2010 Volleyball Season Gets Underway

NEW ERA IN ROLLING HILLS BEGINS TUESDAY

East Greene opens the 2010 volleyball season tonight in Rippey against Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside). The Hawkettes are coming off a 14-7 season in 2009 that saw them finish fourth in the West Central Conference at 6-3. It was one of the best seasons in East Greene volleyball history, and came on the heels of a fourth-place conference finish (6-3) in 2008.

EG will be competing in the Rolling Hills Conference this year after 14 years in the 1A-2A West Central. EG’s first-ever RH competition will be next Tuesday’s volleyball conference opener against Orient-Macksburg in Rippey.

This weekend, EG travel to Coon Rapids to participate in a tournament hosted by Coon Rapids-Bayard, ranked No. 10 in the Class 1A preseason poll by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.

East Greene must replace four seniors off last year’s squad, including all-conference and all-district middle hitter Malarie Gilley; Heidi Kiner, second team all-conference; Bobbie Halterman, honorable mention; and Jessie Beaman. Gilley, 6-1, a dominant force at the net will be hard to replace. She was a two-time unanimous first-team all-league pick in addition to being all-state and all-conference in basketball the last two seasons.

Coach Carly Tiffany will be building around a nucleus of five returning seniors: Katlynn Gannon, Molly Neese, Tia Lowe, Jasmine Kinney and Britanee Heaning.

Gannon earned second team all-conference honors as a defensive specialist last year. She had 318 digs (5.4 per game), 10 assists, and was 65 of 69 serving (94%) with four aces. Neese, who garnered honorable mention merit, was 172 of 206 (84%) serving with 30 aces. At the net, she had 56 kills and nine blocks, and on defense she had 42 digs.

EG has been very solid in serving the last several seasons. Along with Gannon’s 94% clip, the Hawkettes will be looking to Lowe, who connected on 147 of 162 serves, a solid 91%, with 13 aces.

As the newcomer, EG will be the wildcard team in the Rolling Hills this year. The conference absorbed Glidden-Ralston last year, but the Wildcats weren’t much of a threat, finishing at 3-6 in the league and tied with Paton-Churdan for seventh. PC joined the Rolling Hills three seasons ago. EG now becomes the third team to leave the West Central, following PC and GR. EG’s moved to the Rolling Hills will be a reunion for the three schools, as they had been conference competitors since 1976, when they became charter members of the Central Valley Conference. All three then joined the Coon River Valley Conference in the late 1980s and then eventually the West Central in 1996.

Exira, last year’s champion with a perfect 9-0 mark, and Elk Horn-Kimballton (1-8) agreed last year to share all sports, so they will be a force to contend with this season. The EHK-Exira alliance took the league from 10 teams down to nine, which opened the door for EG’s membership. The league had also issued invitations to Coon Rapids-Bayard and Ar-We-Va to become the 10th team but both opted to stay in their respective leagues, the West Central and Western Valley South.

Exira won volleyball and basketball championships last year without EHK, which competed on its own, and then the combined EHK/Exira teams won league titles in girls track and softball, so Exira went through the year winning all four major girls’ conference crowns.

The combined EHK/Exira and Iowa Christian look to be the key contenders for the league crown, but CAM, Adair-Casey and Ankeny Christian will all be solid, along with East Greene. Glidden-Ralston had a young squad last year and can’t be taken too lightly. Orient-Macksburg will be rebuilding, and Paton-Churdan and Walnut should be improved.

Here’s a look at the Rolling Hills for 2010:

EHK/Exira: EHK was senior dominated last year with four senior starters on a team that finished just ninth in the league, beating only winless Walnut, and went 2-20 overall. But Danielle Stockwell is back from that team and her team-leading serving skills (196-202, 97%, 21 aces) will figure in nicely in the lineup the coaches will be creating for the combined EHKE team this fall. Just at East Greene lost its dominant force at the net in Gilley, Exira has graduated all-sport standout Hallie Christofferson. She was the lone unanimous first team all-conference pick last year in the conference. Ann Walker was also on the first team last year as a senior, so those two departures leave big holes to fill. But EHKE does return second-team honoree Anna Smith, and honorable-mention pick Erin Kliefoth. Both are seniors this year.

Those two along with Stockwell from the EHK side along with key reserve Maddy Peppers, who played a big role on Exira’s state championship basketball team, will serve as the core of this year’s team. EHKE will also look for significant contributions from seniors Chelsea Nelson and Courtney Peppers and junior Nora Walker from the Exira side and juniors Taylor Petersen and Cassidy Bissen and senior Lesie Waymire from last year’s EHK team.

Exira, 20-6 last year, is a tournament-tested team, having won it all in basketball and advancing to the regional semifinals in volleyball, falling to St. Albert’s (Council Bluffs), which then lost in the regional finals to Southern Cal, the team that ended East Greene’s season in the quarterfinal round.

Iowa Christian Academy: The Blazers will be looking to return to the top of the conference. ICA joined the Rolling Hills in 2002 and finished seventh the first two years, but has not finished lower than second but once since then. ICA won the league title (7-1) in 2007 and has finished as runner-up the last two seasons. The Blazers have improved their showing out of the league too. After going 11-11 in 2006—after four straight losing seasons—the teams has logged winning records of 17-9, 20-8 and 14-11 the last three seasons.

Returning to anchor this year’s squad is junior Karlie Schut. A first-team all-conference pick and one of just six underclassmen named to Class 1A West Central all-district team, Schut is one of four returning starters. She led the Blazer’s offensive attack last year with 198 kills in 465 attempts and 107 errors for a .196 per game efficiency mark and 3 kills per game. Schut had 50 blocks for the season and served 199 of 236 for 84% and 60 aces. Junior Erica Groen served at a 95% clip (223-234) with 30 aces. Groen earned honorable mention all-conference honors last season.

Ankeny Christian Academy: Senior Kaleigh Strong, also an all-district and first-team all conference pick, is back to anchor the Eagles, along with Natalie Heggen, an honorable mention pick last year as a junior. ACA had a very good year in boys athletics as its shared 8-man football team with ICA finished in second in District 6 and qualified for the playoffs, beating Melcher-Dallas in the substate before falling to Tri-County (Thornburgh) in the first round, and the ACA basketball team made it to the Class 1A State Tournament. The ACA girls will be trying to mirror the boys success and move up the ladder in volleyball, after finishing in a tie with CAM for fifth place (5-4) last year but going just 9-16 overall.

CAM: The Cougars have two keys players returning this year in seniors Angela Arp, first-team all conference libero, and Faith McCunn, a second-team all-league pick. CAM went 10-11 last year and was knocked out of the first round of the regional tournament by league rival Orient-Macksburg. CAM had a very good showing in the conference tournament last season, upsetting No. 3 seed Adair-Casey in the quarterfinal round and then upending Paton-Churdan in the semifinals to advance to the championship game against Exira. The Cougars fell again to the regular season champs, but showed they can play with anyone in the league.

Orient-Macksburg: The Bulldogs have big holes to fill as first- and second-team all-league picks Amy Waddington and Ashley West have graduated, leaving OM in a rebuilding stage for 2010. Last year the Bulldogs tied Adair-Casey for third (6-3) and won their opening round match in the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed over Ankeny Christian, but then ran into champion Exira in the semifinal round. OM beat CAM in the first round of the regional tournament but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Stanton, which advanced to the regional final and lost to state qualifier Treynor.

Adair-Casey: AC’s season ended on a low note with a loss in its first match in the conference tourney as the No. 3 seed and a quick exit in the regionals with a loss to Exira. The Bombers had put together a 6-3 mark to finish in a tie for third in the conference with Orient-Macksburg. AC does return first-team all-conference pick Shy Terry, one of the four returning first-teamers. AC will look to build around Terry, a senior, in hopes of another upper division finish.

