EG Prepares for ‘Second’ and ‘Third’ Seasons

RH LEAGUE TOURNEY THURSDAY; REGIONAL NEXT WEEK

East Greene dropped a tough volleyball match to Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton on Tuesday, Oct. 4 in Rippey, 25-18, 25-14, 12-25, 29-27 to fall to 3-5 in the Rolling Hills Conference. The Hawkettes were back in action on Saturday winning two matches and losing three at the Walnut Tournament, moving their season record to 7-12.

EG beat Diagonal 21-8, 21-16 and Ankeny Christian 21-6, 20-22, 15-6 while losing to Walnut 21-13, 21-14 to finish 2-1 in pool play and advance with three other teams to the championship round of the 8-team tourney. Woodbine beat the Hawkettes 21-10, 22-20 in a semifinal match. EG closed out the tourney with another loss to Walnut, 21-14, 21-19, in the third-place match to finish fourth in the tourney.

Against EEHK, the Hawkettes got off to a slow start losing the first two games but took command in the third to double up points on the Spartans winning 25-12. EG went to “extra digits” in the fourth match but fell 29-27.

The loss dropped EG from the upper division of the Rolling Hills. Coming into the contest, the Hawkettes were tied with CAM (Anita) and Orient-Macksburg for fifth place at 3-4 with EEHK just behind at 2-5. CAM upset Iowa Christian Academy that night to move to 4-4 with OM breezing by winless Ankeny Christian Academy to move to 4-4 and stay tied with CAM.

EEHK moved up to 3-5 with the win, tying with the Hawkettes for seventh place in the league. The loss to CAM was Iowa Christian’s first conference setback and allowed Adair-Casey to move into a tie for first place with ICA at 7-1.

The conference title is on the line tonight as ICA hosts EEHK in Waukee and Adair-Casey hosts Walnut. All the league games are important this time of the season as teams no longer relevant in the conference regular championship title can still jockey for a good seed in the conference tournament on Thursday in Elk Horn.

This “second season” gives some of the lower division teams another crack at each other and also at the upper division teams. The bottom four teams form a “play-in” round to create an eight-team field. The 10th place team takes on the 7th place team with the winner moving on to face the No. 2 seed. The 9th place team takes on the 8th place team with the winner advancing to face the top seed. In other quarterfinal round games, No. 3 plays No. 6 and No. 4 takes on No. 5.

A “third season” gets underway next Wednesday, Oct. 19, as regional play begins. EG travels to Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside) in Class 1A first-round action. The winner advances to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Burnside to take on the winner of the Oct. 19 match in Blairsburg between CAL (Latimer) and Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg).

Adair-Casey 7-1
Iowa Christian 7-1
Glidden-Ralston 6-2
Walnut 5-3
CAM 4-4
Orient-Macksburg 4-4
East Greene 3-5
Exira/EHK 3-5
Paton-Churdan 1-7
Ankeny Christian 0-8

Tuesday, Oct. 5:
EEHK beat EG 25-18, 25-14, 12-25, 29-27
CAM beat ICA 16-25, 25-23, 25-22, 9-25, 15-12
OM beat ANK 29-27, 16-25, 24-26, 25-17, 15-5
AC beat PC 25-19, 25-13, 25-16
GR beat WAL 23-25, 25-15, 14-25, 25-20, 15-11

EYE ON GJ SAYS: It was a tough loss for EG at the hands of EEHK. A win would have moved the Hawkettes to 4-4 in the league and provide some momentum heading into the long trip on Saturday to the Walnut Tourney and the final league match of the season tonight at Glidden-Ralston. GR beat Walnut last Tuesday to take sole command of third place in the Rolling Hills at 6-2, just behind league-leaders Adair-Casey and Iowa Christian at 7-1. Should either of those teams stumble tonight, a win over EG will move GR into a tie for second place. The Wildcats will be a heavy favorite and looking to avenge two softball thumpings from EG this summer.

The conference tournament should be a very competitive event with the co-leaders as solid favorites, but some of the middle-tier teams could have an outside shot at taking the tourney title, considering CAM’s surprise win over ICA, which came on the heels of CAM falling to Paton-Churdan, 28-26, 25-23, 9-25, 20-25, 15-8. It was the Rockettes’ first league win of the season. Look for PC to prevail tonight against Ankeny Christian in its league finale.

Considering how the conference tourney shakes out, some teams could get an updraft heading into the big payoff—the “third season” or regional tournament. Every team’s eye is on the prize of a regional championship and a trip to the state tournament in Cedar Rapids.

SWG got the better of the Hawkettes in the season opener for both teams in late August. The Eagles prevailed 25-12, 12-25, 25-14, 25-21. EG will looking to make amends for that defeat. The Hawkettes play in a very competitive conference as Iowa Christian and Adair-Casey have been ranked most of the season. Two non-conference foes, Coon Rapids-Bayard and Guthrie Center, have also been ranked at different points of the season.

SWG is 1-9 in league play and 4-15 overall.

The winner of the Burnside quarterfinal bracket moves on to the semifinal round at Woodward. Teams in the opposite quarterfinal bracket are Colo-Nesco, Madrid, Ankeny Christian and Woodward-Granger.

The winner in Woodward on Friday, Oct. 28 moves on the regional final in Adel on Tuesday, Nov. 1 to face the winner of a seminal match in Guthrie Center on Oct. 28. Teams on that side of the regional bracket are Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton, Coon Rapids-Bayard, Glidden-Ralston, Paton-Churdan, Guthrie Center, Earlham, CAM, Grandview Park Baptist and Adair-Casey.

EEHK and CRB face off in a play-in round match on Monday night with the winner advancing to a first-round match against Glidden Ralston on Wednesday. PC takes on Guthrie Center in another first round pairing in Guthrie Center on Wednesday with the winners that night meeting next Tuesday in a quarterfinal match up in Guthrie Center. Other first-round matches on that side of the bracket are Grandview Park Baptist at Adair-Casey and Earlham at CAM.

Iowa Christian Academy is in Region 4. The Trailblazers’ first-round opponent is Martensdale-St. Mary’s. Walnut and Orient-Macksburg of the Rolling Hills are both in Region 3.

The favorites to make the Region 5 final in Adel are Coon Rapids-Bayard, Adair-Casey and Guthrie Center in the Guthrie half of the bracket with Woodward-Granger as the team to beat in the Woodward side of the bracket. WG is leading the West Central Conference with a 7-0 league mark and 12-4 overall record. The Hawkettes are ranked 11th in Class 1A just behind No. 10 Adair-Casey (14-6) of the Rolling Hills and one spot in front of West Central league foe Guthrie Center (13-5). GC and WG face off on Thursday in Guthrie Center. GC is 4-3 in the West Central behind WG, DMC (7-1) and CRB and Earlham tied for third (5-2).

But Grandview Park Baptist and SWG can’t be overlooked as each plays in a predominantly 2A conference—GPB in the Heart of Iowa and SWG in the Twin Lakes. GPB has a particularly strong history in volleyball with several state tournament appearances in recent years.

Jefferson-Scranton is also in the Heart of Iowa and is in third place with a 5-2 conference record and 14-5 overall mark. The Rams host Prairie Valley (Gowrie) on Tuesday, Oct. 18, in a 2A Region 3 first round match. Roland-Story takes on winless Ogden that same night in Story City with Tuesday’s winners facing off on Tuesday, Oct. 25 in a quarterfinal match up in Story City. The winner there advances to a semifinal match up in Jefferson on Friday, Oct. 28, against either South Central Calhoun, East Sac, IKM-Manning or Kuemper. The Jefferson semifinal winner will take on the Des Moines Christian semifinal winner on Tuesday, Nov. 1, in Ames. Teams on the DMC side of the bracket are Colfax-Mingo, North Polk, CMB, Gilbert, Van Meter, Audubon, Panorama and DMC. The first four are all members of the HOI with J-S while the others are all West Central Conference teams with the exception of Audubon of the Western Iowa Conference.

EG Beats Paton-Churdan In Volleyball

WIN MOVES HAWKETTES’ LEAGUE MARK TO 2-1

East Greene picked up a big volleyball win over arch rival Paton-Churdan on Tuesday, Sept. 6, in Rippey, 27-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-13.

EG was in top form at the service line with 91% accuracy and 11 aces. Chelsi Wilkens lead the serving corps with 23-24 for 96% and 3 aces. Bailey Godwin was perfect on 11 serves while Jolee Wessling was 12-14 with 3 aces; Brittany Gunn 11-12 with 2 aces; Hannah Onken 10-12 with 1 ace; and Emily Jacobsen 8-10 with 2 aces.

Paton-Churdan was 55 of 72 for 76% at the service line.

Wilkens was a formidable force at the net on offense with 27 kills on 47 attempts and 24 assists. She was good for two blocks on defense. Onken had one block.

The win over the Rockettes moved EG’s season record to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in the Rolling Hills Conference.

