Sports

The Waukon girls basketball team put together an undefeated week on the court with a pair of victories, one each in and outside of Northeast Iowa Conference play, as well as one of each of those being at home and on the road. That week began with a 53-31 victory at North Fayette Valley Monday, January 8 before the Indians stayed within a game of the Northeast Iowa Conference lead with a 61-47 triumph at New Hampton Friday, January 12.

Former Waukon High School stand-out softball pitcher Holly Hesse will be entering her 30th year as head coach of the Missouri State University softball program in Springfield, MO with the start of the fast-approaching season. But first, she will be entering the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Hesse is among this year’s 15 selections of sports prowess in the state of Missouri who will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield, MO at a January 28 ceremony being held at the University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Springfield, MO. This year’s inductees range anywhere from a long-time television sports director to former St. Louis Cardinals closing pitcher Lee Smith, with representation of a variety of sports realms in between, all who have helped “mold Missouri sports to what it is today,” according to the Hall of Fame’s promotional material.

The Waukon boys basketball team returned to competition following the holiday break to face a pair of teams very similar to themselves with just a single loss each so far this season. Both of those games were played away from home on back-to-back days and the Indians earned a split of that pair, falling to a Charles City team yet to be defeated in Northeast Iowa Conference play, 77-72, Friday, January 5 before bouncing back the very next day to claim a 57-47 win over Wapsie Valley in a game played Saturday, January 6 at Wartburg College in Waverly.

The Waukon wrestling team returned from its holiday break with a late week slate of competition this past week, wrestling a home dual meet before competing in a weekend tournament. The mat Indians hosted Decorah in that home dual Thursday, January 4, falling to the visiting Vikings by a 67-9 final result before wrestling to a runner-up team finish at the Central Elkader Tournament Saturday, January 6 behind the strength of four individual tournament championships.

The Waukon girls basketball team came back from its holiday break with a split of its first two games of the new year, both of them being played at home. The Indians were handed a 66-49 loss by MFL/MarMac Tuesday, January 2 in their first game back in 2018 but bounced back with a 59-22 triumph over Charles City in Northeast Iowa Conference play Friday, January 5.

Now holding a 7-4 season record, including a 5-1 mark to sit in second place in the current Northeast Iowa Conference standings behind Class 3A second-rated Crestwood, the Indians were scheduled to host North Fayette Valley Monday, January 8 before playing at New Hampton Friday, January 12. The basketball Tribe will then have a week off before playing host to Oelwein Friday, January 19.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition by clicking here.

The postseason honors keep filing in for the Waukon football program after the Indians played to a Class 2A State Championship with a 12-1 season record in 2017, the program’s first-ever State title. The Iowa Football Coaches Association (IFCA) recently released its season honors, naming Waukon High School head football coach Chad Beermann (photo above) the IFCA Class 2A Coach of the Year and Waukon football senior Mitchell Snitker (right photo) the IFCA Class 2A Player of the Year.

The 2017 Waukon volleyball team compiled a season record of 8-29-2 this past fall but showed signs of being able to accomplish so much more. That single-digit win total wasn’t helped along by the Indians’ results in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play, as the Tribe netters fell shy of a win in any of their six NEIC dual or tournament matches this season to finish in seventh place in the final league standings.

The return to the volleyball sidelines of a former head coach, Randy Nordheim, who once had the program at its pinnacle with State Tournament qualification in 2003, was cause for added optimism for this season. However, Coach Nordheim would be the first to admit that his time away since then from a game that has changed so much during that stretch likely played a big role in a season that certainly didn’t play out as he anticipated.

The 2017 Kee volleyball season played out to a 21-15 overall record that included a mark of 5-4 in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Hawk netters in the upper half of this season’s final UIC standings under first-year head coach Lynn Winters. For an overall young squad that featured just three seniors on its roster, the Hawks played to a fairly consistent level of success, never losing more than three matches in a row while putting together a couple of four-plus match victory streaks that included one of the best postseason runs in the history of the Kee volleyball program.

Both the Kee and Waukon athletic teams will be returning to competition following the holiday break, starting that return shortly after the new year begins. That schedule for both the Hawks’ and Indians’ returns to competition in the initial weeks of January is slated as follows:

Kee -
The Kee boys and girls basketball teams will return from their holiday break with competition toward the end of the week following the New Year holiday, beginning Thursday, January 4 with the Kee boys playing host to Houston, MN. Both the boys and girls will then play at Clayton Ridge Friday, January 5 before both host Starmont Tuesday, January 9 and then play at MFL/MarMac Friday, January 12.

In its lone competition prior to entering the current holiday break, the Waukon boys basketball team rode a bit of a rollercoaster before finally coming away with a 67-59 home victory over Decorah in Northeast Iowa Conference play Thursday, December 21. Much like any teenager would try and do with such a ride, the basketball Indians took advantage of as many free rides as they could get in racking up a 27-7 scoring advantage at the free throw line over the visiting Vikings, nearly half of those freebies providing 13 of the Tribe’s 16 points in the final frame to help seal the victory.