Glidden-Ralston: A senior dominated team in 2008 led the Wildcats to a 4-5 sixth-place finish in the West Central, while last year’s team struggled to finish 3-6 in the Rolling Hills and 5-14 overall. GR was very young last year so look for a more veteran team to be much more competitive this season. The Wildcats return juniors Jaycie David, a second-team all-conference pick last year, and Jordan Bock, honorable mention.

Paton-Churdan: PC had one of its best showings in several years, compiling a 10-18 overall mark and making the semifinal round of both the CRB and Rolling Hills Conference tourneys. PC was the surprise team at the conference event last year. PC tied for seventh in the league with GR at 3-6 but got the No. 7 seed. The Rockettes beat No. 10 Walnut in the opening round which advanced them to the quarterfinals to face No. 2 seed Iowa Christian. PC upset the Blazers to move onto the semifinal round. They were eliminated in the semifinal round by CAM and then fell in the consolation match to Orient-Macksburg, but the fourth-place finish and reaching double-digits in the win column should give the returning players a lot of confidence. PC loses its top three players from last year’s squad but does return senior playmaker Amy Gaines, who was an honorable mention pick last year. A number of younger players got some good experience last year and will be looked to step into key roles as starters this season.

Walnut: The Walnut girls athletic program has been in a rebuilding program the last few years after a couple of seasons where the school did not field a girls varsity basketball team. Last year the team went winless in volleyball and just 1-16 in basketball to finish in the league cellar in both sports, but in the spring, the Warriors finished seventh of eight teams in conference track and this past summer in softball they put together a 5-5 conference mark to finish in third place, improving upon a 2-8 mark from 2009. So, the Warriors are making progress. Back from last year’s squad are two honorable mention picks, senior Sam Jensen and junior Dakota Brockman.

East Greene: The Hawkettes are the mystery team of the league this year. Granted, they lost several key players off of last year’s team, but they have some solid veterans returning in Gannon, Neese and Lowe. EG most likely would have competed with Exira for last year’s title as the Hawkettes went 3-0 against Rolling Hills teams in non-conference competition. EG beat ICA, the league runner-up, and Paton-Churdan on its way to claiming the crown in the Coon Rapids-Bayard tournament along with a win over Elk Horn-Kimballton in the Walnut tourney, where the host team was winless.

EG has faced some very solid competition in the West Central the last several seasons. Under coach Carly Tiffany, the Hawkettes went from an “also-ran” to a contender in the West Central, which is pretty impressive as each year the West Central became a much more difficult league to compete in. Back in 2000, the league expanded from a team of seven 1A schools and one 2A school to a nine-team league with the addition of West Central Valley, a 2A school formed by the reorganization of Stuart-Menlo and Dexfield (Redfield). Two years later, the conference added Earlham, which had been a member of the Rolling Hills. As the years moved forward, some of the area 1A teams closest to Des Moines, like Earlham, Des Moines Christian and Van Meter continued to grow so that by last season in volleyball, six of the 10 teams were in 2A and just four in 1A. East Greene has always been comparable in size to Glidden-Ralston and a bit larger than Paton-Churdan, but when those two schools left the conference, EG was by far the smallest school in the West Central and by a significant margin.

But the Hawkettes moved up from a last-place finish in 2003 (0-8) and next-to-last in 2004 (1-8) to the upper division in 2005, tying with Earlham at 4-5 for fifth place. EG dropped down to 1-8 the following year, just ahead of PC (0-9) so it looked dire for the 2007 season as PC would be out of the league that year, replaced by Madrid. PC’s BEDS (Basic Educational Data Survey) enrollment is 35 while Madrid’s is 132, so that was a considerable shift in the competition. Yet EG really stepped up, improving to 4-5 for seventh place and just one game behind Madrid, Guthrie Center and Earlham who tied for fourth at 5-4. The next year EG moved up to a tie for fourth place at 6-3, beating perennial league power Des Moines Christian for the first time in many years. That was an especially tough group of teams as Coon Rapids-Bayard, league champions at 9-0, went on to win the regional tournament and become the first conference team to ever advance to the state tournament.

Another challenge came last year as GR also had moved on to the Rolling Hills and was replaced by Woodward-Granger, which was coming off a championship season in the Heart of Iowa-Small. GR’s BEDS enrollment is 102 while Woodward-Granger’s is 160. WG went 18-6 the previous season and won a predominantly 2A conference. But EG met the challenge head-on and in an even tougher 2009 league, the Hawkettes secured fourth place with another 6-3 conference record. Six of the West Central opponents were in 2A and just three in 1A. EG went 4-2 against its 2A foes, losing to just WG and league champion Guthrie Center, and 2-1 against 1A foes, beating CRB and Madrid but falling to DMC. EG came the closest of all the top teams to upending Guthrie, taking the Tigerettes to an extended fifth game in a five-game match: 27-29, 16-25, 25-22, 25-15, 17-15.

EG took a 14-6 mark into its regional quarterfinal match with Southern Cal, which had advanced to the regional finals each of the previous two seasons and moved on to state in 2007, but fell in three games to the Mustangs, who went on to beat Ar-We-Va in the semifinal round and St. Albert (Council Bluffs) in the championship to make their second trip the state tournament in three years.

EG has a solid freshman class coming into high school this year and several players who got significant experience on the JV and freshman teams last year against a tough slate of teams from the West Central, so look for some of younger players to step up and blend with the EG veterans to put a very competitive team on the floor.

Tiffany should have a pretty good idea of how her team stacks up after tonight’s season opener against Southeast Webster-Grand, a team it has beaten rather handily the last two seasons. SWG is also in somewhat of a rebuilding years as it needs to replace four players who each started for three consecutive seasons.

Saturday’s tournament at CRB should show how the conference race will fare as six of the eight teams in the event are from the Rolling Hills. Along with EG, CRB and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) the rest of the field are conference foes EHK/Exira, Adair-Casey, Iowa Christian, Ankeny Christian and Paton-Churdan.

CRB, EG, PC and Ankeny Christian are in one pool with EHKE, AC, ICA and St. Mary’s in the other. Each team plays one best-of-three match against its other three pool opponents. Then, the top two teams in each pool advance to the championship. The top team of each pool plays the runner-up of the other in the semifinal round and the winners of those two matches advance to the finals. In the consolation round, the teams that finish third in their pools play each other as do the teams that finish fourth.

Last year, EG finished first in its pool and advanced to the semifinals against PC, which had finished second to CRB in its pool. EG beat the Rockettes to advance to the final, where it beat the Crusaders on their home court to win the championship match.

EG will return to action on Tuesday, Aug. 31 to face Orient-Macksburg in the conference opener in Rippey, and then will venture to Churdan on Thursday, Sept. 2, to take on Paton-Churdan.

In other non-conference matches this year, EG will face former West Central opponents Guthrie Center and Madrid. The Hawkettes will also travel to Walnut to compete in the Walnut Tournament on Oct. 9. The conference tournament is Oct. 14 at Elk Horn and the Class 1A regional tournament begins Oct. 18.