Rollings Hills Conference Standings
Adair-Casey 3-0
Iowa Christian 3-0
Walnut 3-0
East Greene 2-1
Glidden-Ralston 2-1
CAM 1-2
Exira/EHK 1-2
Ankeny Christian 0-3
Orient-Macksburg 0-3
Paton-Churdan 0-3

Rolling Hills Conference Scores, Tuesday, Sept. 6:
East Greene beat Paton-Churdan 27-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-13
Iowa Christian Academy beat Orient-Macksburg 25-23, 25-20, 25-27, 25-22
Adair-Casey beat CAM (Anita) 25-17, 25-15, 25-22
Glidden-Ralston beat Ankeny Christian Academy 25-15, 25-19, 25-22
Walnut beat Elk Horn-Kimballton 26-24, 25-19, 25-20

EYE ON GJ: The Hawkettes have two key road matches next week, traveling to Anita to take on CAM, 1-2 in the conference, and then to league co-leader Adair-Casey (7-1), ranked No. 7 in the state, on Thursday in Adair. Iowa Christian Academy (5-1), which is tied with AC and Walnut for the Rolling Hills lead at 3-0, is also ranked in the Top 10 in Class 1A, coming in at No. 10 this week. Area rival Coon Rapids-Bayard (10-2) is ranked eighth just behind another area team, Ar-We-Va (6-3), which is seventh. Ar-We-Va beat CRB at the Perry Tournament on Wednesday 21-16, 21-19. Ar-We-Va went 2-1 in the tourney at Perry with CRB finishing 1-2. Perry beat Des Moines Christian for the tourney championship with Ar-We-Va beating Earlham in the consolation match for third place.

These matches should indicate just what kind of season EG will have as these are two solid competitors. A road win over CAM would really put the Hawkettes in good standing in the conference race and give them some momentum heading into the contest at Adair. It will be interesting to see how this year’s regional pairings go as EG would see tough competition from teams to the south and west (ICA, AC, CRB, AWV) whereas the teams to the north and east don’t seem to be as daunting.

Hawkettes Get By OM In Tight Match

TAKE DECIDING FIFTH GAME BY TWO POINTS

East Greene evened its Rolling Hills volleyball record at 1-1 with a squeaker over Orient-Macksburg on Thursday, Sept. 1, in Orient, 16-25, 25-23, 25-23, 7-25, 17-15.

It was a solid comeback for the Hawkettes after losing the first game but winning the next two, only to lose the momentum in a 25-7 drubbing in a fourth game that would have clinched the match. In matches that go to the fifth—and deciding—game in a best-of-five match, the scoring is only to 15 but the winning team must win by two points.

The Hawkettes were tested to the limit as OM forced them to “extra digits” but EG prevailed, getting the last two points of game five for the 17-15 win.

EG opened the conference season with a loss to Walnut 25-18, 25-22, 25-21 on Tuesday, Aug. 30, in Rippey. The previous week, EG fell to Southeast Webster on Tuesday and then went 2-2 in the Coon Rapids-Bayard Invitational on Saturday, beating Ankeny Christian and Paton-Churdan but losing to Adair-Casey and Coon Rapids-Bayard, both ranked teams. CRB beat Adair-Casey in the championship game to win the tournament.

EG, now 3-4 on the season, hosts Paton-Churdan tonight in Rippey in a conference match.

ROLING HILLS CONFERENCE
Adair-Casey 2-0
Iowa Christian 2-0
Walnut 2-0
East Greene 1-1
CAM 1-1
Glidden-Ralston 1-1
Exira/EHK 1-1
Ankeny Christian 0-2
Orient-Macksburg 0-2
Paton-Churdan 0-2

Thurs., Sept. 1:
East Greene 16-25-25-7-17, Orient-Macksburg 25-23-23-25-15
Exira-EHK 25-24-25-25, Paton-Churdan 22-26-23-22
Iowa Christian Academy 25-20-25-25, Glidden-Ralston 20-25-18-21
Adair-Casey 25-22-25-25, Ankeny Christian Academy 6-25-8-13
Walnut 20-25-25-26, CAM, Anita 25-18-17-24

Tues., Aug. 30:
Adair-Casey 25-25-24-25, Exira-EHK 17-20-26-18
CAM, Anita 25-25-25, Ankeny Christian Academy 17-14-18
Glidden-Ralston 20-25-25-25-16, Orient-Macksburg 25-14-16-27-14
Iowa Christian Academy 25-25-25, Paton-Churdan 11-16-13
Walnut 25-25-25, East Greene 18-22-21

EYE ON GJ SAYS: EG is playing among some of the best teams in Class 1A as two conference foes—Iowa Christian and Adair-Casey—are both ranked along with two non-conference teams in west central Iowa—Coon Rapids-Bayard and Ar-We-Va.

Through Thursday, Sept. 1, Ar-We-Va (3-0) is ranked sixth; Adair-Casey (5-1) is eighth; CRB (8-2), ninth; and Iowa Christian (3-1), 13th. AC and ICA are the pre-season favorites in the Rolling Hills with ICA winning the regular conference crown with a perfect 9-0 mark, just ahead of AC at 8-1, but AC came back to beat ICA in the conference tournament championship final. Walnut however is also off to a good start with wins over East Greene and CAM (Anita) putting the Warriors in a tie for first with AC and ICA at 2-0.

ICA, AC, Ar-We-Va and CRB are the only ranked teams in central and west central Iowa in Classes 1A, 2A and 3A with the exception of Bondurant-Farrar in Polk County, which moved in the 3A rankings last week in 13th place. BF was a member of the Heart of Iowa Conference as in Jefferson-Scranton but moved this season to the all 3A Raccoon River Valley Conference. Other teams in the 10-team league are ADM (Adel), Ballard (Huxley), Boone, Carlisle, Carroll, Dallas Center-Grimes, Perry, Saydel and Winterset.

EG Advances to District Baseball Semifinals

HAWKS DOWN COLO-NESCO, 3-2, AT RIPPEY

East Greene upended Colo-Nesco, 3-2, in Rippey on Tuesday, July 12, to advance to the District 10 semifinals on Thursday, July 15. The Hawks will take on Madrid at Walt Anderson Field in Rippey at 7 p.m.

Madrid (10-19) advanced to the semifinal round with a 4-3 win over Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg) in the opening game of a first-round doubleheader at Rippey on Tuesday. NEH ends the season at 17-18.

The Hawks rode the pitching of Tyler Cooklin to get the win and move on in the tournament. Cooklin struck out 11 Colo-Nesco batters. He gave up 5 hits, 1 earned run and walked 3. He was 2-3 at the plate with an RBI to lead the Hawk batters. Aaron Lyons was 2-4 with an RBI. The Hawks rapped 9 hits for the night with Tory Beger and Alex Gordon each adding a pair and Harrison Johnston adding a single.

The Hawks improved to 11-13 in beating a team they had downed 17-7 in 6 innings on July 1. Colo-Nesco bows out with a 13-16 record.

AROUND THE LEAGUE: The Rolling Hills Conference fared well in first-round district action, posting a glossy 6-1 record with one team, Adair-Casey, receiving a bye. League co-champion Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira beat AHST, 3-1, and will now face conference foe Walnut, which got by Riverside (Oakland) 5-0. CAM (Anita) beat Guthrie Center in a 3-2 thriller in 8 innings and will advance to face Adair-Casey. Orient-Macksburg beat Murray 3-0 and Glidden-Ralston beat Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside) 7-0.

The only loser on the night was co-champion Iowa Christian Academy/Ankeny Christian Academy, a team that had the task of taking on Martensdale-St. Mary’s, the defending Class 1A state champions. Martensdale-St. Mary’s has been making headlines all summer. A few weeks ago, the Blue Devils reached the No. 2 position among winning streaks for all high school baseball teams in the country with a 76-game unbeaten streak. A 9-1 win over Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian Tuesday night moved them to 81 straight wins. The record is 83 games, which MSt.M will tie if they reach the district finals on Saturday. They can break the record with a win in the substate, which will advance them back to Des Moines to defend their state title.

Martensdale-St. Mary’s is now 38-0 for the season. Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian ends the season at 16-5.

HAWKS FALL TO ICA/ACA, 8-4: East Greene finished conference competition at 5-9 in the Rolling Hills with an 8-4 loss to Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian in a make-up game on Friday, July 8, in Rippey. An EG win coupled with a Glidden-Ralston loss to Iowa Christian on Saturday would have knocked the Blazers out of first place and moved EG into a tie for fourth-place with Glidden-Ralston. ICA swept both games to tie Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira for the conference crown and left East Greene in sixth place at 5-9.

FINAL ROLLING HILLS CONFERENCE BASEBALL STANDINGS
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12-2
Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian 12-2
Walnut 10-4
Orient-Macksburg 6-8
Glidden-Ralston 6-8
East Greene 5-9
Adair-Casey 3-11
CAM (Anita) 2-13

Hawkettes Beat Orient-Macksburg, 6-5

EG COMES FROM BEHIND FOR THE WIN

A double-play with one out in the top of the seventh inning preserved a come-from-behind softball win for East Greene, 6-5, over Orient-Macksburg on Thursday, June 30, in Grand Junction.

The Hawkettes trailed 4-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but a combination of hits, walks and Orient-Macksburg fielding errors sparked a five-run EG rally to put the Hawkettes ahead, 6-5.

In the top of the sixth inning, an OM RBI triple drove in a run, cutting the lead to 6-5 with one out. EG pitcher Hannah Onken then got the next batter to deliver a little blooper to the pitcher’s mound which Onken threw to first baseman Jolee Wessling for the out. Wessling then fired the ball to catcher Katlynn Gannon, who tagged out the runner advancing from the third to home base, putting the cap on a nifty double play, ending the game and preserving the 6-5 win.

It was a big turnaround for the Hawkettes, who were blasted by the same OM team, 13-1, in 3 innings on June 14 in Orient.

The win snapped a six-game EG losing streak and moved the Hawkettes to 2-8 in the Rolling Hills Conference and 3-12 overall.

The Hawkettes were in action the night before, taking on Van Meter of the West Central Conference in Grand Junction, falling to the Bulldogs, 12-0 in 6 innings.

Van Meter blasted 15 hits while the Hawkettes added to their woes with 8 errors. EG had held the Bulldogs, ranked two weeks ago in the Class 1A Top 15, to a 6-0 lead through five innings, but a 6-run sixth inning doubled the score. EG was held scoreless in the bottom of the sixth, ending the game by the 10-run rule. (Van Meter fell out of the rankings issued June 24.)

