtime rival and district foe Glidden-Ralston in Glidden while the Hawks ended the season at 7-3.

A good contingent of fans made the long trip to Stanton for the game in late October thanks to a chartered bus sponsored by Peoples Trust and Savings Bank. The team was honored at a big community pep rally held in the high school gym at Grand Junction the night before the game.

East Greene gets another banner and trophy to accompany the hardware earned from its participation in the state baseball tournament in 2009. (Last summer, the Hawks were just a run shy from making it back to Principal Park for a repeat state baseball performance, falling to Ar-We-Va 3-2 in the sub-state after winning the district crown with big upsets over highly favored Coon Rapids-Bayard in the semifinal round and undefeated Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira in the championship game.)

Interestingly, teams from EHKE and CRB are integral to the Hawk’s continued current hoop success.

The EHKE Spartans are atop the Rolling Hills Conference in basketball with the Hawks right behind them (see related story on basketball). This season marks the first year that longtime neighboring schools and rivals Exira and Elk Horn-Kimballton are competing together in basketball (boys and girls) after initially competing last year as EHKE in football, wrestling, boys and girls track, baseball and softball. They competed separately in basketball and golf. This year, they are EHKE across the board in all sports (or, as some would have it, E/EHK). Exira will close its elementary school building on Main Street (built in 1913) next year with its area K-3 students and all middle school students from the two districts housed in the Exira Jr.-Sr. High Building on the south side of town. All high school students from the two districts will attend classes at the current K-12 school building in Elk Horn, as will the existing K-3 students in the EHK district.

EHKE beat the Hawks in their first matchup on Jan. 4 in Rippey in a defensive tussle, 40-37. The Hawks’ conference title hoops then took a big hit the following week when Ankeny Christian beat them Jan. 14 on the Eagle’s home floor in Ankeny, 54-48. This was a big turnaround from the first game between EG and ACA in Rippey, where the Hawks posted a big 60-48 win and marked them as a “team to beat” in the league as ACA is the defending league champion and qualified for the state tourney last year. Further, the Eagles returned high-scoring Tim Olejniczak, who was a Class 1A first-team all-state pick last year as a junior.

But EG got a big boost from Orient-Macksburg last Friday night when the Bulldogs upended EHKE in another low-scoring battle, 35-30.

Coon Rapids-Bayard also qualified for state last year, and as luck would have it, both CRB and Ankeny Christian have been assigned to the same 9-team district as East Greene for post-season play which gets underway on Thursday, Feb. 14. Also in the field is Colo-Nesco, a perennial power in central Iowa and former Heart of Iowa Conference-Small member that shifted to the Iowa Star Conference this year. As many as four Iowa Star teams—including Colo-Nesco—have been ranked among the top 10 teams in Class 1A this season.

OTHER NEWS IN GJ: New Cemetery Entrance for Mt. Calvary--Thanks to donations from the Rowles and Lynch families, a new entrance was constructed to Mt. Calvary Cemetery on Fifteenth Street, across from the home of Jerry and Janice Kennedy. Since it was established in the 1890s by St. Brigid’s Parish, Mt. Calvary’s entrance has always been on the gravel road that runs north along the cemetery—the extension east of Elizabeth Street. But for many years, most people—and most notably funeral hearses and the processions—entered the cemetery from an access road just off Fifteenth Street where it intersects with Herron Street. That road continues east a bit and then curves straight south to the cemetery. For many years, the road itself was the cemetery’s western border and the space between the road and Fifteenth Street (about a half-block wide and a block long) was an open field, but about 10 years ago the cemetery was extended to that piece of property and there have since been many burials in this newest section. So now the new entrance nicely integrates the new space into the overall cemetery. Some of the oldest (and largest) gravestones in Greene County are found in the oldest part of Mt. Calvary and many of the original Catholic families of Greene County are buried here as St. Brigid’s was the first parish in the area—at one time serving Catholic churches in Jefferson, Paton, Churdan, Scranton, Ogden, Cooper and the Lohrville area. GJ Native Returns; Moves to Family Farm—Alexis Clause-Hooper, daughter of Reg Clause (EG ’67) and Mary Holz-Clause (EG ‘73) of Jefferson, who were both raised on large farm operations east of Grand Junction, has relocated with her family from Jefferson to the Clause farm home occupied for many years by her great-uncle and aunt, Bob and Dena Clause. Bob and his brothers and sisters were raised on the farm, established by his grandfather in the early 1900s, as were Bob’s three kids (Joy, Jill and Rob). The family of his brother Roger and his wife Dorothy (Reg, Linda, Mary Ann, Connie and Cindy) lived just a mile to the west. Bob Clause, who spent his entire life on the Clause Farm in Section 34 of Junction Township except for his time at in the U.S. Navy and as a student at Iowa State, died Oct. 1. His funeral was Oct. 4 at the Methodist church in GJ and he was buried in Beaver Cemetery, which is just a mile east of the Clause home place and the resting place of several generations of Clauses. Alexis and her husband, Jason, and their four young children, moved onto the farm in late fall. Reg Clause tells Eye on GJ that the farm home the Hooper family moved into was built new for the Farm Progress Show hosted in the fall of 1968 by the Bob and Roger (who farmed together for years as Clause Brothers). Reg has continued with the Clause Brothers operation since his father and uncle retired, and last year Alexis extended the farming operation on the property by establishing a certified farming operation, Hooper’s Funny Farm, on a piece of this historic multi-generation, family-owned farm.