2010 EG Volleyball Schedule

Thurs., Aug. 26 Southeast Webster-Grand @ Rippey
Sat., Aug. 28 Coon Rapids-Bayard Tourney @ Coon Rapids
Tues., Aug. 21 Orient-Macksburg @ Rippey
Thurs., Sept. 2 Paton-Churdan @ Churdan
Tues, Sept. 7 CAM (Anita) @ Rippey
Tues., Sept. 14 Adair-Casey @ Rippey
Thurs., Sept. 16 Ankeny Christian @ Ankeny
Tues., Sept. 21 Iowa Christian @ Rippey
Tues, Sept. 28 Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira @ Elk Horn
Thurs., Sept. 30 Guthrie Center @ Rippey
Tues., Oct. 5 Glidden-Ralston @ Rippey
Thurs., Oct. 7 @ Madrid
Sat., Oct. 9 Walnut Tourney @ Walnut
Tues., Oct. 12 @ Walnut
Thurs., Oct. 14 Rolling Hills Conference Tourney @ Elk Horn
Mon., Oct. 18 Class 1A Regional Tournament

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Let the games begin! This should be an interesting season for EG as there are many unknowns. How will EG fare in the new conference? How will the team do compared to last year’s successful season? How good will the combined EHK and Exira teams be this season? How good is CRB? The IGHSAU has them ranked No. 10 in its preseason poll while Grandview Park Baptist is No. 3.

CRB has been an upper division team the last several years in the West Central and won the league title two years ago (9-0) and went on through the playoffs to win the regional tournament and secure a state berth. Grandview Park Baptist has been to state three times in the last four years, advancing last year to be sidelined by Tripoli, a dominant 1A powerhouse that went on to win its seventh state title in the last 10 years.

Grandview Park has now made six appearances in the state tournament. Back for the Defenders this year is Amanda Bell, who was first team all-state in 1A, in addition to be being named first-team all-district (West Central) and all-conference (Heart of Iowa-Small). GPB is also the defending HOI-S champion.

Another area 1A powerhouse, Southern Cal, is sharing sports with Rockwell City-Lytton as South Central Calhoun, which will be in 2A. Another very strong team the last few years, Schaller-Crestland, a former conference foe of EG, PC and GR in the Coon River Valley Conference, is now sharing with Galva-Holstein as Ridge View, also a 2A team. Ridge View is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A. Also ranked in the 2A preseason poll are Kuemper (Carroll), 5th; East Sac County, 11th; and IKM-Manning 13th.

EG will most likely be grouped in a regional that includes either CRB or Grandview Park Baptist. Three other former West Central foes are in 1A this year: Earlham, Guthrie Center and Madrid. EG will face the latter two in head-to-head non-conference matches.

Des Moines Christian moves up to 2A this year. So with all teams like Exira and EHK combining into one team and Schaller-Crestland, Rockwell City, and Southern Cal no longer competing in 1A in addition to DMC, it’s hard to determine where EG might end up when regional assignments are made. Alta remains a very strong team to the northwest and is ranked 6th in the 1A preseason poll while Martendsale-St. Mary’s to the south is ranked 4th. MSt.M had a very successful season in girls and boys sports last year with the girls advancing to state in both basketball and softball and the boys winning the 1A state baseball title. MSt.M was knocked out in the first round of the regional last year by GPB.

Hawks Fall In Substate

LAST INNING RALLY FALLS SHORT, LOSE 3-2

It couldn’t have been much closer. East Greene had just cut a 3-1 deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the last inning in the substate finals at Denison on July 20. A return trip to the State 1A Baseball Tournament seemed very, very possible.

Yet the rally was short-lived. With two outs and a runner on first, senior slugger Tom Beger was at the plate, poised to score the tying and go-ahead runs. Hopes were high for EG boosters, but then quickly dashed. Beger hit a flyball to the outfield and the game was over. The Ar-We-Va Rockets were doing the celebrating for their first-ever trip the state finals.

Ar-We-Va moved on with a 13-13 record and became the surprise team of the 2010 1A field, much like East Greene had been last year with a 14-14 record. EG ended the season with a 19-12 mark and its second consecutive district championship.

The Hawks got on the board first, scoring a run in the bottom of the second inning. Wes Onken hit an infield single to lead off the inning and Jessie Priest walked. Josh Neese then lined a single to the outfield to load the bases. Zach Dearborn grounded out, allowing Onken to tag up and head home.

The Hawks still had two runners on base with just one out, but Ar-We-Va pitcher Neil Liechti struck out Alex Gordon and Tory Beger to end the threat.

The Hawks’ lead held up until the top of the fourth when Derrick Cornelius walked and was driven home on a single by Liechti to tie the game at 1-1. Liechti advanced home on a bloop single by Matt Dalton, putting the Rockets up 2-1.

The Hawks threatened in bottom of the fifth when Dearborn singled and Gordon advanced him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Four consecutive balls sent Tory Beger to first, and the fourth pitch got by the catcher, advancing Dearborn to third. With Tom Beger up, AWV coach Phil Snyder made a pitching change. Liechti and catcher Ryan Schurke switched places.

Schurke snuffed out the EG rally when Tory Beger was thrown out while leading off at first and Tom Beger grounded out to second.

Heading into the seventh, EG pitcher Tyler Cooklin had already struck out nine batters, but the Hawks bats just were not humming as they had in big wins over Coon Rapids-Bayard and Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira in the district tournament. And the Rockets really put the pressure on in their half of the inning—sensing a victory and a trip later in the week to Principal Park, site of the four-class state tournament.

A throwing error by Tom Beger on a shot up the middle by Dalton pulled first baseman Dearborn off base, putting Dalton on. A wild pitch by Cooklin got by catcher Tory Beger, allowing Dalton to get to second. Jacob Kraus then hit a single to left field, advancing Dalton to third and still no outs.

EG coach Dana Fink called a meeting at the mound, but he left Cooklin in the game. The situation looked really dire when Quentin Thomsen hit a bloop single to centerfield which allowed Dalton to score, although a throw from center fielder Aaron Lyons to Tory Beger almost got him out at the plate. The next batter popped up for the first out, and then Cooklin struck out Elliott Koch and Ross Pawletzki was out on an infield blooper to send the Hawks back to the plate for a much-hoped comeback.

Neese opened the bottom of the inning by striking out, but then Dearborn hit a chopper to third that was overthrown at first, giving the Hawks some hope. Alex Gordon walked putting runners on first and second. Reed Ostrander hit into a force-out to second giving the Hawks their second out but that allowed Dearborn to head home from second, which cut the Ar-We-Va lead to 3-2. The Hawks had generated some momentum, but Thomsen squelched the rally and gave the Rockets the win when he snagged Tom Beger’s fly ball to right field.

It was the errors that did the Hawks in, as all else was even and the Hawks had the better pitching. Liechti and Schurke gave up 5 hits, walked 2 and struck out 4, while Cooklin gave up 5 hits, walked 2, and struck out 10. But the Rockets had just 1 error and Hawks had 3, plus Ar-We-Va had 2 stolen bases to none for EG. “Too many errors and mental mistakes,” said EG coach Dana Fink after the loss.

Wes Onken led the EG hitting brigade, going 2 for 3 and scoring a run; Neese was 1-3 with a single; Dearborn was 1-3 and a run; and Tom Beger was 1-4 with a single. Ar-We-Va had two stolen bases to none for the Hawks.

AWV 000 200 1 3 5 1
EGR 010 000 1 2 5 3

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This was another terrific season for the Hawks. Sure, it ended on a disappointing note. That 20th win of the season and another trip to Principal Park were right there after EG beat undefeated and No. 4 ranked EHK/Exira in the district finals, but Ar-We-Va was the team that played like a champion and earned the right to advance to the 1A State Tournament.

As it was, the Rockets were somewhat embarrassed in the opening round by eventual champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s, 16-0, in a game shortened to 5 innings by the 10-run rule. MSt.M, seeded second at state, rolled on with victories over Preston, 10-2, in the semifinals and St. Mary’s (Remsen), 3-0, in the championship game—winning the title with a perfect 43-0 record.

St. Mary’s advanced to the title game with an exciting 9-8 win over top-seed and defending champion Newman (Mason City) in the semifinals. Newman sidelined East Greene in the opening round of last year’s tournament on its march to the 2009 championship.

Newman was the only team from last year’s tourney qualifiers to make it back to the state tourney, and Newman and EG were the only two teams from the eight-team field to make it to the substate.