East Greene got 3 hits against the Bulldogs with Emily Jacobsen rapping a solid double into centerfield. Dani Hubbard was 3-4 and had 5 stolen bases for Van Meter.

The Hawkettes travel to Coon Rapids tonight to face Coon Rapids-Bayard in an 8 p.m. tilt and then return to Dutton Field in Grand Junction on Tuesday, July 5, to take on Glidden-Ralston at 5:30 p.m. in the conference and season finale.

EG will open regional play the following night in Grand Junction against Ar-We-Va (Westside) in a first round game. Game time is 7 p.m.

East Greene Sweeps GR

HAWKS ROLL 11-2; HAWKETTES WIN BY ONE

East Greene scored a baseball-softball sweep at Glidden on Thursday, June 16, with the Hawks rolling over Glidden-Ralston, 11-2, in baseball, and the Hawkettes picking up a 9-8 softball win.

Wes Onken was on the mound for EG, striking out 14 Wildcat batters while giving up 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned run and walking 5 in 6 innings of work. Reed Ostrander pitched one inning to help shut down the Wildcats, giving up 1 hit.

The Hawks had their bats working with 11 hits against GR. Ostrander hit a 3-run homer run and Tyler Cooklin had three hits in four trips to the plate. Onken went 2-3 with a double, and Tory Beger and Alex Gordon each had a double.

The Wildcats’ offense came from Zack Rohrbeck with 2 hits and Nate Christian with one hit and 2 RBIs.

The win over GR moved the Hawks to 2-3 in the Rolling Hills and 6-5 overall. GR evened its league mark at 3-3.

Hannah Onken got the win on the mound for the Hawkettes. She gave up 9 hits, 8 runs, 6 earned runs, and 7 walks, while striking out 6 GR batters.

East Greene had one of its best offensive nights of the season. Hannah Gunn had 3 hits, including a double and 2 RBIs. Jolee Wessling had 2 hits with Bailey Godwin, Katlynn Gannon, Molly Neese and Onken with 1 hit each. Godwin, Neese, Kinney and Onken each had an RBI.

The Hawkettes got on base with 9 walks from the GR pitcher, and heads-up play resulted in four stolen bases.

It was the first Rolling Hills Conference softball win for EG. The Hawkettes are now 1-4 in the league and 2-6 overall. Glidden-Ralston fell to 1-4 in the conference.

HAWKS FALL IN AR-WE-VA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

EG had a good showing in the Ar-We-Va Tournament on Saturday, June 11, with a 4-3 win over East Sac, a Class 2A school, which put them in the championship game against Newell-Fonda, which had advanced with an 11-7 win over host Ar-We-Va, a finalist in last year’s Class 1A state tournament.

Newell-Fonda got by the Hawks in the championship game, 10-7, to improve to 3-13 for the season. East Sac drubbed Ar-We-Va 15-2 in 4 innings in the consolation game to move its season mark to 10-4. Ar-We-Va started the season with a win but has since lost 10 straight games.

EG was rained out Monday, June 13, at home against Walnut. On Tuesday, the Hawks fell to Orient-Macksburg on the road, 4-3.

Rolling Hills Baseball
Through Thursday, June 16:
Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian 5-1
Walnut 5-2
Orient-Macksburg 3-2
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton 3-2
Glidden-Ralston 3-3
East Greene 2-3
Adair-Casey 1-6
CAM (Anita) 0-4

Rolling Hills Softball
Through Thurs., June 16:
Walnut 5-0
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 3-1
CAM (Anita) 3-2
dair-Casey 2-3
Orient-Macksburg 2-3
Glidden-Ralston 1-4
East Greene 1-4

Hawks Fall to AC; Even League Mark at 1-1

OPEN SEASON WITH NO-HITTER AND 4-GAME WIN STREAK

After putting a four-game win streak together, East Greene has dropped two straight in baseball action to move its season record to 4-2.

The Hawks fell to Adair-Casey, 12-7, in Adair on Monday night, June 6, to even their Rolling Hills Conference record at 1-1. EG had won its league opener last Thursday, June 2, over CAM in Anita, 9-5.

The CAM win was the fourth straight, but the Hawks fell to Madrid in Rippey the following night, 12-10, for their first loss of the season.

EG opened the season in a big way with a 10-0 win over Grandview Park Baptist in Des Moines behind the no-hit pitching of Wes Onken. The game ended after six innings because of the 10-run rule. EG then beat Guthrie Center, 3-1, in its home opener on May 31, followed by a road win at Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg), 3-1, the following night.

The Hawks will look to get back on the winning track tonight in Rippey against Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira. EG takes on league-leading Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian Thursday night in Rippey.

Rollings Hills Baseball
Standings through Monday, June 6
Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian 2-0
East Greene 1-1
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton 1-1
Glidden-Ralston 1-1
Adair-Casey 1-1
Orient-Macksburg 1-1
Walnut 1-1
CAM (Anita) 0-2

Monday, Jun 6:
Adair-Casey 12, EG 7
ICA/ACA 3, Glidden-Ralston 1
Orient-Macksburg 6, EHKE 4
Walnut 12, CAM 1 (5 inn.)

Thursday, June 2:
ICA/ACA 16, AC 1
EHK-Exira 7, Walnut 5 (8 inn.)
EG 9, CAM 5
Glidden-Ralston 8, Orient-Macksburg 6

Hawkettes Beat Guthrie Center, 8-7

EG SPLITS BACK-TO-BACK EXTRA INNING GAMES

A come-from-behind 8-7 thriller over against Guthrie Center that went to 8 innings on Tuesday, May 31, at Dutton Field in Grand Junction put East Greene in the victory column for the first time this season, but the “extra inning magic” failed two nights later as the Hawkettes fell to CAM at Anita in the conference opener, 11-10, in 9 innings.

East Greene pounded out 8 hits in the loss to CAM on Thursday June 2, which was its second extra-inning game in a row. Eighth grader Hannah Onken took the loss, giving up 11 runs on 4 hits, seven walks and three strikeouts.

CAM’s Michaela Schwenke got the win, giving up 10 runs on 8 hits, seven walks and six strikeouts.

Against Guthrie Center, the Hawkettes fell behind early but kept chipping away at the Tigerettes’ lead to knot things up at 7-7 in the bottom of the seventh inning. It looked like Guthrie had the game firmly in command with a 6-0 lead in the top of fourth but the Hawkettes mounted a rally to cut that down to 6-5. Each team scored a run in the sixth to keep the Hawkettes within striking distance.

After tying things up in the bottom of the seventh, the momentum was clearly in EG’s favor. Onken retired the order in the top of the eighth and the Hawkettes’ offense got in gear as they put together three singles, the last a two-out base hit by Emily Jacbosen that scored pinch runner Hannah Gunn.

Onken got her first win on the mound, giving up 7 runs on 4 hits, 6 walks, and 5 batters hit by pitch while striking out 8. Claire Thompson took the loss for the Tigerettes, giving up 10 hits and walking 7. She struck out 8 EG batters.

The win over Guthrie was a big turnaround from the EG’s losses to Southeast Webster-Grand, 17-2, and Des Moines Christian, 15-0 in, that opened the season the previous week.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: EG had several scoring chances that slipped away in the last inning, but the team looked confident on both offense and defense heading into the 8th inning, where it played its best defense and offense the entire game.

The seniors on the squad—Katlynn Gannon, Tia Lowe and Jasmine Kinney—are starting to gel and showing great leadership for the rest of the squad, which is comprised of freshmen and 8th graders. The younger players are playing with more confidence and they all have solid softball skills so look for this team to show improvement throughout the season.

The Rolling Hills Conference race looks to be wide open this season as pre-season favorite Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira was upset by Walnut, 3-1, last Thursday. Orient-Macksburg edged Glidden-Ralston 4-3 in the league opener for those teams.

HAWKETTES FALL AT ADAIR

Adair-Casey beat the Hawkettes last night, Monday, June 6, in Adair, 11-3, to drop EG to 0-2 in the Rolling Hills. Elsewhere in the league, Elk Horn-Kimballton beat Orient-Macksburg, 14-2, in 4 innings and Walnut got by CAM, 4-3, to move into first place with a 2-0 record.

Rolling Hills Softball
Through Mon., June 7:
Walnut                                     2-0
Adair-Casey                            1-0
CAM (Anita)                           1-1
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira     1-1
Orient-Macksburg                    1-1
Glidden-Ralston                      0-1
East Greene                             0-2

EG takes on Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Grand Junction.

Hawk Golfers Finish Season

EG BOYS FINISH SEVENTH IN BOONE SECTIONAL

East Greene wrapped up the 2011 boys golf season on Friday finishing in seventh place at the Class 1A sectional meet at Cedar Pointe Golf Course near Boone on Friday, May 13.

Ankeny Christian Academy finished first with a 336 team score and Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg) took second with a 363. Both teams will advance to the district meet on Friday at Pheasant Ridge Golf Course in Cedar Falls, hosted by Northern University High School of Cedar Falls, along with teams qualifying from sectional meets at Grundy Center, Mason City and Elgin.

Final standings were: Ankeny Christian, 336; Northeast Hamilton, 363; Colo-Nesco, 388; Van Meter, 389; Earlham, 394; Madrid, 395; East Greene, 437; and Southeast Webster-Grand, 447. Woowdard-Granger participated but did not have enough golfers for a team score.

Zach Cousins of Ankeny Christian was meet medalist with a 76, edging out teammate Patrick Grasso, 77.

