Sports

Following back-to-back seasons of State Play-Off qualification and two of the most successful seasons in program history, the 2014 Waukon football team was looking to continue that trend heading into this past fall. However, the injury bug and a formidable Class 2A District 3 schedule turned out less desirable results for this year’s gridiron gang, the Indians, instead, playing to a 3-6 overall record and a 2-4 mark that placed them fifth in the final District 3 standings.

The Kee girls basketball team will feature just one senior for the 2014-2015 season but will look to benefit from the return of five varsity letterwinners that helped produce a 12-9 overall record last season. Three juniors and one sophomore complete that list of varsity veteran returnees for a small and overall young squad of 16 players made up of the letterwinning senior and juniors, seven sophomores and five freshmen.

The Waukon girls basketball program will look to make a fresh start as its 2014-2015 season gets underway, but still with a considerable amount of familiarity in its personnel. Andy Sires will assume the head coaching role of the program for the first time, but brings with him the assistant coaching experience from the past 13 seasons that have included some of the most successful basketball played in Waukon High School history.

The all-purpose fields pictured above on the west edge of Waukon have gotten a great amount of use throughout their first full year of operation, being mainly used by Waukon Park and Recreation and Allamakee Community School District youth for athletic and other activities. As pictured above on a recent sunny fall weekend, the Waukon Park and Recreation Department’s flag football program made the most recent use of the fields for both weekday practices and Saturday games. A total of 128 area youth from Waukon, Lansing, Monona, Postville and Waterville took part in the third and fourth grade flag football program, while another 77 first and second graders from Waukon and Waterville participated in the NERF flag football program.

A relatively young Waukon girls cross country team with a first-year head coach improved by great strides, literally, throughout this 2014 season to bring themselves to the brink of the most coveted destination at season’s end. The Lady Indian distance dandies worked through a tough season of training under first-year coach Brett Egan to finally realize the pay-off of all that hard work, finishing just one team placewinning shy of qualifying for the Class 2A State Cross Country Meet, an end result that proved to be bittersweet, but an overall pleasant surprise for all involved.

The 2014 Kee football season was brought to a close in a game where all teams desire to be Wednesday, October 29, but, unfortunately, by a less than desirable, 65-12 final result. Qualifying for every team’s ultimate destination - the State Play-Offs - for the sixth consecutive season as this season’s fourth-place team in Eight-Player District 4, the Hawks were matched up with the top-seeded team from District 3, Eight-Player’s second-rated and undefeated Janesville Wildcats, in that opening State Play-Off round. The loss ends Kee’s season at a 6-4 overall record, including a 3-3 Eight-Player District 4 record that placed the Hawks fourth and qualified them for the Eight-Player State Play-Offs for the sixth year in a row. Janesville advanced on to a Monday, November 3 second-round match-up with HLV-Victor, where they lost a 52-51 heartbreaker to have their season  ended with their first defeat.

The Kee volleyball team had its 2014 season brought to a close by an all too familiar foe in the quarterfinal round of the Class 1A Regional Tournament Tuesday, October 28. For the third time in each of the last four seasons, the Hawks have had their season ended by fellow Upper Iowa Conference team Turkey Valley, this time in three sets by scores of 15-25, 20-25 and 23-25.
The loss completes Kee’s season with an overall record of 12-17. In addition to the end of this 2014 season, the match loss also marks the end of the high school volleyball careers for seniors Sadie Hill, Val Meyer, Nicole Vinson and Molly Walleser.

The 2014 season was brought to a close for the Waukon volleyball team by one of the most dominant serving teams the Indians have faced all season. Also being the highest ranked Class 3A team the Indian netters have faced all season, the fourth-rated Independence Mustangs made themselves feel right at home by sweeping the Indians in three straight sets by scores of 17-25, 12-25 and 16-25, moving themselves one step closer to a return trip to the Class 3A State Tournament.
The loss ends the Indians’ season with a 16-22 overall record, including a 1-6 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference dual match play that placed the Indians sixth this season in the final league standings. The loss also ends the high school volleyball careers of this year’s nine seniors, including Kelsey Cota, Katie Kerndt, Katelyn Kolsrud, Hope Manning, Thea Meyer, Allie Schwartz, Sam Swartz, Callie Thorson and Jackie Welch.

Making their way back to a place their program had not been in six years, the Waukon cross country boys competed among Class 2A’s distance running elite at Lakeside Country Club near Fort Dodge Saturday, November 1. Along with the top distance runners in all of Class 2A, the Indians also battled chilly, breezy conditions to rack up 266 team points and finish in 14th place out of 15 teams in the Class 2A field.
The Indians are one of just three teams within that Class 2A State Meet scoring field of 15 teams not graduating a single runner from their seven State Meet competitors, having four juniors and three sophomores make up their top seven runners this season. Class 2A State Meet Runner-Up and top-ranked Monticello fielded five juniors, one sophomore and one freshman for this season’s grand finale, while fourth-place Garner-Hayfield has just one junior, five sophomores and one freshman on this year’s State Meet roster.

The Kee volleyball team began its Class 1A postseason tournament trail in thrilling fashion, battling a visiting Central Elkader team to the very brink of elimination before fighting back to clinch the match in five sets. Just one set away from having their season ended, the Hawks rallied back to win sets four and five by the narrowest of margins to secure advancement to the quarterfinal round of Class 1A Regional Tournament play by scores of 20-25, 25-15, 18-25, 25-23 and 17-15. The first-round victory advances the Hawks to the Class 1A Region 5 quarterfinals with a 12-16 overall record, where they were scheduled to face 10th-rated and fellow Upper Iowa Conference foe Turkey Valley Tuesday, October 28 at Jackson Junction.