Other highlights of the season included the third straight win over neighbor and rival Jefferson-Scranton, a Class 3A school. The Hawks dispensed with the Rams 6-0 in the first week of the season. EG was runner-up in both the I-35 and EG baseball tourneys with both losses coming in the championship game to I-35, a 2A team that made it to state both this year and last year and battled conference foe Martensdale-St. Mary’s for league honors in the Pride of Iowa Conference.

The Pride of Iowa actually had three teams in the state tourney field as Southeast Warren (Liberty Center) qualified in Class 1A after beating Orient-Macksburg, 8-3, in the Substate 6 championship played at Dowling High School in West Des Moines. SEW finished its season at 16-11. In Class 2A, Solon dropped I-35 in the first round, 4-0. I-35 finished the season at 19-7 while Solon rolled on to the 2A championship with a 41-2 mark.

Ar-We-Va was the surprise team of the 1A state field but Orient-Macksburg was the big news in the district and substate round. While EHKE was winning by big margins on its way to an undefeated season and taking the Rolling Hills Conference crown with a perfect 12-0 record, OM finished last in the RH with a 2-10 mark. Heading into district play the Bulldogs were just 6-14 but they drubbed Mormon Trail (Garden Grove) 15-0 in 4 innings in the first round and beat Murray 2-1 on Murray’s home diamond in the semifinals to advance to the District 6 championship game at Bedford against Bedford, which had sidelined Lenox, a team that had advanced to state last year.

OM got the win over Bedford 7-6 to move on to the substate against Southeast Warren. The loss there ended the Bulldog’s season at 9-15.

In addition to EG, Lenox and Newman, other teams in the 2009 1A field were Tri-County (Thornburgh), Alta, Calamus-Wheatland, Kee (Lansing) and Adair-Casey, also a member of the Rolling Hills. AC and Tri-County lost in the first round of districts; Calamus-Wheatland went down in the semifinal round; and Kee lost in the district championship. Alta aligned with Aurelia this season and moved up to Class 2A and was beaten in the district semifinal round.

BEATING CRB: The big win over EHKE in the district championship was major, but more satisfying was finally getting by rival CRB in the semifinals, especially as wins over the Crusaders have been few and far between over the years.

CRB had been celebrating the 500th career win (all at CRB) of veteran Crusader coach John Waddle a few weeks before meeting the Hawks in the district face-off in Coon Rapids. CRB had just drubbed the Hawks 17-6 the week before districts in the second of their two conference match-ups, so it seemed likely that CRB and EHKE would be the teams advancing to the championship. But the intrepid Hawks had other ideas.

It must be getting frustrating for CRB fans. Since 2001, they have finished first or second in the West Central Conference with the exception of a fourth-place showing in 2003, but have not advanced out of the substate but once since then. The Crusaders bowed out in the semifinal round the last two years in the districts, and in 2008 they fell in the district finals. And all these games were played in Coon Rapids.

The Crusaders were conference co-champs this season (with Woodward-Granger) and in 2008 (a four-way tie with Des Moines Christian, Panorama and Van Meter). Last year the Crusaders were runners-up to co-champs DMC and Panorama. Of course, the fact that the last three West Central titles have ended in ties attests to how competitive the league is and how solid CRB plays against the other schools, a good half which are 2A schools. CRB did make it to state in 2007 and 2001, along with a trip in 1995.

From 1966 to 1983, Coon Rapids only had two winning seasons in baseball. The turnaround came in 1984 when Coon Rapids secured the first of three straight conference championships with a 12-2 mark and finished 15-6 overall, pretty impressive considering the Crusaders had finished a combined 4-33 in the previous two seasons. The next year, officially aligned with Bayard (some years in the early 1980s the two schools shared summer sports), Coon Rapids-Bayard finished 19-5, went undefeated in conference play, and won the district tournament but lost in the substate game. Since then, CRB has won seven more district titles and the three substate wins that put them in the state tournament.

Of course, in the glass half-full/half-empty perspective, the Crusaders have advanced to substate eight times but won just three of those contests. In a “tale of two cities” reality (or in this case, high school baseball teams) in the last decade, East Greene finished in the lower half of the original eight-team West Central in 2001 while CRB won the title along with district and substate crowns. In the following years, the disparity between CRB and EG finishes in the conference went like this, with CRB listed first/EG second: 1st/4th, 4th/5th, 1st/7th, 1st/4th, 2nd/7th, 2nd/7th, 1st/5th, 2nd/7th, and this year, 1st/5th. In 2003, when the Hawks were just behind CRB in fifth, they did get the upper hand in the district tournament in Coon Rapids, beating CRB in the semifinal round 8-4 but falling to Adair-Casey 4-2 in the finals.

Overall, Waddle has coached CRB to 24 winning seasons, 11 conference championships and the three state tourney appearances, and 34 of his players have earned all-state honors. He was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame earlier this season.

So, any victory over CRB is worth savoring.

LOOKING AHEAD: EG loses four key players off this year’s squad but has a very solid nucleus returning next year, including all three of its top pitchers: Tyler Cooklin, Wes Onken and Reed Ostrander, along with veteran outfielder Aaron Lyons, catcher Tory Beger, and infielders Alex Gordon and Zach Dearborn, and a number of key reserves.

The Ar-We-Va substate game was the last appearance in an EG uniform for Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Josh Neese and Jessie Priest. Each of the four graduated seniors were standouts in football, basketball and baseball with Priest, Neese and Beyerink also participating in golf. Beger is headed to Simpson College this fall while Beyerink and Priest are headed to UNI, where Priest plans to major in business.

Priest and Beyerink were also members of East Greene’s championship team in the West Central Conference Academic Brain Bowl this past spring.

The four were the core of the EG infield this year, as Priest played right field and first base, Beyerink was at second base, Beger at shortstop and Neese at third.

The Hawks—-who finished fifth among 10 teams—-were not given much consideration by the league coaches when it came to all-conference picks this season, as post-season honors went only to Onken, a second-team pick, and Lyons and Priest, both named honorable mention. EG had just one player named to the first and second teams, while Earlham, which was just one game ahead of EG in the standings had one on the first team and three on the second, and Van Meter, which finished behind EG in sixth place, had two on the first team and two on the second.

Panorama, which finished seventh, managed to get a player named to each of the first and second teams, and West Central Valley, which won only 4 of 18 conference games, also had a player on the first team. Each team gets two players named honorable mention so the final tally for the teams behind EG in the standings: VM 4, Panorama 4, and WCV 3, compared with EG’s 3, and no first-team honorees for the Hawks.

One of the posters on the Iowa Preps message boards in baseball noted that since East Greene was leaving the West Central, it was snubbed by the coaches in the all-conference selections. Clearly. And the coaches and administrators yammer on about sportsmanship and fairness, and then you see something like this happen.

The Hawks got the last laugh by being the only team in the West Central to win its district in either 1A or 2A as all the others fell by the wayside in the first two rounds and only Woodward-Granger made it to the district championship game, which it lost. All the 2A teams lost in the first round with the exception of Earlham, which advanced only because it beat at another conference team, last-place Guthrie Center. Earlham then lost to Audubon in the next round.

The coaches in the 1A Central District were far more respectful to the Hawks as they voted Onken and Neese to the all-district first team and Cooklin to the all-district second team. Also named to the all-district Central team from the West Central Conference were Ryan Shumaker and Jack Manning, WG; Colin Frye and Josh Arment, DMC; and C.J. Manthe, Madrid. Second team honorees were Luke Finley and Ben McIntosh, DMC, and Lucas Geneser, WG. In the 1A Southwest District, Jacob Esdohr was named to the first team along with two players from EHK/Exira and four from state champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s. Tyler Boeke and Jay Carstens of CRB were named to the second team along with two from MSt.M.