Earlier in the week, Ankeny Christian had battled Adair-Casey for the Rolling Hills Conference championship at Anita with Adair-Casey coming out on top with a 321. Ankeny Christian finished at 346 just edging out Glidden Raltson, 348, followed by CAM (Anita) 366, Iowa Christian Academy 377, Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 390 and East Greene 402.

Three conference schools—Walnut, Orient-Macksburg and Paton-Churdan—do not field golf teams.

Taylor Wheatley of Adair-Casey was meet medalist with an even-par 71. Nick Kopp of CAM was runner-up with 79. Zach Hiller led EG with 87, followed by Harrison Johnston 96,
Alex Gordon 106, Sean Kenan 113, Tyler Cooklin 115 and Nic Nicolaisen 117.

The finish ahead of Southeast Webster-Grand and Woodward-Granger in the sectional meet were East Greene’s first varsity victories of the season, although the Hawks won a match against the Perry junior varsity, 193-221, on Thursday, May 5, at Lakeside Golf Course near Grand Junction.

The Hawks had a good showing on Friday, May 6, hosting Earlham and West Central Valley (Stuart) at Lakeside. The three teams finished within 11 strokes of each other. Earlham won the match 203, just ahead of West Central Valley at 204 with the Hawks finishing with 214. Johnston finished in a three-way tie for first at 48 with Dylan Watson of West Central Valley and Justin Brown of Earlham. A playoff was held to determine the order of finish with Watson taking medalist honors with Brown as runner-up and Johnston third.

Hiller had of his best rounds the following Monday, May 9, at Lakeside against Iowa Christian Academy (West Des Moines), tying for medalist runner-up honors with Conner Lively of Iowa Christian at 44 with Lively winning the playoff. His teammate, Conner Luginbill, was medalist as he lead the Blazers to 175-203 win over EG.

On Tuesday, May 3, EG faced Guthrie Center and Glidden-Ralston. Guthrie Center won the triangular with 188 to outpace GR 191 and EG 204.

East Greene hosted a boys quadrangular on April 29 at Lakeside while EG hosted the same girls teams—Glidden-Ralston, Adair-Casey and South Central Calhoun (Rockwell City)—at The Hill. South Central Calhoun took top honors in the boys match with 182, followed by Glidden-Ralston 196, Adair-Casey 197, and East Greene 239.

Only two of the four girls squads had enough golfers for team scores and GR and SCC ended play with identical team scores of 217. GR got the win on the basis of the tie-breaker, which is the best score for the team’s No. 5 golfer. Kinney was EG’s lone golfer and she finished with a 64.

Ankeny Christian Academy defeated the Hawks 157-211 on April 28 at Ankeny.

Playoff action for area girls teams began Monday, May 16, with the district meet at Newell with golfers from East Greene, Clay Central-Everly, Graettinger-Terrill, Glidden-Ralston, Laurens-Marathon, Newell-Fonda, Pocahontas, Southeast Webster-Grand, St. Mary’s (Storm Lake), and West Bend-Mallard competing to move on to the regional.

Newell district winners advanced to the regional meet at Graettinger on Monday, May 23, along with the winners of districts at Hawarden and Lake Mills.

Wilkens Debuts With Three Wins

TAKES HURDLE, HIGH JUMP EVENTS FOR EG

Freshman Chelsi Wilkens got her East Greene track career off to a good start with three first-place showings in two meets.

Wilkens won the 100 meter shuttle hurdles in her high school debut at the Richard Ryan Relays in Gowrie on April 4, the first meet of the season. Her time was 18.68. Wilkens also anchored East Greene’s winning 4 x 100 meter shuttle hurdle relay, which broke the tape in 1:22.42. Other members of the championship relay team are senior Tia Lowe and freshmen Emily Jacobsen and Brooke Popp.

Jaclyn Baldwin, a sophomore at Paton-Churdan, placed in three events at the meet, hosted by Prairie Valley (Gowrie). She was fourth in the 200 meters, 29.67; fifth in the 400 meters, 1:12.87; and sixth in the 100 meters, 14.21. Her placements gave PC 7 points in the team standings.

East Greene rounded its scoring in the team standings, 21 points, with a sixth place finish in the 4 x 100 meter relay in a time of 1:00.58.

Team Standings @ Gowrie: West Bend-Mallard 163, Prairie Valley (Gowrie) 151, Pocahontas Area/Pomeroy-Palmer 88, Southeast Webster-Grand 76, Laurens-Marathon 33, Coon Rapids-Bayard 24, East Greene 21, Paton-Churdan 7.

Wilkens was a winner in a debut event again on April 18 when she took first in the high jump at the Southeast Webster-Grand Eagle Relays in Burnside with a jump of 4’10”. The shuttle hurdle relay had another good outing with a fourth-place finish at 1:21.92. The coed meet ended after the 100 meter hurdles due to the cold weather further complicated by rain and wind.

Team Standings @ Burnside: Woodward-Granger 108, South Central Calhoun (Rockwell City) 73, Southeast Webster-Grand 65, Newell-Fonda 47, Glidden-Ralston 28, East Greene 24, Coon Rapids-Bayard 22.

District track assignments were announced and East Greene will participate in the District 9 Class 1A meet at Manson. Other teams in addition to the host school, Manson-Northwest Webster, are Coon Rapids-Bayard, Glidden-Ralston, Madrid, Newell-Fonda, Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg), Paton-Churdan, Pocahontas/Palmer-Pomeroy, Southeast Webster-Grand, St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) and Woodward-Granger.

League opponents from the Rolling Hills Conference at District 6 in Guthrie Center are Adair-Casey, CAM (Anita), Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, and Walnut. The combined Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian squad will compete at District 10 at Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Orient-Macksburg will be at District 3 at Creston.

The Rolling Hills Conference meet is tonight, May 2, at Panora. Nine teams will compete for the crown as ICA/ACA is a combined team. EHK/Exira is the returning champion.

Jefferson-Scranton will compete at the Class 2A district meet at Ida Grove with Audubon, East Sac County, IKM-Manning, Kuemper (Carroll), Logan-Magnolia, Maple Valley-Anton Oto, OA-BCIG (Ida Grove), Prairie Valley (Gowrie), South Central Calhoun and Tri-Center (Neola).

Hawkettes End Regular Season 6-15

OPEN REGIONAL ACTION TONIGHT AGAINST CRB

East Greene ended the girls basketball regular season on a sour note, falling to Iowa Christian Academy, 52-20, on Tuesday night in Rippey. The loss dropped the Hawkettes to 6-15 for the season and to 5-13 in the Rolling Hills Conference, where they finished seventh in the 10-team league. Iowa Christian finished in fourth place with a 13-5 mark.

It marked the final home appearance for four EG seniors: Katlynn Gannon, Tia Lowe, Molly Neese and Jasmine Kinney. Lowe and Gannon were the only two Hawkettes to get on the board with 11 and 9 points respectively. Karlie Schut had a big night for the Blazers with 19 points and 16 rebounds. She was 9-of-10 scoring from the field. ICA held the Hawkettes to just 1 point in the second quarter, allowing them to take a 30-7 lead and halftime and then coast to the win.

Both teams head into regional action tonight. EG travels to Coon Rapids to face Coon Rapids-Bayard, a team that tied with Guthrie Center and Woodward-Granger for fourth in the West Central Conference with a 9-7 mark. CRB is 11-9 overall, with a season-opening win over IKM-Manning (15-4), the No. 11 team in Class 2A to its credit, along with a 30-28 victory over Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton, which tied for second this year in the Rolling Hills.

Iowa Christian (14-6) heads to Guthrie Center (11-10) to take on the Tigerettes in a first-round regional game. The winner of that game will advance to the quarterfinal round in Adair next Tuesday to take on the winner of second round game scheduled for Saturday night in Adair that will match up Adair-Casey (18-3) with the winner of tonight’s EG-CRB clash. Adair-Casey locked down the Rolling Hills title on Tuesday with a 16-2 league mark, and made its first appearance in the Class 1A rankings yesterday, coming in at the No. 15 spot.

The winner of next Tuesday’s Region 8 quarterfinal game in Adair will advance to the semifinal game to be played in the new West Central Valley gym in Stuart. The four teams vying to reach the semifinal round in the lower bracket of the region are Ankeny Christian, Earlham, Grandview Park Baptist and Martensdale-St. Mary’s.

Ankeny Christian (13-9), which finished strong with a fifth-place finish in the Rolling Hills at 10-8, will head to Earlham. The Cardinals were 7-13 overall and 3-12 in the West Central, tying them with Van Meter for seventh place. The winner tonight in Earlham will take on the winner of tonight’s battle between Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Grandview Park Baptist in a quarterfinal round game on Tuesday night in Martensdale. MStM will be heavy favorite, as they are the No. 1-ranked team in Class 1A with a 19-2 record. MStM’s only losses were to OA-BCIG, the top-ranked 2A team in the state, and Southeast Polk, a 4A team. The Blue Devils, who won the Pride of Iowa Conference with a perfect 16-0 mark, have posted big wins over West Central champion Panorama, a 2A school, and Mt. Ayr, also a 2A school and a Pride of Iowa league rival. Mt. Ayr (18-2) heads into 2A tourney action ranked fourth in the state. The Blue Devils’ drubbing of Panorama, 61-26, came in the first game of the season. Both MStM and Mt. Ayr were in the field of last year’s 1A state tournament with Mt. Ayr advancing to the championship game, losing to Exira, last year’s Rolling Hills Conference champion.

Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton posted a strong team again this year, finishing second in the Rolling Hills tied with CAM (Anita). Both posted 15-3 marks, just a game behind Adair-Casey. Each has been ranked among the Top 15 in Class 1A this season.

