Sports

Waukon Middle School football coach Tim Bulman was honored with the Don Taft Memorial Junior High School Football Coach of the Year Award for Class 2A during the Class 2A State Championship football game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday, November 19. Bulman has been coaching football for 37 years, with all but four of those years being at the junior high/middle school level and those other four years being as a junior varsity coach. That coaching tenure has included positions in the Terril and Jesup school districts before he coached the past 19 seasons in Waukon.

The Waukon boys basketball team is coming off one of its best seasons in recent history this past winter and will return four letterwinning veterans from that campaign that ended with a 15-6 season record. Although four returning veterans can fill a large portion of a five-player regime that takes to the basketball court, that leadership foursome and this season’s supporting cast will have some significant holes to fill from the graduation of a six-player senior class that helped the bucket Tribe reach the 15-win mark for just the third time in the past decade and play to its best Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) record and team finish in well over a decade, all while setting some records along the way.

The biggest change for the 2021-2022 Kee boys basketball team from last season to this season will be at the very top of the totem pole, as the team returns seven varsity letterwinners as seniors this winter but will be guided by a new head coach after the retirement of Pat Wagner since last season. Jeff Cota will be taking over those head coaching reins this season, but even though he may be new to the position, he is certainly not new to the program or to the charges he inherits.

The Waukon girls basketball team will enter the 2021-2022 season fresh off the heels of one of its best seasons in five-player program history following a 19-5 season record that ended up with a second Class 3A State Tournament qualification in the past three years. That season result marks the second time in the past 10 seasons the Lady Indians have reached that 19-win mark and the season grand finale that is every team’s ultimate destination.

The Waukon boys and girls bowling teams each return enough bowlers with varsity letterwinning experience to form a strong nucleus for their respective 2021-2022 campaigns, but each also graduated a strong core of four bowlers who rolled leadership roles on last year’s squads that will need to be filled this winter.

Another leadership role even higher up on the Tribe’s bowling totem pole is also in need of replacement this season, as inaugural head bowling coach Jerry Keenan has stepped down from that role after the first five seasons of the program, although he is still assisting the program with its transition to its new head coach, Kim Shelton, who brings a multi-generational experience level around the bowling lanes with her to the program.

“I’ve been bowling since I was 20 years old,” the new Indian head coach shared. “Both my parents bowled, as well as my grandparents. My husband, son and daughter also bowl.”

The 2021-2022 Kee girls basketball season will be focusing on quality more so than quantity this winter, as head coach Ben Wagner has had just nine players in the freshman through senior ranks report for early-season practice. Of those nine players taking to the court this season, six of them return with letterwinning experience from a squad that played to an even 11-11 overall record last winter.

Among those veteran returnees is the senior pair of Haley Meyer and Reagan Mudderman, along with the junior trio of Alaina Bakewell, Alison Wagner and Jaylyn Walleser and lone sophomore Mal Mohn. The experience of those six returnees will be helped along by a trio of incoming freshmen who include Haley Gonzalez, Zoey Timmerman and Summer Walleser.

“We’ll benefit from leadership by my seniors,” Coach Wagner said of the pinnacle of his returning experience.

Jaguars “Kruse” to victory behind 229 yards rushing, 239 yards passing by SE Valley quarterback

The old saying goes, “all good things must come to an end,” and when they do it oftentimes takes a strong counter effort to force that end. Unfortunately, the Waukon football team found that out the hard way when the Indians suffered a 50-14 loss to another squad with a 10-1 record, Southeast Valley, in a Class 2A State Semifinals match-up in the UNI-Dome at Cedar Falls Saturday, November 13 to have their very good 2021 campaign brought to an end.

“Some days, things just don’t go your way,” Waukon football coach Chad Beermann said. “How you respond in those situations shows who you are. The kids continued to fight, and accounted for over 300 yards of offense against a very good defense.”

The six Waukon High School young ladies pictured above were selected to sing the National Anthem prior to the Waukon football team’s Class 2A State Semifinals game with Southeast Valley Saturday, November 13 at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. Left to right are seniors Madelyn Helgerson and Hannah Teslow, freshman Annie Ellingson, junior Bailey Sherman, and seniors Hailey Houg and Brenna Berns. The group has also been selected to provide that same honored musical start to the Class 2A State Championship game this Friday, November 19 at 10 a.m.
 

The Waukon football team pieced together another memorable season on the field with yet another deep run into the Class 2A State Play-Offs this fall. Yet, it was a game-day action off the field Friday, November 5 that may just be the team’s most memorable and inspirational moment of this 2021 season.

Indians will play 10-1 Southeast Valley in State Semifinals this Saturday at the UNI-Dome

by Perry Hesse

Death, taxes, and the Waukon football team advancing to the semifinals. One could say these are the certainties in life as the Indians posted a 28-14 Class 2A State Play-Off Quarterfinals victory over North Fayette Valley (NFV) Friday, November 5 to advance to the semifinal round. The win marks the fifth straight year Waukon will play in the Class 2A State Semifinals at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls as the Indians look to repeat as Class 2A State Champions, with their next game being this Saturday, November 13 against 10-1 Southeast Valley.