While the five 1A schools had eight players earn all-district honors, only one player was so honored among the conference’s five 2A teams, as J.C. Watts of Panorama was named all-district on the 2A Southwest first team. Ben Fisher and Trenton Marks of Van Meter named to the second team along with Cole Kearns of West Central Valley. Comparatively, the 1A teams had seven players with second team honors.

It looks even more spurious to see Neese—a senior—named first-team all-district when he could not even get an honorable mention in the conference. And last year, both Beger and Cooklin got honorable mention nods (along with second-team honors for two EG seniors, Jesse Luther and Brad Clark) when the Hawks finished seventh, but the team moves up to fifth this season and gets a measly three all-league picks. It would seem reasonable that a senior like Beger would get some kind of recognition by the all-league voters (coaches).

The Hawks will be a clear contender in the title chase next summer in the Rolling Hills, with both Onken (6-2) and Cooklin (6-5) returning on the mound along with Ostrander, Lyons, Gordon, Dearborn and Tory Beger. EHKE had almost its entire starting lineup receive all-conference honors as eight players were named first team, second team and honorable mention.

EHKE loses its entire pitching staff (Carson Smith 11-1, Travis Stevens 8-0, and Nolan Himmelberg 6-0—all seniors) along with outfielder Devin Lickteig. All four were unanimously voted to the first team as was Walnut senior Cole Becerra, an outfielder. Smith and Himmelberg were named 1A Southwest first-team all-district while Stevens was voted to the second team.

Back for the Spartans next year are second-team all-RHC picks Ryon Rasmussen, a junior outfielder; Dayton Rasmussen, a sophomore infielder; and Beck Benton, a freshman catcher. Tony Santisteban, a junior honorable mention pick at utility/infielder, also returns. So, clearly, EHKE will be solid.

EHKE and Iowa Christian Academy (11-8) were the only Rolling Hills teams to finish with winning records while Glidden-Ralston had one of its better seasons in many years, reaching the .500 mark at 10-10. Those were the top three teams in the RH with Walnut (12-13) fourth. Adair-Casey went from conference runner-up and 1A state tournament finalist in 2009 to fifth place, finishing at 8-15 overall. CAM (Anita) ended the season at 4-15 and finished just ahead of Orient-Macksburg.

Orient-Macksburg could be a very strong team next season, building on its post-season success this year. It graduates three key seniors, which handled much of the pitching, but returns Nick Ray, a utility/infielder with a 2-3 pitching record. The three seniors were OM’s only all-league picks, but the voting was conducted before the Bulldogs’ tournament run, so OM’s younger players certainly stepped it up at the end of the season, which shows good coaching, team motivation and perseverance.

Iowa Christian won the league in 2009 and they will be looking to return to the top in 2011. The Blazers return two key all-league first-teamers: Nick Schroeder and Colton Barton (an all-district Central second-team pick in 2009), along with two second team picks and two named honorable mentions. GR returns first-team pick Zack Rohrbeck and HM honoree Wade Hoyle.

East Greene went 3-0 against the Rolling Hills this season, beating each of the top three teams: GR 13-7 early in the season; Iowa Christian 4-2 in late June; and EHKE 8-3 in the District 15 championship game.

Rolling Hills Final Conference & Season Records
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12–0, 22–1
Iowa Christian Academy 9–3, 11–8
Glidden-Ralston 7–5, 10–10
Walnut 5–7, 12–13
Adair-Casey 4–8, 8–15
CAM 3–9, 4–15
Orient-Macksburg 2–10, 9–15

West Central Final Conference & Season Records
West Central Final Season Records
Woodward-Granger 17–1, 24–5
Coon Rapids-Bayard 17–1, 26–7
Des Moines Christian 13–5, 15–10
Earlham 9–8, 14–14
East Greene 8–9, 19–12
Van Meter 8–10, 16–14
Panorama 7–11, 8–15
West Central Valley 4–14, 7–20
Madrid 3–15, 5–19
Guthrie Center 3–15, 5–22

Hawkettes Fall to SWG in Regional

FIRST ROUND LOSS ENDS SEASON AT 6-15

Southeast Webster-Grand ended the Hawkettes’ softball season last Wednesday, July 7, with a 10-6 victory in the first round of regional action in Ogden.

SWG jumped out to 9-1 lead but EG came back with a big 5-run rally in the bottom of the sixth to move within three runs. But SWG added a run in the top of the 7th and EG came up empty in the bottom of the inning to end its season at 6-15.

It was the last appearance in an EG uniform for all-sport standout Malarie Gilley, who graduated in May along with teammate Heidi Kiner. Gilley closed out her EG career in fine style with a solo home run in the fourth inning. Gilley was the losing pitcher, giving up 12 hits and 5 walks while striking out three. Gilley’s homer was part of a 9-hit attack by the Hawkettes. Tia Lowe had a double and single and Emily Jacobsen had two singles.

SWG advanced to the quarterfinal round in Glidden on Friday to face Glidden-Ralston, a 2-1 winner over Ar-We-Va (Westside). GR was the only Rolling Hills Conference team to make it past the first round in regional action on Wednesday. Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, which rolled to the league title with a 10-0 mark and was 19-9 overall, was sidelined by AHST (Avoca), 9-5.

SWG rolled over the Wildcats 11-0 in five innings Friday, which put SWG in the semifinal round opposite Newell-Fonda, ranked second in the state. The Eagles put up a good fight but were eliminated 11-6. Newell-Fonda went on to claim the regional championship over No. 11 Alta, 6-5, advancing on the state tournament next week in Fort Dodge. Newell-Fonda was the runner-up last year to Earlham, the 2009 West Central Champion. Earlham was moved up to Class 2A this year and was eliminated 12-0 in the quarterfinal round by No. 10 Interstate 35 (Truro).

Woodward-Granger, winner of the West Central Conference, also advanced to state in 1A with a 2-0 win over Treynor that was called after 5 innings because of rain. Fourth-ranked Woodward-Granger (33-4) will face fifth-ranked Martensdale-St. Mary’s (27-6) on Monday. Like Newell-Fonda, MSt.M is also a repeater from last year’s tournament, finishing in third place.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The folks who do the rankings at the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) really know their 1A softball! The eight teams that qualified for the state tournament were ranked 1 through 8 in the final softball poll released by the IGHSAU on July 1, a week before tourney action got underway on Wednesday, July 7. The eight teams, ranked in order, are: Akron-Westfield, Newell-Fonda, North Butler, Woodward-Granger, Martensdale-St. Mary’s, Preston, North Sentral Kossuth and Lynville-Sully. This made the first round matchups pretty simple as the teams are seeded 1 vs. 8, 4 vs. 5, 6 vs. 3, and 2 vs. 7.

Madrid and Van Meter were the only other West Central teams to make deep runs in the tourney. Van Meter advanced to the semifinal round in 1A before falling to Newman (Mason City). After disposing of Earlham, Interstate 35 went on to beat No. 13 Van Meter, 4-2, on the Bulldogs’ home diamond.

East Greene showed great improvement throughout this season, posting big wins over Des Moines Christian and sweeping both Coon Rapids-Bayard and West Central Valley, teams it had trouble with in past seasons. EG—smallest school in the West Central by far—finished in eighth place with a 5-13 record and was very close to tying Guthrie Center for seventh. EG had finished in the league cellar the last two seasons.

The Hawkettes will miss the fine contribution from Gilley and Kiner, but the showing of five eighth graders on the squad this year holds great promise for future EG softball success. The four returning juniors—Lowe, Molly Neese, Katlynn Gannon and Jasmine Kinney—and the five 8th graders—Jacobsen, Allie Stoline, Shelby Cooklin, Brooke Popp and Chelsie Wilkens—will serve as a very solid nucleus for next year’s move to the Rolling Hills.