CAM takes on league foe Walnut in Anita tonight while EEHK hosts AHST (Avoca) in the upper half of the Region 8 bracket. Both will be heavy favorites to advance to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday in Anita. The quarterfinal round winner will move on to the semifinal round game scheduled for next Friday, Feb. 18, in Red Oak against one of the other four teams in the upper bracket of the region: Fremont-Mills, Riverside, East Mills and Sidney.

The Red Oak semifinal game winner will take on the team to advance from the Stuart semifinal tilt in the Region 8 final on Monday, Feb. 21, Atlantic.

Seven of the 10 teams in the Rolling Hills are in Region 8—which pulls together teams from central, west central, western and southwest Iowa—while Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan are in Region 2 (western and northwest Iowa) and Orient-Macksburg is in Region 7 (far southwest and deep southern Iowa).

Orient-Macksburg hosts Corning tonight while Paton-Churdan takes on Southeast Webster-Grand at Burnside and Glidden-Ralston has the unenviable task of taking on Ar-We-Va, the second-ranked 1A team in the state, on the Rockettes’ home court in Westside. If OM wins, it will travel to Villisca to take on the Lenox-Villisca winner. Winners of the games at SWG and Ar-We-Va will face each other Tuesday in Westside with the winner advancing to the semifinal game in Denison. Semifinal winners from Denison and Orange City will meet in the Region 2 final on Feb. 21 in Mapleton.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawkettes showed real promise early this season, getting out of the gate with a 5-3 record through the Christmas break. EG was only able to post one additional victory since then, however, downing winless Paton-Churdan in Rippey. EG fell to teams it had beaten earlier in the season—Walnut, Glidden-Ralston and Ankeny Christian—yet the Hawkettes were competitive in all of those games and in two close losses to Orient-Macksburg (each by three points).

It will be interesting to see how the Rolling Hills stacks up to the competition in the regionals, especially in Region 8, which features the top 5 teams in the league: Adair-Casey, CAM, EEHK and the two Christian academies from Des Moines.

The opening round has some interesting matchups, especially Iowa Christian at Guthrie Center, and Ankeny Christian taking on Earlham. Guthrie has a deep girls basketball tradition and the West Central is a solid conference while Iowa Christian was a real threat in the Rolling Hills this year, downing CAM by 10 points and losing to EEHK by only 3. Guthrie played four games in a six-day period that ended Tuesday night, marked by two big wins over West Central Valley; a near upset of Des Moines Christian, falling 47-44; and a loss to CRB, 33-25.

Other than Exira’s run to the championship in 2010 and a state tournament trip in 2008, the only other area 1A or 2A teams to advance to state in recent years have been tradition-rich Guthrie and CRB of the West Central, and Southeast Webster-Grand, a longtime area rival of EG. Guthrie Center most recently qualified for state in 2007 and 2002, and is widely known as a “girls basketball town” as the Tigerettes have qualified for state an amazing 21 times, topped only by Ankeny (23) trips and equaled by Mediapolis. Coon Rapids-Bayard made it to state in 2009, giving the school 9 total trips—7 by Coon Rapids and 2 by CRB. SWG qualified in 2006 and 2008. Coupled with appearances at state by Grand in 1960, Dayton in 1974, and Central Webster in 1983, SWG has 5 total appearances to its name.

If CRB gets by the Hawkettes tonight, they will face Adair-Casey on the Bombers’ home floor for the right to move on to the quarterfinal round, yet another matchup between Rolling Hills and West Central teams. CRB has big wins over EEHK, 38-30, in December and its win on Tuesday over Guthrie, a team it lost to earlier in the season 34-31. AC split with both CAM and EEHK on its way to the Rolling Hills title and interestingly, its only other loss on the year was to Guthrie Center. A rematch of those two teams is a possibility in the quarterfinal round also.

Panorama won the West Central title this year 15-1, just ahead of another 2A school, Des Moines Christian. 13-2. CRB, Guthrie, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger were all bunched together in the middle of the league with WCV going 9-6 with one game cancelled due to snow and the other three teams right behind at 9-7.

In the bottom of the Region 8 bracket, Ankeny Christian has come on strong at the end of the season, posting a big win over CAM on Monday, knocking the Cougars out of the league lead. ACA has gone 3-1 in non-conference play beating Grandview Park Baptist, Madrid and Twin Cedars (Bussey) and losing to Clarke (Osceola), a 2A school. This the best the small Christian academies have done in the Rolling Hills since they joined the league a few years ago after first fielding varsity high school athletics. Last year, ICA and ACA finished fifth and seventh in the league and this year they improved to fourth and fifth—even more impressive when considering the competition included another larger school that moved in from the West Central (EG) and a team formed by two individual competitors from last year (Exira and EHK), which made for a combined enrollment of 119, considerably more than ICA, 56, and ACA, 38.

For comparison purposes, enrollment for the other league teams breaks down like this: CAM 103, GR 102, AC 83, EG 81, OM 57, Walnut 43, and PC 35.

All in all, Martensdale-St.Mary’s looks to be the solid favorite to come out of EG’s half of the bracket with what should be an easy first-round win over Grandview Park Baptist (4-17) and then a solid tussle with Ankeny Christian in the quarterfinal round. It should be interesting in the semifinal round because ICA, GC, CRB and AC would each give them a real challenge—especially with the basketball heritage of CRB and GC—but MStM is also a tournament-tested team as the Blue Devils advanced to state last year as did league foe Mt. Ayr, which attest to the strength of the Pride of Iowa.

Either CAM or EEHK should make it to the semifinal round to most likely face Sidney (15-6), the only other team with a winning record on the Red Oak side of the region.

Hawks Face Key League Test Tonight

CAN TIE FOR LEAGUE LEAD WITH WIN AT ELK HORN

East Greene is coming down the home stretch of one the most successful boys basketball seasons in school history. The Hawks head to Elk Horn tonight for a key battle with Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, leader of the Rolling Hills Conference with a 15-1 record. EG is right behind the Spartans at 14-2.

The two teams met on Jan. 4 in Rippey with EHKE getting the upper hand in a tough defensive tussle, 40-37. EG has seen what the Spartans have put on the floor in the earlier matchup and can hopefully rectify that. On paper, it would seem that EHKE has the advantage as they are playing on their home floor in Elk Horn, but EG is actually undefeated in road contests, whereas all three defeats this season have come on the home court in Rippey. Another wrinkle in the mix is that EHKE actually has two home courts—the first half of the season was played in Exira and now the latter half of the schedule shifts to Elk Horn, as they are in the early stages of sports and whole-grade sharing arrangement between the two--now still separate--school districts.

Both teams sailed through their matchups last night, with EG taking care of Adair-Casey at home, 74-38, and EHKE picking up a road win at Walnut, 76-31. The fact that the second place team beat the ninth-place team in the league by 36 points and the first-place team beat the eighth-team by 35 points—each a team seven slots lower on the RH pecking order—shows that these teams are very evenly matched.

The 74 points scored was the second highest total for the Hawks all season and the most points scored in any of their 14 conference wins. It was the same for EHKE, and the first time the Spartans have topped the 70-point threshold all season. EG has the higher offensive average for the year, 58.2, the 26th best among all 1A schools (137 total) with EHKE at 53.4 points per game. EHKE gives up just 36.6 points a game, second best in all of Class 1A, while EG is hold teams to 42.9.

In other make-up games in the league last night, Glidden-Ralston beat Paton-Churdan 46-29 to stay in the hunt for an upper division finish in the conference. GR moved is conference record to 11-5, right behind Orient-Macksburg and Ankeny Christian, both at 11-4.

Paton-Churdan is winless in the RH and is 1-16 overall, with is lone victory coming against Southeast Webster-Grand. EG opens district action in a quarterfinal round game at home against SWG on Jan. 17. EG thumped the Eagles 78-23 in the second game of the season back in December, which was the highest point total and widest margin of victory all year for the Hawks, who are now 15-3 overall, the same mark as EHKE.

In girls action, Adair-Casey beat the Hawkettes, 67-39, to stay in contention for the Rolling Hills crown. AC is now 14-2, just behind CAM (Anita) which is 14-1.

After tonight’s game at Elk Horn, both EG squads end conference play against Iowa Christian at home on Tuesday. The boys host Madrid in a non-conference game at home on Friday, while the girls head to Coon Rapids-Bayard the night in a first-round regional match up the night before.

BOYS ROLLING HILLS STANDINGS
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 15-1
East Greene 14-2
Ankeny Christian 11-4
Orient-Macksburg 11-4
Glidden-Ralston 10-5
CAM 6-9
Iowa Christian 5-10
Walnut 3-13
Adair-Casey 2-14
Paton-Churdan 0-15

GIRLS ROLLING HILLS STANDINGS
CAM 14-1
Adair-Casey 14-2
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 13-3
Iowa Christian 10-5
Orient-Macksburg 7-8
Ankeny Christian 7-8
East Greene 5-11
Walnut 4-12
Glidden-Ralston 2-12
Paton-Churdan 0-14

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.

EG Netters Drop 3 Straight

FALL TO 2-4 IN ROLLING HILLS CONFERENCE

A quick three-game sweep of CAM (Anita) in a match at Rippey put East Greene at 2-1 and into a tie with Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira for third place in the Rolling Hills Conference, but a three-match losing streak has since dropped the Hawkettes into a tie with Glidden-Ralston in seventh.

East Greene quickly got the measure of the CAM Cougars on Sept. 7, taking the best-of-five-games match 26-24, 25-15, 25-21.

The Hawkettes faced a much more formidable foe in their next match on Sept. 14 as they hosted Adair-Casey, the sixth-ranked team in the state. EG put up a good fight, but fell in three games, 25-19, 26-24, 25-22.

The Hawkettes and AC had tangled earlier in the season in the semifinal round of the Coon Rapids-Bayard Tourney, with the Bombers getting the upper hand in a tight best-of-three match, 25-23, 25-21.

