Sports

Having graduated two-thirds of his starting line-up from one of its better recent seasons last summer, Waukon baseball head coach Jerry Keenan knew there would be some growing pains heading into the 2016 season. Some of those pains resulted in a 7-22 overall record for the baseball Tribe’s recently completed summer campaign, but it was the growth that reached its pinnacle at season’s end that Coach Keenan was most pleased with, resulting in the Indians tallying their first postseason tournament win since the 2011 season and being within a base hit of earning another tournament triumph over one of the top teams in Class 2A.

It was two seasons ago that the Kee softball team sent shockwaves through the Class 1A softball ranks by playing to a State Tournament Runner-Up finish after heading into the season-ending tournament unranked. Riding that wave ever since - mostly up but sometimes down, including missing out on a return trip to the season grand finale last summer, the Hawks climbed atop the crest of that wake this season and rode it all the way to its pinnacle, the Class 1A State Tournament Championship.

The Waukon softball team played to a 7-20 overall season record during its 2016 campaign, compiling a 3-12 mark that placed the Indians fifth in the final six-team Northeast Iowa Conference standings - Oelwein not being able to field a varsity team once again this season. Guiding the Indians through this summer’s campaign was first-year head coach Amanda Eggerichs, who found herself assuming the reins of the program late in the spring after previous head coach Joe O’Neill was stricken with health issues and was not able to coach the team this season.

Waukon High School graduated senior Peyton Hesse threw three touchdown passes and amassed 152 yards in converting eight of 12 passes in the 2016 Iowa Shrine Bowl played in the UNI-Dome at Cedar Falls Saturday evening, July 23. Hesse’s three touchdown passes helped the North Squad to a 49-35 victory in the annual football classic that also serves as the biggest fundraiser for the Shrine hospitals of Iowa.

After the North squad fought its way back from an early 21-7 scoreboard deficit, Hesse connected on a 58-yard touchdown pass with Gladbrook-Reinbeck graduated senior Colton Dinsdale to help the North keep pace. Hesse then connected on touchdown passes of 19 and 23 yards in the second half with Cedar Rapids Washington graduate Isaiah Nimmers, who scored three total touchdowns on his way to being named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

The Kee softball team has reached the pinnacle of Class 1A, capping off a three-game sweep of Class 1A's elite this past week with a 7-3 triumph over Class 1A powerhouse Akron-Westfield Friday evening, July 22 in Fort Dodge. In a rematch from the 2014 State Championship game, the Hawks answered an early 1-0 deficit right away and then added a two-run fourth inning and four more runs in the sixth to pull away to the victory, all while junior pitcher Courtney Cooper and her defensive counterparts handcuffed the traditionally strong Akron-Westfield bats to just three hits to bring to an end a 13-game State Tournament winning streak for the Westerners and begin a Kee Hawk reign.

Full details of the Hawks' climb to the top can be found in the July 27 edition of The Standard, complete with photos and descriptive game action. Don't miss this piece of Hawk history!

The Kee softball team has played its way back to the Class 1A State Championship game with a 5-2 semifinal round victory over fourth-rated Martensdale-St. Mary's Thursday evening, July 21 at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge. That win sets up a rematch two years in the making between the second-rated Hawks and top-rated Akron-Westfield, a team that defeated Kee for the Class 1A State Championship two seasons ago.

After neither team made the State Tournament field last season, the two have played their back to a State Championship rematch that will begin at 4:55 p.m. Friday, July 22. That championship battle can be seen on Iowa Public Television as part of a five-game championship series to be broadast throughout Friday.

Catch all the action of all three Kee softball games at this year's State Tournament in words and photos in the July 27 edition of The Standard!

Mariah Hancock and Kate-Leigh Wilson selected to Cheer Squad; Peyton Hesse to play for North Squad in football classic

Waukon High School will be well represented once again for the 2016 Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Football Classic being played this Saturday, July 23 at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

Graduated senior Peyton Hesse will represent Waukon football as a member of this year’s North football squad, while fellow schoolmates Mariah Hancock and Kate-Leigh Wilson have been chosen to represent Waukon cheerleading as members of the cheerleading squad as well. Wilson, however, will be unable to participate in her second year of being selected to take part in the annual classic.

The team from New Albin pictured above won the 12 and Under division of the Stars of Tomorrow Tournament held in La Crosse, WI Friday-Sunday, July 8-10. The tournament consisted of three pools of five teams each, with the top-finishing team and one wild card team from each pool advancing on to a final championship bracket. The New Albin team first went undefeated in four pool play games, defeating East Dubuque, 13-5, and Osage, 5-1, Friday and Holmen, 8-2, and Shelby, 5-2, Saturday to advance to Sunday’s final championship round, along with Shelby as the pool’s wild card team. After defeating that Shelby team once again in its first championship bracket game Sunday, 9-5, New Albin then went on to claim the tournament crown with a 15-5 ten-run rule victory in four innings over Janesville, WI in the championship game.

The Waukon baseball team had its season ended with a loss at third-rated New Hampton in the semifinal round of Class 2A District Tournament play Tuesday, July 12, but somehow that 2-1 shortcoming certainly doesn’t feel like a defeat. Having played the highly-regarded Chickasaws on three occasions earlier in the regular season during Northeast Iowa Conference play, the Tribe had yet to last more than six innings or score a run against the back-to-back Northeast Iowa Conference champions, actually having been outscored by a 40-0 margin in those three previous contests - including losses of 16-0 in four innings and 14-0 in five innings exactly one week earlier.