The West Central was clearly the superior league as one team has advanced to the state tournament and two made it to the regional semifinal round while the RH was
1-5 in the opening round of the tournament, and with GR’s loss in the second round, the league went a dismal 2-6 in post season play against non-league foes. The five 1A teams in the West Central went 4-1 in the opening round, with only EG coming up with a loss. And two of the wins came over RH teams as WG rolled over Adair-Casey in three innings and CRB beat CAM (Anita). The 2A teams in the West Central went 1-2 and the other two league teams faced each other. Overall, the West Central’s tally against non-leagues foes in the post-season stands at 9-7 with WG guaranteed three more games at State.

In head-to-head competition during the regular and post-season combined, the West Central had the upper hand, winning 13 games to just two for Rolling Hills teams. And those wins were from EHKE, the league champion, over the bottom two teams in the West Central—CRB and West Central Valley (Stuart).

So look for East Greene to be very competitive in the Rolling Hills next year, which looks to be wide open as each team had some standout young players. EHKE dominated the league but loses four seniors off this year’s team. The other five teams all had losing seasons overall, and none of them reached the 10-win mark. EG just needs to develop a pitcher among its younger players and then move forward behind that pitcher in the years ahead. Hopefully, there might be some prospective pitchers off of this year’s junior high team who will be eligible to play varsity after completing the 8th grade next spring.

West Central and Rolling Hills Post-Season Results:

West Central
Thursday, July 15:
Class 1A Final Round
WG 2, Treynor 0 (ended after 5 innings, game ruled complete)

Mon., July 12:
Class 1A Semifinal Round
WG 4, Riverside (Oakland) 2
Newman (Mason City) 7, Madrid 1
Class 2A Semifinal Round
Interstate 35 4, VM 2

Fri., July 9:
Class 1A Regional Quarterfinal Round
Melcher-Dallas 9, DMC 8 (8)
Madrid 6, North Tama 4 (8)
WG 11, CRB 0
Class 2A Regional Quarterfinal Round
Interstate 35 (Truro) 12, Earlham 0
VM 8, Audubon 0

Thurs., July 8:
Class 2A Regional First Round
EAR 4, Nodaway Valley (Greenfield) 1
Audubon 17, GC 4
Interstate 35 (Truro) 12, WCV 0 (4)
VM 6, Panorama 0

Wed., July 7:
Class 1A Regional First Round
Southeast Webster-Grand 10, EG 6
CRB 3, CAM (Anita) 1
DMC 11, Grandview Park Baptist 1 (6)
Madrid 5, GMG (Garwin) 0
WG 12, Adair-Casey 0 (3)

Rolling Hills
Fri., July 9:
Class 1A Regionals, Quarterfinal Round
Southeast Webster-Grand 11, GR 0 (5)

Wed., July 7:
Class 1A Regionals, First Round
GR 2, Ar-We-Va 1
AHST (Avoca) 9, EHKE 5
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3, CAM 1
Corning 10, Orient-Macksburg 9
Riverside 10, Walnut 0 (5)
Woodward-Granger 12, Adair-Casey 0 (3)

CRB Ends East Greene's Season

HAWKS FALL IN DISTRICT OPENER, 54-36

Coon Rapids-Bayard ended the Hawks’ basketball season on Feb. 18 with a 54-36 first-round win in district action in Coon Rapids. East Greene ended the season at 9-12. The Hawks had concluded the regular season on a high note, downing Adair-Casey 61-39 in Rippey on Friday, Feb. 12. EG’s final West Conference game against Madrid had been postponed due to weather from Tuesday, Feb. 9, to Monday, Feb. 15, and then cancelled due to more bad weather that night.

Cancellations and postponements were the watchword for the 2009-10 basketball season throughout the state. Despite all the missed days of school due to bad weather, the Hawks were able to play all the games on their schedule except the final home tilt with league foe Madrid.

EG finished in seventh place in the West Central Conference at 7-10, showing considerable improvement from last year’s 4-14 mark, which tied them for eighth place with Madrid. This year’s 9-12 mark is a step ahead from the 2008-09 record of 5-17.

EG and Coon Rapids-Bayard had split during the season, with the Hawks squeaking by the Crusaders in Rippey, 39-37, and CRB getting the win on its home court in the second half of the season, 49-38.

The “rubber match” between the two teams proved to be another defensive struggle. The Hawks got out of the gate strong, taking a 17-13 lead after the first quarter, but CRB put on the defensive clamps, holding the Hawks to just 4 points in the second period while scoring 19. The 32-21 halftime lead would hold up as the Hawks could not mount a challenge, although they played even with CRB in the third quarter with each team scoring 10 points. EG got just 5 points on the board in the last stanza, and the Crusaders moved on to a semifinal round match-up against Glidden-Ralston.

CRB and GR had locked horns in the first game of the season with GR prevailing in a defensive struggle, 40-32. GR went on to post one of its better seasons in recent years, finishing 11-9 and tying with Exira for fifth place at 8-9 in the Rolling Hills Conference. GR had secured the No. 2 seed in District 13 and drew Rolling Hills foe Adair-Casey in a first round (quarterfinal) game in Glidden. The two teams had split during the regular season, but this game was all GR as the Wildcats got the win, 53-41.

Coon Rapids-Bayard got off to a sluggish start in the early part of the season. After losing the season opener to GR, the Crusaders struggled to a 3-4 mark in the West Central and 4-6 overall. But after a loss to Panorama, a Class 2A team that went on to finish second in the conference, the Crusaders went on to win 8 of their next 11 games, including a five-game winning streak. CRB’s only losses came at the hands of 2A teams Guthrie Center and Des Moines Christian. DMC is the state’s undefeated top-ranked 2A team and West Central champion, while perennial power Guthrie finished third in the league just behind DMC and Panorama. Each team was crowned champion of its 2A district tournament on Tuesday and has advanced to the substate round on Saturday night. Guthrie (19-5) takes on IKM-Manning (23-0) in Council Bluffs for the Substate 8 championship, while DMC (25-0) tangles with West Marshall (22-3) in Johnston for the Substate 7 crown. The winners advance to the State Tournament March 8-13 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

CRB MOVES ON: The Crusaders got revenge for that season opening loss with a big 40-28 win over GR last night on the Wildcats home court. CRB takes on Rockwell City-Lytton (15-4) tonight for the district championship in Guthrie Center. RCL opened tourney play with a 69-44 win over Southern Cal and then sidelined Southeast Webster-Grand last night in a semifinal game in Rockwell City, 67-54. SWG had advanced with an opening round squeaker over Paton-Churdan, 54-52, which ended PC’s season at 2-19.

RCL finished third in the tough Twin Lakes Conference at 8-4 just behind East Sac (8-3). Manson-Northwest Webster won the Twin Lakes with an 11-1 mark while Pocahontas/Pomeroy-Palmer was fourth at 7-4. RCL was the only 1A school among those upper division teams, finishing ahead of 2A Prairie Valley (3-9) and the only other 1A schools in the conference, Southeast Webster-Grand (3-9) and Southern Cal (1-11).

One of RCL’s seven non-conference wins came against East Greene, 63-53, on Jan. 30 in Rockwell City. Comparatively, CRB has two home court wins over EG of 11 and 18 points. CRB racked up a fourth-place finish in a league dominated by 2A schools as well, including the top-ranked team in the state.

The winner of tonight’s District 13 championship takes on the District 14 champion in the Substate 7 championship game on Saturday night in Denison. CAM (Anita) upset Rolling Hills foe Elk Horn-Kimballton last night in Elk Horn 32-30 to advance to the D14 championship game tonight against Boyer Valley (Dunlap) in Missouri Valley.