The Sept. 14 conference match against the Bombers put the Hawkettes into the meat of their season schedule as state-ranked Iowa Christian was on the docket for the following Tuesday, Sept. 21, in Rippey with a match at Ankeny Christian Academy in Ankeny on Thursday, Sept. 16.

ACA and East Greene went right down to the wire with a fifth game showdown in Ankeny and the Eagles prevailed: 16-25, 21-25, 26-24, 25-12, 15-8. East Greene almost had a three-game sweep in hand, but ACA rallied in a third game that went into extra digits, and then went on to even things up in game four. The Eagles made quick work of the Hawkettes in that game, winning by a big 13 points. It was more of same in the match-deciding fifth game, with ACA winning by 7.

The loss to ACA was a bit of an upset as EG had rolled over the Eagles in the CRB Tournament 21-8, 21-11. ACA went 0-3 in pool play, also losing to Paton-Churdan and CRB, while EG had advanced to the championship round with a 2-1 pool mark.

While ACA was upending EG to put both teams at 2-3 in the conference, there was a bit of a surprise at the top of the standings as Iowa Christian Academy rolled over Adair-Casey in three straight in a showdown of the league’s leaders. ICA was firmly in command of the match with the Bombers not making much of a threat until third game: 25-20, 25-11, 27-25.

The win left ICA atop the league standings at 5-0 while AC fell to 4-1. In the Class 1A state volleyball rankings released that day, Adair-Casey was ranked 6th and Iowa Christian was 12th.

ICA solidified its place at the top of Rolling Hills on the following Tuesday, Sept. 21, in Rippey taking down the Hawkettes in three games: 25-17, 25-11, 25-18.

The loss dropped EG to 2-4 in the conference and 5-6 overall, the first time all season the Hawkettes have been below .500.

With just three conference matches remaining, the Hawkettes will be fighting to claw back to a finish in the upper division of the Rolling Hills. If they beat Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira (3-3, 4-12) tonight in Elk Horn, Glidden-Ralston (2-4, 5-12) at home on Oct. 5, and Walnut (1-5, 3-14) in their final regular season match on Oct. 12, the Hawkettes will finish with a 5-4 conference mark.

EG also has a home match with former West Central Conference foe Guthrie Center on Thursday of this week and a road match at Madrid, also a West Central member, next Thursday, Oct. 7, to round out its non-conference slate along with a tournament in Walnut on Saturday, Oct. 9.

Rolling Hills Conference
(Standings and records through Monday, 9-27)
Iowa Christian Academy 6-0, 9-3
Adair-Casey 5-1, 10-1
CAM (Anita) 4-2, 4-4
Ankeny Christian Academy 3-3, 4-7
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 3-3, 4-12
Orient-Macksburg 3-3, 4-3
East Greene 2-4, 5-6
Glidden-Ralston 2-4, 5-12
Paton-Churdan 1-5, 2-14
Walnut 1-5, 3-14

EYE ON GJ SAYS: EG will be racking up the miles from here on until the end of the season. Along with tonight’s journey to Elk Horn and the trip to Walnut on Oct. 12, the team will also travel to Walnut on Saturday, Oct. 9, to participate in the Walnut Tournament. Then it’s back to Elk Horn again on Thursday, Oct. 14, for the Rolling Hills Conference Tournament, at the Elk Horn-Kimballton gym which is the home court for EHKE.

CONFERENCE TOURNEY: The next three matches are critical to the Hawkettes as the final standings determine the seedings for the conference tournament on Oct. 14. The teams are seeded 1 through 10 and the bottom four seeds play a preliminary round with 7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9. Last year, Paton-Churdan was seeded seventh and got by tenth-seeded Walnut in the opening round. The Rockettes then upset No. 2 seed Iowa Christian, the regular season runner-up, to advance to the semifinal round. The four losers in the quarterfinal round drop down into a consolation round, which ICA won by beating Ankeny Christian in the fifth-place match. CAM eliminated PC in the semifinals and went on to face Exira in the championship match, which Exira won. The Rockettes were beaten by Orient-Macksburg in the consolation championship game, giving OM third place with the Rockettes finishing in fourth.

SEASON COMPONENTS: The nice thing about the playing in the Rolling Hills is that the volleyball season is broken up into four components: the regular conference season, the non-conference and invitational tournaments, the conference tournament where everyone gets a fresh start against the same opponents but the match-ups are based how the teams played during the regular season, and then the post-season playoff in the regional tournament, which determines the team that will move on to the state championship in Cedar Rapids.

At this juncture, Iowa Christian and Adair-Casey look very solid. Along with Grandview Park Baptist of Des Moines, they are the only area teams ranked in Class 1A, and all three are currently in the Top 10. Grandview Park (15-7), a qualifier in last year’s state tourney, is fourth, while Adair-Casey is ninth and Iowa Christian is tenth.

Only two central or west central Iowa area teams are ranked in Class 2A—Bondurant-Farrar, which competes against Jefferson-Scranton and Ogden in the Heart of Iowa Conference, and East Sac County, a member of the Twin Lakes along with Southeast Webster-Grand, Prairie Valley and South Central Calhoun (the alignment of Southern Cal of Lake City and Rockwell City-Lytton).

MOMENTUM: Volleyball is clearly a game of momentum, as evidenced by EG’s match against Ankeny Christian. Here the Hawkettes had already beaten the Eagles by scores of very wide margins for volleyball games--10 and 13 points--and were up two games to none in a best-of-five match in Ankeny, winning by nine points and then by four points. The Eagles had whittled away any advantage the Hawkettes had and took a must-win game three that went into extra digits (26-24). That comeback clearly gave ACA the momentum and they carried forward in a complete reversal—and then some—in the final two games winning by wide margins of 13 and 7.

A big momentum shift had hurt the Hawkettes earlier in the season. Coach Carly Tiffany told the Jefferson Herald that in EG’s opening conference match against Orient-Macksburg, the Hawkettes had taken the first game by a comfortable seven-point advantage, 25-18, but then a leaky roof stopped play. When play resumed after the delay, the Hawkettes had lost their momentum and OM took advantage, taking the next three games and the match, 25-17, 26-24, 25-18.

REGIONAL PAIRINGS: Regional pairings will be released soon and it will be interesting to see how teams are placed geographically. Last year, East Greene and Madrid were on the far eastern border of a region that stretched all the way to the Missouri River, encompassing Southern Cal on the northern edge of the region and teams such as Coon Rapids-Bayard, Ar-We-Va, Exira and St. Albert’s (Council Bluffs). Southern Cal, a highly ranked team, was placed on one side of the region and St. Albert’s, Exira and CRB, all strong teams but none ranked or ranked as highly as Southern Cal, were placed on the opposite side of the region. Southern Cal prevailed and advanced from the region to the state tournament.

Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside), the closest 1A team to the north of East Greene, along with Rockwell City-Lytton which is (or was, last year) the school just beyond Southern Cal, were in a region that stretched from a line across the middle of Calhoun (Rockwell City) and Webster (Burnside) counties all the way north to the state border with Minnesota.

The next region had a line from Colo-Nesco and over and down to Ankeny and then stretched south and east encompassing Grandview Park Baptist, Iowa Christian and Des Moines Christian, along with schools south of Des Moines such as Martensdale-St. Mary’s and teams further south and east like Moravia, Melcher-Dallas, Twin Cedars (Bussey) and Lynville-Sully.

Grandview Park Baptist was on one side of the region with Iowa Christian, Des Moines Christian and a very strong Twin Cedars team on the other. Twin Cedars beat DMC in the semifinal round, and then fell to Grandview in the region final.

It will be interesting to see how the regions take shape this year. Southern Cal and Rockwell City-Lytton are out of the picture, as South Central Calhoun is a 2A team, so that takes two 1A schools out of two different regions from 2009—So Cal in Region 3 and RCL in Region 2.

Last year, four of the 10 West Central Conference schools (EG, DMC, CRB and Madrid) were in Class 1A with the other six in 2A. Since EG moved from the West Central to the Rolling Hills, the league has just nine members this year (Ogden will leave the Heart of Iowa after this year and begin play next year in the West Central). And again this year, four of the members are in 1A. This year its Guthrie Center and Earlham dropping down from 2A to join Madrid and CRB in 1A while Woodward-Granger, Van Meter, West Central Valley and Panorama remain in 2A and DMC moves from 1A to 2A.

So there will be the DMC void to fill in that region but the next nearest team to the north and west is Madrid and due west is Earlham, so most likely one—or both—of those two teams could slide into that region (which was Region 5 last year). And last year, Guthrie Center was in 2A so they also come into the mix for Region 5 scheduling in 1A.

It will be very interesting in Region 2. Not only is RCL gone, but so is Schaller-Crestland which is in a sports-sharing arrangement with Galva-Holstein as Ridge View, a 2A school.

So some area teams might need to slide north and since Southern Cal is out of the picture then the north edge of the region would drop further down to include Paton-Churdan and also Glidden-Ralston or East Greene, as both are on an even line (Highway 30). In softball last season, in which PC shares with Jefferson-Scranton which is classified either as 2A or 3A (depending on the sport), the schedulers had to leap over PC, geographically speaking, so EG, GR, SWG and Ar-We-VA were classified in a 15-team region (regions are usually between 16 and 18 teams) that included Newell-Fonda, Alta, and Aurelia and teams in far northern Iowa like Ruthven-Ayrshire, West Bend-Mallard, Graettinger-Terrill, and Harris-Lake Park.

