Sports

Kee baseball senior Jordan Cota played for the Small Schools East squad in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) Senior All-Star Series played at both Ankeny High School and Urbandale High School this past weekend, Thursday-Saturday, July 31-August 2. The Small Schools East squad consisting of players from Class 1A and 2A players from the east side of the state won two of three games played in the series, joining both the Small Schools West and Large Schools West squads in each going 2-1 in their three games during this series, but the Small Schools East squad was granted the series championship on a total runs scored tie-breaker with its 25 runs, in comparison to 20 runs scored by the Large Schools East team and just eight runs scored by the Small Schools West squad.

The Harpers Ferry Fireflies traveled to Fort Worth, TX July 11-13 for the National Granny Basketball Tournament held at the Game On Sports Center. The Fireflies won five of the six games they played at the tournament to end up as the National Tournament Runner-Up for the fourth consecutive year and for the fifth time in the past six National Tournaments that have been played. 

Monday, July 21 was not a great day to have a Hawk nickname at the Class 1A State Baseball Tournament at Merchants Park in Carroll, as all three teams with Hawks as their team mascot ended up on the losing end of the final result of their opening-round game in that small school season grand finale.

Having worked its way through some more recent familiar history with a pair of Class 1A District Tournament victories over fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) foes, the Kee baseball team brought back some even deeper historical familiarity when the Hawks played Mason City Newman in the Class 1A Substate 3 championship game Tuesday, July 15 at the Decorah High School baseball field. The eighth-rated Hawks and ninth-rated Knights had waged war in some pretty classic postseason battles over the years more than a decade ago, including the most recent of those that ended up in a 4-3 Kee loss in Substate play in 2012, among others deep in postseason tournament play.Having not matched up with Newman in any capacity on the ball diamond within the past decade, that lapse hadn’t done much to create any more distance between the two clubs when they renewed their postseason rivalry in their July 15 Substate finale.

A pair of wins this past week launched the Kee baseball team to the brink of its first Class 1A State Tournament berth since the Hawks’ 2021 State Runner-Up finish, an experience that some of this season’s senior team members got to be a part of as eighth graders at the start of their high school baseball careers. After receiving a first-round bye, this year’s Hawks began their postseason trail with a 6-0 home win over Turkey Valley Tuesday, July 8 before once again matching up with another fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squad, South Winneshiek, and playing to another postseason classic with the Warriors that this time came out in Kee’s favor at home by a 2-1 final result Saturday, July 12 to earn the Hawks the Class 1A District 5 championship and advancement to a Tuesday, July 15 Substate 3 championship match-up with ninth-rated Mason City Newman.

The Class 1A Regional Tournament trail both got its start and came to an end for the Kee softball team this past week, with the Hawks splitting the two regional tournament games they hosted over the latter half of last week to also have their 2025 season brought to a close. After a first-round bye for the Lady Hawks, that tournament trail got its start with a 4-1 home win over Rockford in the Class 1A Region 2 Quarterfinals Wednesday, July 9 before Kee’s summer campaign was brought to a close by a 14-3 loss at home to Riceville in the Region 2 Semifinals Saturday, July 12 in a game originally scheduled for Friday, July 11 but postponed due to stormy weather.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2025 season brought to a close in the early days of this past week, having to play on back-to-back nights due to the postponement of the Indians’ Class 2A District 8 first-round game from Saturday, July 5 to Monday, July 7. That postseason opener proved to be worth the wait, as the diamond Tribe came away with a 6-4 victory in that July 7 first-round match-up with Clayton Ridge/Central Elkader, earning advancement to the district semifinals played the very next night at Dyersville Beckman, who ended Waukon’s season with a 4-0 defeat.

As if the hills of Dubuque weren’t steep enough to climb on their own, the Waukon softball team faced another steep challenge in having to take its first step down the Class 3A Region 1 Tournament road against the top-rated Wahlert Catholic Golden Eagles in that Dubuque community Thursday, July 10. Being limited to just a single hit, the Lady Indians didn’t commit a single error or give up any free bases on walks or hit batters in the ballgame, but did surrender 14 hits of their own that included four homeruns, two triples and a double for extra bases on the way to a 10-0 Waukon mercy-rule defeat in four innings.

The Kee baseball team wrapped up its 2025 regular season in convincing fashion, and wrapped up its 25th Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) baseball championship in the process, its first such title since the 2022 Hawks claimed the crown with a 17-1 league record. Kee brought its 2025 UIC season to a close with a sweep of three games at home to start this past week, defeating Turkey Valley by an 8-2 count Monday, June 30 before clinching the UIC title with a 16-2 conference mark following a home doubleheader sweep of Postville Tuesday, July 1 by scores of 9-1 and 19-0 in a mercy-rule four innings.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2025 regular season schedule brought to a close a little earlier than expected this past week, as a Thursday, July 3 non-conference road date at Clayton Ridge/Central Elkader that was supposed to be the diamond Tribe’s final game of this regular season was called off due to rainy weather. That cancellation left just three games for the Indians to play during their final week of the regular season, and that slate started with a sweep of Crestwood at home, by scores of 7-0 and 17-0 in a mercy-rule four innings, in a Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheader Tuesday, July 1 that would determine the third-place finisher in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings. Following that NEIC sweep, the baseball Tribe traveled to Monona to play MFL/MarMac Wednesday, July 2 in a non-conference match-up that ended up being the final game of Waukon’s regular season schedule, and also ended up at a 4-1 loss for the Indians.