Sports

The Kee girls basketball team kept its early-season roll headed in a very positive direction with two more wins this past week, finding success both at home and on the road against Upper Iowa Conference foes. The Lady Hawks handled Central Elkader with relative ease, 50-29, at home Tuesday, November 29 before pulling away in the second half in a somewhat tighter battle at Starmont Friday, December 2 for a 56-45 victory.

Off to a 3-0 start, including a 2-0 headstart in Upper Iowa Conference play, the Kee basketballers are next scheduled to play back-to-back home games to end next week, hosting West Central Friday, December 9 and Houston, MN Saturday, December 10. The Lady Hawks will then play at fellow UIC powerhouse, Class 1A second-rated Turkey Valley, in a battle of top-five ranked squads Tuesday, December 13 before another back-to-back pair, at home against South Winneshiek Friday, December 16 and then at Decorah against Spring Grove, MN Saturday, December 17.

Dr. David Schwartz, family medical practitioner at Mayo Clinic in Waukon, was honored with one of two Sports Medicine Awards presented by the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) during halftime of the Iowa High School Class 3A Football State Championship game played in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Thursday, November 17. With over 23 years of medical experience, Dr. Schwartz was nominated by the Waukon High School football program for serving as the team doctor for football and many of Waukon High School’s other athletic programs. Pictured above at the award presentation are Dr. Schwartz’s daughter, Allie; his son Sam’s special friend, Shelby Bodley; his son, Sam; Dr. Schwartz; his son, Abe; his wife, Joan; and his son, Joe. Photo by Tucker Photography, LeMars.
 

The 2016 Waukon volleyball team played to a season record of 9-24-1 under the direction of first-year head coach Madison Wagner. Making that transition a bit easier for the first-year head coach is the team she inherited that was paced by a group of seniors that made up about half of this season’s squad.

“The girls made this an easy first year for me,” Coach Wagner said. “They accepted me the moment I stepped foot into the gym. They were very coachable and always wanting to learn more; they wanted to get better and be the best they could be. No matter the role they were given, they played it to the best of their ability.”

Coach Wagner knows that success, whether from this past season or for the future, would not be possible without the support of what takes place beyond the court, as well as on it. “I just want to thank this year’s group of girls, coaches and parents for making this a pretty amazing first year coaching here at Waukon!” she shared.

History unfolded at Odie’s Place in Waukon Tuesday, November 22 as Waukon High School hosted its first-ever high school bowling meet. The inaugural-season bowling Indians played host to Waverly-Shell Rock, an experienced team that brought with it an established high level of success and got this 2016 season off to another successful start by sweeping both the girls’ and boys’ match-ups from the Indians by scores of 1,639-2,464 in the girls’ meet and 1,779-2,699 in the boys’ contest.

“Scott Oder (of Odie’s Place) was a tremendous help in making sure things ran very smoothly,” Coach Keenan said. “There is a lot of work that goes into making sure that happens.”
The bowling Indians will next host Tripoli Friday, December 2 before traveling to Buffalo Center Friday, December 9 to bowl against North Iowa.

The 2016-2017 Waukon wrestling team will benefit from the return of six varsity letterwinners from a squad that finished with a 7-16 season record last winter. Half of those returning letterwinners will be from this year’s senior class, which features five seniors who return with this season’s most experience. This year’s senior group includes Nathan Benzing, Chance Cota, Andrew Dickson, Kyle Gordon and Blain Swenson.

“Another great group of senior leadership,” fourth-year Waukon head wrestling coach Matt Pladsen said of his five veteran upperclassmen. “They come to the wrestling room every day and work hard and encourage and push the underclassmen. This group of seniors, in my mind, will go on in their future endeavors to be great individuals.”

The 2016-2017 Waukon boys basketball team will be looking to put together a third consecutive winning season for the program, and will have five varsity letterwinners returning from last season’s squad that posted a second consecutive 12-win season. That number of veteran returnees matches the number of graduated seniors lost from last season’s team, but that graduation loss took with it four of last season’s starting five.

“We have some big holes to fill after graduating four All-Conference players,” Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann said about his charges’ 2016-2017 campaign. “In addition to their leadership, last year’s seniors accounted for over 80% of our scoring last season and over 75% of our rebounding.”

The 2016-2017 Kee boys basketball team will benefit from the return of nine varsity letterwinners from a squad that finished 7-16 last season under first-year head coach Patrick Sullivan. Within those nine returning veterans are the Hawks’ five late-season starters who also helped Kee to a 5-10 mark and eighth-place finish in the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC).

With five of those letterwinners being multi-year varsity veterans, that large collection of returning experience includes a group of seven seniors and two multi-letterwinning juniors. Danny Brennan, Evan Whalen and Clay Olson are multi-year senior veterans, with Tyler Reinhart, AJ Gagner, Jon Mooney and Spencer Colsch each being senior veterans from last year. Juniors Eric Rud and Kyle Hitchins complete this season’s list of multi-year veterans.

Both the Kee and Waukon girls basketball teams got their seasons underway in an early-season non-conference match-up Friday, November 18 in Lansing. The Class 1A fourth-rated and more veteran State Tournament qualifying crew for the host Hawks took a slight early lead over the overall younger Indians and continued to methodically build on it in all but an even last quarter, as Kee posted the 64-50 victory.

Waukon will have to wait until December for its next competition, playing back-to-back road games, at New Hampton December 2 and at Wartburg College against Denver December 3. The Tribe will then play another back-to-back pair, at Caledonia, MN December 8 before hosting Oelwein December 9.

Kee will next play host to Central Elkader Tuesday, November 29 before playing at Starmont Friday, December 2. The Hawks were then scheduled to play at Postville December 6, but the Pirates do not have a varsity girls team this season.

The 2016-2017 Waukon girls basketball season will see a collection of six varsity letterwinners return from a team last winter that produced a 9-12 season record. That letterwinning experience includes just one upperclassman, a fact that third-year Waukon girls basketball head coach Andy Sires sees as bittersweet.

“We are a very young team, which can be a positive because I have most of my core varsity team for four years,” Coach Sires said. “That is not the usual norm when it comes to varsity basketball. Most teams only have one or two underclassmen even dressing varsity.”

The Indians will get their season underway this Friday, November 18 when they travel to Lansing to take on fellow Allamakee County squad Kee for an early-season, non-conference match-up. The basketball Tribe will then wait until December 2 to open its NEIC season at New Hampton.

The 2015-2016 Kee girls basketball season was one for the history books and the record books, as the Lady Hawks played their way to a best-ever 22-3 season record, the program’s first-ever State Tournament qualification and the rewriting of a majority of the program’s individual and team records. Fortunately, for the Kee basketball girls the 2016-2017 season brings back a good number of authors of those historical chapters in the 10 returning letterwinners from last winter.

“With only two seniors graduating from last year’s squad, we have a good amount of experience coming back,” Kee girls basketball head coach Dan Love said. “We are going to lean on that experience early while looking to work in the rest of the hard working crew. The returning letterwinners are going to need to show their poise under pressure and their ability to elevate the level of play of those around them.”