EG SENIOR NIGHT VS. AC: Six Hawk basketball seniors were honored at the Friday, Feb. 12, game against Adair-Casey in Rippey which was the final scheduled home game for the season, although a makeup game with Madrid was planned for the following Monday but cancelled due to the weather. Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Tyler Gathercoal, Josh Neese, Jesse Priest, and Joe Swanson made their last appearance on the EG court. Also honored were senior cheerleaders Kelsey Hatfield and Leah Perry along with senior girls basketball players Jessie Beaman and Malarie Gilley. The Hawkettes had already ended their regular season and had advanced in the first round of post-season play the previous night at Madrid.

Five of the senior Hawks made up the starting line up and got the team off to an 8-0 start. EG was up 11-5 at the quarter break and 25-21 at the half. The Bombers were still in it after three quarters of play, trailing 40-33 but the Hawks’ depth came through in the final period as they scored 21 points and limited AC to just 6, going on to post a big 61-39 win over a team that had advanced last year to the 1A state tournament, but was rebuilding this year.

Priest led the scoring with 16 points. All 15 members of the Hawk varsity saw action with Beger scoring 8, Neese 4, and Gathercoal 2 in their final appearance on the EG home floor. Junior point guard Aaron Lyons had a big night going 5-5 from the field and 2-2 from behind the arc for 12 points. 6-5 junior center Nic Nicolaisen put up 9 points and led the rebounding brigade with 6, with Neese also pulling down 6 boards and Priest 5.

Rounding out the scoring with 2 points each were juniors Chaz Wessels, Tyler Cooklin, Schlyer Bardole, Wes Onken, and Zach Dearborn. Freshman Tory Beger, younger brother of Tom, added 2 points, and fellow freshman Reed Ostrander, a 6-4 center, pulled down a rebound as they made their mark on the future of Hawk hoopsterdom.

The Hawks’ effort was solid all around with 23 of 44 shooting from the field for 52% and 3 of 11 from three point land for 28%. EG was 12-19 from the charity stripe, a solid 64% clip. EG pulled down 29 rebounds and turned the ball over just 9 times. EG allowed the Bombers to get to the free throw line six times, where they made 4 for 67%, and held them to 15 of 39 two-point shots, a 38% mark. The Bombers did have success behind the arc, though, connecting on half of their of 10 attempts. Senior point guard Michael Christofferson led AC with 16 points.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: CRB in Coon Rapids was a tough draw for the Hawks. Coach Dean Lyons and the entire Hawk squad are to be commended for a fine season. EG loses Jessie Priest and Tom Beger off the starting five, but returns a very solid nucleus in its returning junior class and the two freshmen on the varsity.

EG played improved ball in the latter half of the season and scored big wins over Guthrie Center, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger in January--all teams that had topped the Hawks in the first half of the conference season. EG made a good showing against a very fine Rockwell City-Lytton team and scored big wins in its non-conference tilts against 1A schools Southeast Webster-Grand and Adair-Casey, winning by 25 and 22 points respectively against those teams from the Twin Lakes and Rolling Hills conferences.

This was a bittersweet year for several teams in the Twin Lakes and Rolling Hills. RCL and Southern Cal played their last basketball games as competitors as the two Calhoun County schools have agreed to merge all sports (wrestling and summer sports have been shared for several years) starting next year, 2010-11, although since they already share softball and baseball, the shift is really occurring now at the end of the basketball season and into track and golf this spring. The schools have also agreed to move toward a whole-grade sharing arrangement in the year following (2011-12) but are still working out the details as to which school and town (Rockwell City or Lake City) would host the high school and which the middle school, although it looks likely each town would continue to have an elementary school. RCL closed its school building in Lytton at the end of last school year. Also unknown is the fate of the Southern Cal elementary building in Lohrville, which merged with Lake City to form the Southern Cal district in the 1990s.

Similarly, Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira will extend what began as a football sharing agreement this fall (2009). EHK and Exira will formally link together in a similar whole-grade sharing agreement and begin sharing all sports next year, although they had been sharing wrestling and girls golf the past few seasons.

As both EHK and Exira are in the Rolling Hills, the league will drop down from 10 teams to 9. Last year, East Greene had applied to the Rolling Hills but it was agreed to keep the league membership at 10, so East Greene remained in the West Central, where it has been a member since 1996-97. East Greene is the smallest of the 10 West Central Conference schools and former members Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan had already left the West Central to join the Rolling Hills in 2009 and 2007, respectively. These are EG’s two longest rivals, all having been members of the same conference since the late 1970s, when East Greene and Paton-Churdan left the original West Central Conference (formed in 1966-67) and joined with Glidden-Ralston, YJB, Bayard, Coon Rapids, Scranton and Cedar Valley to form the Central Valley Conference. That league remained intact until around 1990 when another wave of school reorganizations saw the demise of Scranton, YJB and Cedar Valley, while Coon Rapids and Bayard had already merged to form Coon Rapids-Bayard. YJB merged with Panora-Linden to form Panorama and Cedar Valley merged with Prairie (Gowrie) to form Prairie Valley. Greene County rival Scranton merged with Jefferson, the county seat and largest school in the county, to form an even larger school, Jefferson-Scranton, reducing the number of high schools in Greene County to three.

East Greene, Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston then joined with Southeast Webster and four northwest Iowa schools to form the Coon River Valley Conference. Conference foes Schaller-Crestland, Newell-Fonda, Pomeroy-Palmer and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) were new to East Greene, but Southeast Webster was not, as it had been created by a merger of Central Webster and Dayton. Those were two of the original members of the Little Central Conference formed in 1959-60, the same year that Grand Community of Boxholm was formed, as was East Greene, a merger of Grand Junction and Dana, and Central Webster, the new district formed when Lehigh, Burnside and Harcourt merged together.

The original Little Central Conference participated in boys and girls basketball and baseball only, with softball and track not yet official sports in most schools in the early 60s. None of the six schools offered football, as the boys played baseball in the fall. The original six members of the Little Central were East Greene, Central Webster, Dayton, Grand, Stratford and Churdan. The league had a slight but perceptible shift in 1962-63 when East Greene and Rippey merged, expanding the size of East Greene, and in 1964-65 when Churdan merged with Paton to form Paton-Churdan, although the high school at Paton had been closed the same year Rippey was closed, 1961-62. For three years, 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1961-62 there were separate and distinct high schools--East Greene and Rippey on the east side of the county, and Churdan and Paton in the north. Debate raged among Paton town and rural residents about whether they should merge with Churdan or Jefferson. As it was, a number of families to the west and southwest of Paton aligned with Jefferson, which is why when looking at the district map of Paton-Churdan, the Jefferson district’s northern-most boundary exceeds the line drawn straight west along the paved county road that heads west out of Paton, which is the main conduit between Paton and Churdan in Paton and Dawson townships.

The official vote was not taken until 1965, although families had pretty much chosen where they were going to send their kids to school by then. So for 1962-63 and 1963-64, the record books will show competition between East Greene and Churdan, but no contests between EG and PC until 1964-65.

The Eye Guy believes that Grand Junction, Rippey, Dana, Paton and Churdan were all members of a Greene County Conference along with Cooper throughout much of the 1950s, but the Greene County Conference is not to be confused with the annual boys and girls Greene County Tournaments in basketball (and possibly baseball). Those events throughout the 1940s and 1950s also included Scranton, Jefferson and Farlin, until that school closed. The Greene County Conference was most likely disbanded after the 1958-59 season, as Dana, Grand Junction and Cooper, which merged with Jefferson and closed its high school, all would have left the conference, leaving just Rippey and Paton. No doubt those were also bittersweet county tournaments in the early 1960s as so many changes were underway among the county high schools. Records show that one of the final girls county tournaments (1961) was hosted by East Greene in the Grand Junction gym and was a win for EG (undefeated up until the district finals and led by All-Stater and Hall of Fame member Pam Slock) over Rippey. The following year would most likely have been the last tournament and marked the last appearance by teams from Paton and Rippey. It would have been just a five-team event (East Greene, Paton, Rippey, Churdan and Scranton) as Jefferson did not field a girls baskeball team until the early 1970s, after Title IX was enacted.