Volleyball does have a higher participation level however, as seven of the eight softball regions were comprised of just 15 teams, while in volleyball last year there were four regions with 17 teams and four regions with 18 teams. That resulted in a 17-team regional with a first-round game matching up two teams with the winner slotted into the top or bottom of 16-team bracket and two first-round games on both top and bottom sides of the brackets in regions with 18 teams.

With Adair-Casey well beyond Des Moines, and two ranked teams in the immediate Des Moines area, look for AC to be positioned again in Region 3, where they were last year, while both Iowa Christian and Grandview Park Baptist placed in Region 5 but on opposite sides of the bracket.

GPB could be scheduled to play teams to the east and south while Iowa Christian, being in West Des Moines, would be aligned with teams to the south, but the championship game would most likely be in the southern metro Des Moines area, perhaps Norwalk or Indianola, as last year it was in Truro, which is pretty far south but Twin Cedars reached the final opposite GPB which played its first two rounds at Martensdale-St. Mary’s, a team that was highly ranked last season. GPB knocked out MSt.M in the first round on its march to the regional championship and state tournament.

So far, teams with solid records in the area include both CRB and Guthrie Center from the West Central and Ar-We-Va in the Western Valley South—all three would most likely contend with Adair-Casey in Region 3.

EG Beats PC; Ups Mark to 4-3

HAWKETTES NOW 1-1 IN ROLLING HILLS CONFERENCE

East Greene rolled over Paton-Churdan in three straight games on Thursday, Sept. 2, to up its season record to 4-3 and even its Rolling Hills Conference mark at 1-1.

The 25-10, 25-19, 25-16 win was the first head-to-head conference competition between EG and PC since 2007, when both teams were members of the West Central Conference. The two teams had met earlier this season at a tournament in Coon Rapids, where the Hawkettes prevailed in a best-of-three match, 21-15 and 21-17.

Last week’s conference tilt at Churdan saw the Hawkettes make a solid showing at the net with 18 kills in 66 attempts and 9 errors. Molly Neese, middle hitter, and Tia Lowe, outside hitter, led the charge. Neese was 5 of 21 with 2 errors and Lowe was 6 of 20 with 2 errors. Middle hitter Chelsi Wilkens had a strong showing with 4 kills in 13 attempts and two errors.

Katlynn Gannon led in digs with 15 and Neese had 12. The Hawkettes had some trouble at the service line however, connecting on just 65 of 75 for 60%, but they did score 10 aces. Jasmine Kinney went 27-28 with 4 aces and Neese was a perfect 18-18 with 3 aces.

EG opened conference play two nights earlier, Tuesday, Aug. 31, against Orient-Macksburg in Rippey. The visitors went home with the win, 18-25, 25-17, 26-25, 25-18.

The Hawkettes opened the season on a bright note on Thurs., Aug. 26, when they squeaked out a win over Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside) in Rippey that was extended by extra points in the fifth and final set in the best-of-five-sets match. EG came back nicely after winning the first set and then dropping the next two. The final match tally was 25-20, 20-25, 24-26, 27-25, 19-17.

The following Saturday, EG went on the road to Coon Rapids where they went 2-2 on the day, finishing second in their pool play and advancing on to the semifinal round. Along with the win over PC, the Hawkettes downed Ankeny Christian 21-8, 21-11 and fell to Coon Rapids-Bayard, 21-12, 21-12 in pool play to advance to the semifinal round along with CRB, Adair-Casey and Iowa Christian Academy.

All matches in pool play and the championship round (semifinal and final matches) were best of three. The No. 1 team in each pool was matched against the No. 2 team of the opposite pool. Adair-Casey eliminated EG 25-23, 25-21 to advance to the championship match against Iowa Christian, a 25-22, 25-18 winner over Coon Rapids-Bayard. Adair-Casey went home with the trophy with a 19-25, 25-21, 15-11 win over Iowa Christian in the final.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The tournament in Coon Rapids offers a good snapshot on the overall volleyball season and how it might unfold in the weeks ahead. CRB has had great success in past years, advancing to state and winning a West Central Conference crown, while EG entered the tournament as the defending champs but looking at many holes to fill in its lineup. CRB was ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll.

Iowa Christian returned four starters this year, led by junior Karlie Schut, an all-district and all-conference pick last year as a sophomore, so it was not that surprising when the Blazers upended CRB in the tournament semifinals. The Crusaders were coming off a 20-10 season and a fifth-place showing (5-4) in the West Central in 2009, a year beyond winning the league at 9-0 and then winning the regional to advance to state.

The big surprise though is Adair-Casey. The Bombers tied for third at 6-3 in the RH last year, but it was pretty much expected they would fall in line again this year behind ICA and especially the combined EHK/Exira squad, considering that Exira had won the league on its own last year with an unblemished mark.

Not the case, though, as AC took the title at the CRB tourney and is still undefeated on the season at 7-0, and tied for first place in the RH.

All three teams are making their mark on the area and state. AC is ranked No. 9 in Class 1A by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union while ICA is 14th and CRB is 15th.

The irony here is that in the last few years, the Rolling Hills has typically had a ranked team in volleyball and basketball (usually Exira) while the West Central has had several teams ranked in either 1A and 2A (often both) in basketball and softball, and one or two in volleyball — usually more than the RH has no matter what the sport. And now the first year that EG moves to the Rolling Hills and in its very first sports season there — two RH teams are ranked!....and just one from the West Central. Go figure. Unlucky break or spirited challenge?

Either way, coach Carly Tiffany is doing a great job of blending her five senior veterans with younger players Wilkens, a freshman, and sophomores Tori Lowe, Brittany Gunn and Liz Gunn.

After the CRB tournament, it’s clear that AC and ICA are the leading contenders for the conference crown. The real surprise is the new super-sized Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira squad, which went winless in four matches in the CRB tournament in addition to dropping a non-conference match to CRB the following Monday. EHKE lost the 7th place match to Ankeny Christian to finish last in the eight-team CRB tournament. PC lost to St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) in the fifth place game, to finish the day 1-3 and in sixth place in the tourney.

EHKE has come back, however, to win its two first conference tilts over Walnut and Paton-Churdan and a non-conference match against AHST (Avoca).

Rolling Hills Conference Standings
(Records through Saturday, Sept. 4, Conf./NonConf.)
Adair-Casey 2-0, 7-0
Iowa Christian Academy 2-0, 5-2
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 2-0, 3-5
East Greene 1-1, 4-3
CAM (Anita) 1-1, 1-1
Orient-Macksburg 1-1, 1-1
Ankeny Christian Academy 1-1, 2-4
Glidden-Ralston 0-2, 2-7
Paton-Churdan 0-2, 1-5
Walnut 0-2, 1-8

EG Wins District Opener

HAWKS DOWN SWG; CRB IS UP NEXT

East Greene upended Southeast Webster-Grand 4-1 in Coon Rapids last night in district tourney first-round action. The Hawks advance to the semifinal round where they will face Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Hawks had 9 hits in picking up the win, moving their season record to 17-11. SWG ended the year at 0-25.

CRB beat Glidden-Ralston 13-4 in the second half of a twin bill in Coon Rapids last night. CRB broke open a tight 3-2 game with six runs in the fourth inning. The Crusaders added four more runs in the sixth to secure the win. Tyler Boeke got the win for CRB, moving his record to 8-0 with Gage Reis pitching the last inning in relief.

CRB, co-champs of the West Central Conference, improved to 24-7. GR bowed out at 10-10.

In the other side of the District 12 bracket, Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, the No. 4 ranked team in Class 1A, moved its season mark to 26-0 with a 9-0 win over Adair-Casey, which made it to the state tournament last year. EHKE’s Carson Smith struck out 17 Bomber batters and gave up just 3 hits in the shutout win, which moved his season record to 11-0. It was the Spartans fourth win this season over AC, which ended the year 8-16. AC finished fifth in the seven-team Rolling Hills Conference with a 4-8 record.

EHKE will be going for its third win against CAM (Anita) in its semifinal matchup in Adair tomorrow night. The Spartans downed CAM 14-5 and 14-3 in Rolling Hills action, the second win coming last Friday in Anita. CAM finished in sixth place in the league at 3-9. The Cougars received a bye in the first round. They head into the EHKE game with a 4-14 overall season mark.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: It was last year in the semifinal round at Coon Rapids that AC soundly beat the Crusaders 8-3 to move on the district and substate championship games, where they downed Walnut 9-1 and AHST (Avoca) 6-4. CRB was hosting the first round, semifinal and final games in the district, and hosting the substate game, so with a glossy 24-6 record and having just been edged out for the league title in the West Central (tying with Earlham at 13-5 for runner-up spot with Des Moines Christian and Panorama winning the title at just one game ahead, 14-4), the Crusaders looked to be the solid favorite, although AC was 17-4 heading into that game and had finished second in the RH to Iowa Christian.

Hopefully, the Hawks can pull the same “home diamond surprise” on CRB this year. CRB has already downed the Hawks twice in their run to the league co-championship. The first win was in Coon Rapids on June 29, 5-2, with the Hawks’ Tyler Cooklin taking the loss on the mound, despite giving up just one hit and striking out 10 batters. The Hawks were hampered by Cooklin walking 8 batters and the defense committing 5 errors. Freshman Reed Ostrander and seniors Nathan Beyerink and Jessie Priest shared mound duties in the 17-6 pounding suffered by EG at home last Friday, which was ended by the 10-rule after six innings. Ostrander pitched four innings and Priest and Beyerink, primarily outfielders, pitched an inning each in relief. Combined, they gave up 10 hits, 11 walks and hit 4 batters while striking out 3.

The Hawks did rack up 7 hits in the game against CRB hurler Boeke and the defense showed improvement from June 29 game with just 2 errors. Boeke struck out 8 Hawks but walked 8, yet his teammates played error-free ball to back him up.

