Sports

The Waukon girls cross country team ran in a couple larger meets this past week, finishing in the latter half of the final team standings at each event. The Indian distance ladies finished 12th in the overall team scoring at the uniquely scored Dick Pollitt Invitational hosted by Waverly-Shell Rock Tuesday, September 7 before placing 25th in a field of 28 teams at the Luther All-American Invitational at Decorah Saturday, September 11.

The Indians were next scheduled to compete at the Starmont Invitational Tuesday, September 14 before hosting their own Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 21, details of which can be found in a shaded box elsewhere on these same Sports pages. The distance Tribe will then compete at the Jesup Invitational Tuesday, September 28.

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

The Waukon boys cross country team pulled double duty this past week, faring well in two of its largest meets of the season. The distance Tribe finished second in the overall team scoring at the uniquely scored Dick Pollitt Invitational hosted by Waverly-Shell Rock at Wartburg College Tuesday, September 7 before placing 11th in a field of more than two dozen teams from the tri-state area at the Luther All-American Invitational at Decorah Saturday, September 11

The Indians were next scheduled to compete at the Starmont Invitational Tuesday, September 14 before hosting their own Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 21, details of which can be found in a shaded box elsewhere on these same Sports pages. The distance Tribe will then compete at the Jesup Invitational Tuesday, September 28.

The Waukon football team wrapped up its non-district schedule in convincing fashion Friday, September 10 when the grid Tribe traveled to Crestwood to face a third consecutive fellow Northeast Iowa Conference opponent. Facing a Cadet team yet to win a game this season and giving up more than 40 points per game in their first two contests of the season, the grid Indians continued both those trends for the host squad in dealing Crestwood a 42-6 defeat.

“The biggest thing coming out of the non-district schedule is players learning to play together,” Waukon football coach Chad Beermann said of his team’s continued improvement in non-district play that peaked in this final non-league contest. “We are gaining confidence, and the kids are just starting to see what they are capable of.”

A strong start behind an even stronger running game allowed the Kee football team to break a recent grip the Springville football team has had on the Hawks. Having surrendered six of their past seven match-ups to the Orioles over the past nine seasons, including the past four in a row by no closer than a three-touchdown margin, the football Hawks jumped out to a 34-0 headstart over the Orioles through the first quarter-plus and then played nearly even football on the scoreboard for the game’s remainder to remain undefeated on the season with a 66-39 home victory Friday, September 10.

Despite snapping that four-game skid against a traditionally-strong Springville squad that is winless yet this season, Kee football head coach Chad Winters would still like to see a more focused complete-game effort from his now 3-0 squad. After bolting to their 34-0 early edge, the Hawks were outscored by a 39-32 result over the game’s nearly entire three final quarters.

The Kee volleyball team got its 2021 underway at a pair of locations that begin with “W,” as the Lady Hawks played at both Waukon Monday, August 30 and at Wauzeka-Steuben in Wisconsin Thursday, September 2. Although the Lady Hawks’ season didn’t necessarily begin with that same “W” fate in the win-loss column after a pair of first-night sweeps, they wrapped up their week’s action reversing that trend to end up with an early-season match record of 1-2.

At the Waukon triangular event, the Hawks were swept by both Riceville, 25-19 an 25-21, and the host Indians, 25-11 and 25-7. The Kee net squad bounced back from those season-opening losses to deal Wauzeka-Steuben, WI that same fate, posting a road dual match sweep, 25-22, 25-21 and 25-17.

by Perry Hesse

After opening the 2021 season with one of its most difficult losses in recent memory, Waukon Indian football pride was quickly restored on a drizzly Friday night, September 3 at Decorah as Waukon rebounded from that season-opening loss with a 15-0 victory over the host Vikings. It was believed to be Waukon’s first win at Decorah since 2006 and its first shut-out of the Vikings since the fall of 2007, although the two teams have not matched up in five of those seasons during that past timeframe.

“One of the things we stressed with the kids this week is talent is not the issue with this team,” said Waukon football coach Chad Beermann. “We just need to focus so we can show and use the talent on the field. Obviously, our line played with more focus this week. Now we have to get our skill players on the same page.”

The Waukon volleyball team continued its undefeated start to the 2021 season in dual match play this past week before being handed its first losses of the season while playing in its first tournament action this fall. The volleyball Tribe’s unblemished dual match start continued in a home triangular event Monday, August 30, when the Lady Indians first swept Riceville in two sets, 25-11 and 25-15, before doing likewise to Kee, 25-11 and 25-7.

That early-season undefeated trend was reversed over the weekend when the net Tribe suffered its first match losses of the season in being swept in tournament pool play Saturday, September 4 at the New Hampton Tournament. At that weekend event, the Lady Indians were swept by all three of their opponents, including Tripoli, 21-16 and 21-12, Denver, 21-9 and 21-5, and Don Bosco, 21-10 and 21-19.

Waukon girls golf coach Kathy McMillan holds the plaque she recently received for being named the Mike Henderson District Coach of the Year by the Iowa Girls Coaches Association for Class 2A District 4 following the 2021 golf season this past spring. McMillan guided the Lady Indians to a 14-4 season record this past spring that included an 8-2 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the golf Tribe second in those final NEIC standings, the same place the Lady Indians also finished at the NEIC Tournament, with both of those runner-up finishes coming behind multi-year defending NEIC Champion New Hampton. McMillan also led the golf Tribe to the Class 2A Region 4B team championship this spring, and they came within a fifth-golfer tie-breaker of qualifying as a team for the Class 2A State Tournament, with McMillan having senior Emily Clark qualify as an individual for this year’s season grand finale. Submitted photo.
 

The Waukon volleyball team got its 2021 campaign off to a sweepingly successful start, handling fellow Allamakee County net squad Postville with relative ease in three sets at home Tuesday, August 24. The Indians limited the visiting Pirates to only enough total points combined to finish off one set on the way to outscoring them by a combined 75-25 final result in sweeping all three sets by final scores of 25-5, 25-11 and 25-9.

Knocking down kills on more than a third of their offensive attacks, the Tribe netters hammered away for more than enough kills to win one set with their 27 winners at the net. The Indians also fired away at the service line for nearly enough aces to win another set with their 20 immediate points at that line, with all seven Tribe netters who served in the match managing at least one ace and more than half of them serving flawlessly in a combined 43 attempts to pace a 94.6% team serving efficiency in the match.

by Perry Hesse

The Kee football team played just a little over a quarter Friday night, August 27 in notching a season-opening win over West Central, 16-0. The 7 p.m. kick-off time allowed for some decent playing conditions before thunderstorms and rain eventually arrived in Lansing and resulted in an early cancellation of the contest.

“We did a lot of good things offensively and defensively,” said Kee football coach Chad Winters of his team’s brief season debut. “It would have been nice to get more of the game in as we wanted to get more guys some valuable snaps. But with the lengthy delay we were looking at and the field conditions we would have played in after the delay, it was for the best.”