When EG and PC became larger schools, each introduced football. EG in the fall of 1963 (the second year after Rippey came in) and PC in the fall of 1965. The following year, 1966-67 those two schools joined six other schools to form the first West Central Conference, extending the Central from “Little Central.” Those charter members were EG, PC, Central Webster (Burnside), Prairie (Gowrie), YJB, Ogden, Story City and United (Boone). The “Boone” in United of Boone actually stood for rural Boone County, as the district had been formed in the late 1950s when three towns in eastern Boone County--Luther, Jordan and Napier--merged together to form United. The actual high school was first housed in the existing Luther school building but then a new school building was built in the country along a site on U.S. Highway 30 very close to the county line with Story County putting the new United High School closer to Ames than Boone, hence creating much confusion of who or what made up the United of Boone district. (The district still exists today as a K-6 entity with high school and middle school students open enrolling out to adjacent larger districts Ames, Boone, Gilbert and Ballard.)

Big changes will be occurring among the teams remaining in the Twin Lakes after the RCL-SC realignment, as there will be just six teams remaining: RCL-SC, East Sac, Manson-Northwest Webster, Prairie Valley, Southeast Webster and Pocahontas/Pomeroy-Palmer. Similarly, the Northwest Conference has been shrinking as the schools that formed the league after the Coon River Valley disbanded (St. Mary’s, Newell-Fonda, Schaller-Crestland and Pomeroy-Palmer) along with Alta, Aurelia and Sac City (members of the Twin Lakes up until 1996) and Albert City-Truesdale and Sioux Central to make a nine-team league, are very much in transition.

The first to go was Albert City-Truesdale, which formed an alignment (later merger) with Laurens-Marathon, also a Twin Lakes member up until a few years ago. Pomeroy-Palmer aligned its athletics with Pocahontas, dropping the Northwest down to 7 members, but then Laurens-Marathon shifted over from the Twin Lakes, making it an eight-league team again, but dropping the Twin Lakes from seven to six members. However, Southeast Webster-Grand left the North Star Conference and joined the Twin Lakes to move it to the present seven members.

Sac City merged with Wall Lake View Auburn two years ago to form East Sac, so that dropped the Northwest down to 7 teams again but kept the Twin Lakes intact at 7, occupying the WLVA slot.

This season marked the end of Schaller-Crestland, which kept is state-ranked volleyball team intact in the fall, but merged all sports thereafter with Galva-Holstein to form Ridge View, again dropping the Northwest to just 6 teams.

As the scenarios involving the Twin Lakes and Northwest teams were playing out last year, discussions got underway to form a Super Conference among the two, which at that time involved 7 teams from each league, forming a 14-team league. Now, with just six remaining in each league, a 12-team league seems more feasible.

If East Greene is accepted into the Rolling Hills, it will again compete head-to-head with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston. In addition to Adair-Casey, the other teams in the present Rolling Hills are Elk Horn-Kimballton, Exira, CAM (Anita), Ankeny Christian, Iowa Christian, Walnut and Orient-Macksburg.

HAWKETTE VB NOW 6-1

Netters Win CRB Tourney; Pick Up 2 League Wins

A three-game sweep of Van Meter last Tuesday (Sept. 8) in the home volleyball opener moved East Greene’s conference mark to 2-0, putting the Hawkettes in a tie for first place with Coon Rapid-Bayard and Woodward-Granger.

The Hawkettes rolled into the VM match after winning the Coon Rapids-Bayard Tournament on Saturday with a 25-21, 22-25, 15-12 win over the host school in the championship match.
EG had advanced to the semifinal round earlier in the day with a split in its two matches in the first round, beating Iowa Christian Academy 25-15, 15-25, 15-8 and dropping a close match to Woodbine, 25-19, 20-25, 15-13.

EG faced cross-county rival Paton-Churdan in the semifinals and beat the Rockettes two-zip, 25-21, 25-15.

The Hawkettes opened conference play on Thursday, Sept. 3 with a three-game sweep at Earlham, 25-12, 25-20, 25-20. EG is now 6-1 on the season and is the only team to beat CRB, which is ranked No. 11 in Class 1A with an 11-1 season mark.

The conference race heats up tonight (Tuesday, Sept. 15) as the top six teams face-off against each other. CRB and WG, both 2-0, are at Woodward; Guthrie Center (1-0) is at Earlham (1-1); and EG hosts Des Moines Christian (1-1).

West Central Conference Standings
East Greene 2-0
Coon Rapids-Bayard 2-0
Woodward-Granger 2-0
Guthrie Center 1-0
Des Moines Christian 1-1
Earlham 1-1
Van Meter 0-1
Madrid 0-2
Panorama 0-2
West Central Valley 0-2

SEASON FINALE

Hawkettes End Regular Season at GR

East Greene takes on Glidden-Ralston tonight, Monday, July 6, at Glidden in the final conference and final regular season softball game of 2009.

The game is actually the last West Central Conference softball game ever between EG and Glidden-Ralston, and GR’s last appearance in the West Central Conference in girls high school competition. The Wildcats baseball team is playing in a similar finale tonight against EG in Glidden.

When school opens in the fall for 2009-2010, GR will be competing in the Rolling Hills Conference, along with longtime rival Paton-Churdan and six western Iowa teams--Adair-Casey, Orient-Macksburg, CAM (Anita), Exira, Elk Horn-Kimballton and Walnut. Two suburban Des Moines Schools, Ankeny Christian and Iowa Christian Academy in West Des Moines, round out the 10-team league.

East Greene and Glidden-Ralston have been conference opponents since the formation of the Central Valley Conference in the late 1970s. After the Central Valley was disbanded a decade later, both schools became original members of the Coon River Valley Conference and then both moved to the West Central Conference in the 1996-97 season.

EG was hoping to head to Glidden as the spoiler in the Wildcats’ effort to leave the West Central as conference champions, but Earlham earned that honor with a 6-2 win over GR at the Lady Wildcat Tournament in Glidden on Friday, which counted as a make-up game for a game rained out earlier in the season. GR went into that game with a 11-4 conference mark, just behind Earlham at 13-3.

Earlham clinched the league crown, however, with the win, upping its conference mark to 14-3, while GR dropped to 11-5. Earlham has no make-up games on its schedule, so tonight’s game at Van Meter will just be icing on the cake for the Cardinals, as a loss would drop them to 14-4 but still keep them ahead of second-place GR. Des Moines Christian’s title hopes were dashed when it dropped a 1-0 game to Madrid on Friday. The Lions fell to 10-6 and were mathematically eliminated with that loss and Earlham’s win over GR.

EG and Glidden-Ralston tangled earlier in the season with GR winning 9-5 in Grand Junction. The Hawkettes will be out to revenge that loss and get some momentum going for the regional tournament. EG opens regional play Wednesday against Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids. GR drew a first-round bye and will face the EG-CRB winner on Friday in quarterfinal action in Coon Rapids.

GR has a makeup game with Panorama which could be played Tuesday as GR does not have a Wednesday regional opening round game as do the other conference schools who play in Class 1-A and Panorama, a 2-A school, does not open regional play until Thursday.

West Central Conference Standings (through 7-4)
Earlham 14-3
Glidden-Ralston 11-5
Des Moines Christian 10-6
Madrid 9-7
Van Meter 9-7
Guthrie Center 8-8
Panorama 7-9
Coon Rapids-Bayard 5-10
West Central Valley 5-10
East Greene 2-15