Hopefully the Hawks can catch the Crusaders looking past EG—a team they’ve beaten twice—to unbeaten and highly-ranked EHKE, which looks to be the likely opponent in the district final. Perhaps the earlier victories over EG and the home field advantage on Thursday and again on Saturday in the final will give them a slight bit of over-confidence.

The Hawks will need to reach deep and remember they moved on in the semifinal round last year with a win over Madrid that propelled them to wins in the final over GMG (Garwin) in Ames and then Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines) in the substate game in Ankeny. That team started the tourney trail at 10-14 while this year’s squad racked up a higher finish in a tougher West Central as GR (3-15 in the league last year) was replaced by Woodward-Granger, the 2009 champion of Heart of Iowa-Small Conference that racked up a 20-9 overall record. WG beat EG by just one run in each of the two Hawks vs. Hawks showdowns this year in the conference. And this year’s team entered the post-season with 16 wins against 11 losses and moved up from seventh to fifth in a more competitive West Central.

East Greene Joins Rolling Hills Conference

WILL COMPETE AGAIN WITH PC, GR

East Greene will become a member of the Rolling Hills Activities Conference effective with the 2010-2011 school year. East Greene is currently a member of the West Central Conference.

Members of the Rolling Hills are 1A schools while the enrollments of the current West Central members are divided between 1A and 2A schools, depending upon the sport. In track, all but two of the West Central schools are 1A but in basketball this past season there were just 4 in 1A with the remaining 6 in 2A. In girls basketball and volleyball this year only EG, Madrid, Coon-Rapids-Bayard and Des Moines Christian were in 1A while Panorama, Guthrie Center, Earlham, Van Meter, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger were in 2A. The ratio was the same in boys basketball, but Des Moines Christian, the only private school in the league, opted to play up a class as its Basic Enrollment Data Survey (BEDS) enrollment of 159 was just under the 2A cutoff, which would have made it the largest 1A school in the state. As DMC moved up, that meant a 2A school had to move down to keep the numbers even, and that school was another West Central member, Woodward-Granger. So in boys basketball, EG, Madrid, WG and CRB were the 1A schools and the other 6 were in 2A.

Two current members of the Rolling Hills are Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston, longtime rivals of East Greene. Other members of the 10-team league are Adair-Casey, Ankeny Christian Academy, CAM (Anita), Elk Horn-Kimballton, Exira, Iowa Christian Academy (West Des Moines), Orient-Macksburg and Walnut.

Each of the current league members participates in volleyball and girls and boys basketball, but some have sharing arrangements in the other official league sports of boys and girls track, boys and girls golf, baseball and softball. Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira will share all sports next year, which dropped the league to nine members, creating a spot for East Greene.

East Greene had responded to an invitation sent out by the Rolling Hills last year, but no action was taken by the league, but the move was made in advance of proposed changes expected the following year due to declining enrollments in districts covered by the Rolling Hills area—central, west central, western and southwestern Iowa.

SHIFTING ALIANCES: East Greene has been a member of the current West Central Conference since the 1996-1997 school year, when it joined the league along with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston. All three had been members of the Coon River Valley Conference along with Southeast Webster, another longtime EG rival, and four schools categorized more as northwest Iowa schools—Schaller-Crestland, Pomeroy-Palmer, Newell-Fonda and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake). EG and GR formed the southern edge of the conference.

The West Central in 1995-96 was comprised of Guthrie Center, Panorama, Coon Rapids-Bayard, Van Meter, Martensdale-St. Mary’s, Earlham, Adair-Casey and Nodaway Valley (Greenfield). That year—1996—proved to be rather pivotal as each of these leagues—Coon River Valley, West Central and Rolling Hills—saw some major shifting, along with the Pride of Iowa Conference, which like the West Central, had more of a southern Iowa flavor or “below Interstate 80.”

Martensdale and St. Mary’s are in Warren County, Earlham is in Madison County, and the communities that formed Nodaway Valley—Greenfield, Bridgewater and Fontanelle—are in southern Adair County. Nodaway Valley was formed by merger of Greenfield with its smaller school neighbor to the south and west, Bridgewater-Fontanelle.

That year saw Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Nodaway Valley leave the West Central to join the Pride of Iowa which had been a six-team league—Mount Ayr, I-35 (Truro), Southeast Warren, Wayne (Corydon), Central Decatur (Leon), and East Union (Afton). Geographically, the Pride of Iowa was much more southern Iowa-oriented as where Warren and Adair counties are in the third row up from the Missouri border, Decatur and Wayne counties are in first tier or actual border counties, and Mount Ayr is the county seat of Ringgold, another border county, and Union is the county just to the north of Ringgold.

While the shift of Martensdale and Nodaway made the Pride of Iowa an 8-team league, the West Central was left with just four teams as Earlham and Adair-Casey had defected to the Rolling Hills which was a league of 7 teams in southwest Iowa—Lenox, Corning, Orient-Macksburg, Walnut, Exira, Elk Horn-Kimballton and CAM, which was and continues to be a whole-grade and activities sharing arrangement between the Anita and Cumberland & Massena school districts. Among those seven school locations, only Exira and Elk Horn were north of Interstate 80, and each by fewer than 10 miles.

Several years later, Corning and Lenox left for the Pride of Iowa and Earlham joined the West Central in 2006, leaving the Rolling Hills with just 6 members. But during that period, Iowa Christian Academy had added varsity level sports as had the new Ankeny Christian Academy in Ankeny. Those two became Rolling Hills members in the mid-00s, while Paton-Churdan left the West Central after the 2006-2007 season and Glidden-Ralston did the same after 2008-2009.

PC, GR and EG had initially joined the West Central the same year Des Moines Christian joined and those four schools along with Panorama, Guthrie Center, Van Meter and CRB were the nucleus of the league until West Central Valley (formerly the Stuart-Menlo and Dexfield of Redfield districts) joined in 2001.

DMC had been a K-8 school in the Beaverdale area of Des Moines but added high school program in the 1990s and was already planning to build a new high school campus in the western suburbs of Des Moines. That new campus has since opened in the Timberline area in Urbandale (west of I-35/80). After DMC came onto the scene, a second private Christian high school opened, Grandview Park Baptist, in northeast Des Moines. Iowa Christian and Ankeny Christian followed, giving the Des Moines are four small, independent schools. East Greene has competed with all of them since their founding, so a relationship with the ICA and ACA has already existed.

After West Central Valley joined the West Central, the league became nine members. A few years later, Earlham left the Pride of Iowa and joined the West Central, making it an even-numbered 10-team league. Despite the defections of PC and GR the league stayed at 10 members, as it added Madrid two years ago to replace PC and last year Woodward-Granger joined as a replacement to GR.

Both Madrid and WG had been members of the Heart of Iowa, which divides itself up in Large and Small divisions. Both were in the Small division. As declining enrollments have been affecting a wide swath of schools, each time a team leaves the Heart of Iowa (comprised of mostly 2A but some 3A and 1A schools) another school from a larger league shifts down because they have found it hard to compete among the larger 3A schools. Jefferson-Scranton is a case in point. JS joined the HOI (Large) two years ago to replace Madrid, and this year Nevada became a member to take the spot vacated by Woodward-Granger. Each had been a member of the all-3A Raccoon River Conference. And Boone, which was either a small 4A or a big 3A, depending upon whichever IHSAA or IGHSAU enrollment classifications were in play for a particular sport, moved from the Little Hawkeye (big 3A schools like Norwalk, Pella and formerly Waukee, now a 4A) to the Raccoon River, replacing Nevada.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This move to the Rolling Hills seems to be a mixed bag for the East Greene Community School District. At first glance, it would seem to be a “no brainer” as it levels the playing field for the athletes competing for East Greene. No longer would a school with a BEDS enrollment of 81 (dropping to a projected 74 in three years) like EG have to go head-to-head in individual (golf, track) and team sports against schools with more than double the BEDS enrollment, such as West Central Valley and Panorama.

Yet on the other hand, the students and fans actually know pretty much where the towns that make up West Central Valley and Panorama are located, albeit they enroll more students. Stuart, Menlo, Redfield and Dexter of the WCV district are down by the Interstate (80), while Panora and Lake Panorama and the former YJB towns that make up the district (Bagley, Yale, Jamaica) are just over the Greene County line south into Guthrie County. Earlham, Van Meter, Madrid, Woodward—-all small towns in the “near Des Moines” realm not at all unlike Grand Junction, Rippey and Dana. And who in eastern Greene County is not familiar with Guthrie Center, Coon Rapids or Bayard?

But Walnut? Orient? Macksburg?? These are not words that roll easily off the lips of most Greene Countians. Walnut is in Pottawattamie County—as in Council Bluffs and the Missouri River—-which actually puts it closer to Omaha than to Guthrie Center, yet alone Grand Junction or Rippey. Orient-Macksburg is closer to Missouri than it is Churdan or Grand Junction. And Elk Horn and Exira are western Iowa towns, plain and simple. So we now seem to be stretching this “west central Iowa” and “rolling hills” concepts rather widely. If we stretch too far will they snap?

Think about it. When its 10 below degrees zero in Iowa in January how many fans are going to show up at the Rippey gym to see EG take on Orient-Macksburg, for gosh sakes? Or the “big” Walnut-EG game??

On the flip side, though, it will be good to re-engage year-round competition with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston, one a real-deal Greene County school and the other located just across our western county border. These are schools more in line with EG’s enrollment, as are Walnut and Orient-Macksburg, to be fair. And the proximity of Ankeny Christian (in Ankeny) and Iowa Christian Academy in West Des Moines will offset the long trips to Walnut, Orient and Elk Horn (or Exira depending how their sports sharing and whole grade sharing alignments shake out).