Sports

The Waukon girls basketball team played to an undefeated week this past week, sandwiching some lopsided victories around its first real nail-biting finish of the season. The Lady Indians opened the week with a 57-18 triumph at winless Clayton Ridge Monday, December 9 before escaping with a 46-45 home win over Caledonia, MN the very next night, Tuesday, December 10. The basketball Tribe then rolled over another winless squad, 56-14, at Oelwein Friday, December 13.

Holding a 6-1 season record, including a 2-0 start to their Northeast Iowa Conference season, the Lady Indians were next scheduled to host Crestwood Tuesday, December 17 before wrapping up their pre-holiday schedule Friday, December 20 at Waverly-Shell Rock. The Waukon girls will resume their schedule in the new year Friday, January 3 at Decorah.

Back-to-back games within less than 24 hours of one another resulted in the Waukon girls basketball team’s first loss of the season, as the hoop Tribe played to a split of those two contests in its only competition on the schedule late this past week. The Lady Indians first opened their Northeast Iowa Conference and home schedules with a 47-32 handling of New Hampton at home Friday, December 6 before suffering this season’s first loss, 44-35, to Hudson in a day-long basketball showcase hosted by Upper Iowa University in Fayette Saturday, December 7.

The Kee girls basketball team worked through a busy three-game schedule this past week, putting two of those three games in the win column, one on each side of the Lady Hawks’ first loss of the young season. The Kee hoopsters began the week with a 60-28 home win over Postville Tuesday, December 3 before consecutive nights of weekend basketball saw the Hawks tripped up for the first time this season, 73-37 at home to undefeated Turkey Valley, but then bounce back with a 55-34 win over Leroy-Ostrander, MN in the annual Border Battle hosted by Luther College in Decorah Saturday, December 7.

The Kee boys basketball team got its 2019-2020 campaign underway with a very busy week, playing three games over the course of just five days. The Hawks saved their best for last in battling through that early-season barrage of competition, posting their first victory of the young season in a 55-52 triumph over Mabel-Canton, MN in the annual Border Battle hosted by Luther College in Decorah Saturday, December 7. Prior to that victory, Kee opened its season with a 54-40 loss at home to Postville Tuesday, December 3 before also falling to Turkey Valley at home, 58-29, Friday, December 6.

Opening the season with a 1-2 overall record, 0-2 in Upper Iowa Conference play, the Hawks were next scheduled to play at Clayton Ridge Tuesday, December 10 before hosting North Crawford, WI Thursday, December 12. They will then wrap up the pre-holiday portion of their schedule with two more home contests, hosting Central Elkader Tuesday, December 17 and then MFL/MarMac Friday, December 20.

The 2019 Waukon football season saw a golden opportunity end up with a silver lining as the grid Tribe was on course for a perfect championship season but ended up as Class 2A’s State Runner-Up with a 12-1 season record. Playing to the program’s first undefeated regular season since the 1950s, the Indians began their sixth Class 2A State Play-Off journey in the past eight seasons and made their way to the season-climactic State Championship game for the third time in the past seven seasons, but had their first-ever perfect season and two-time championship hopes dashed by a team from OABCIG (Odebolt-Arthur-Battle Creek-Ida Grove) that seemed to surprise everyone this season with its own perfect campaign that culminated in a successful outcome in the program’s first-ever State Championship game appearance.

The Waukon wrestling team will benefit from exactly half of this year’s crew returning as letterwinners from last season’s squad that compiled a 5-17 overall dual meet record but came up shy of a win in Northeast Iowa Conference competition. That collection of veterans will be complemented this year by a group of first-year varsity competitors who, although young, have a considerable amount of mat experience of their own.

“We return wrestlers that have varsity experience and we have a strong group of young wrestlers that bring in quite a bit of competitive wrestling time prior to entering high school,” Waukon wrestling coach Mason Berns said. “I look for our wrestlers to display a hard work ethic, showing up every day, bringing their best to every competition, and applying that mentality to everything that they do.”

The Waukon girls basketball team got its 2019-2020 campaign off to an undefeated start this past week, riding strong second halves in each of two contests away from home. The Lady Indians opened the season pulling away to a 53-27 win at Spring Grove, MN Tuesday, November 26 before battling Class 2A seventh-rated MFL/MarMac in a back-and-forth battle that saw the Indians surge away late for a 61-55 triumph in a Rivalry Saturday match-up played at Coe College in Cedar Rapids Saturday, November 30.

The Lady Indians were next scheduled to begin their home schedule hosting New Hampton Friday, December 6 before playing Hudson Saturday, December 7 at Upper Iowa University in Fayette. The Waukon girls will then play back-to-back non-conference contests, traveling to Clayton Ridge Monday, December 9 and hosting Caledonia, MN Tuesday, December 10, before traveling to Oelwein Friday, December 13.

The 2019-2020 Waukon boys basketball team will return a great deal of experience from last season’s squad that played to a 5-15 season record last winter, as nearly half of this year’s squad of 18 players return as varsity letterwinners. An even greater number of those - all but six - return from a recently completed football season that played to every team’s ultimate destination, the Class 2A State Championship game, which has actually delayed the start of this basketball season for the Indians.

This season’s seven letterwinners include four seniors in Alyx Ede, Asher Fahey, Logan Houg and Reed Kelly, the junior pair of Ethan O’Neill and Creed Welch, and sophomore Braden Hemann. “These guys bring a lot of experience from last season and they have all experienced success in other sports,”

Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann said. “We expect these guys to bring some high expectations to our team and lead the way.”

The Kee boys basketball team will see an abundance of new faces during its 2019-2020 campaign, as just two letterwinners return from a team that played to a 5-15 season record last winter. Also new, but yet still familiar, will be the face at the top of the coaching totem pole as Pat Wagner returns to the program’s head coaching role, a position he held for several years prior to the 2015-2016 season.

“After four seasons away, I am back coaching varsity boys basketball at Kee High,” Coach Wagner said. “I was the head coach here from 2010 to 2015. For six seasons prior to that, I was Gene Schultz’s assistant here at Kee. I have also coached high school basketball at South Winneshiek, West Point Marquette and Clear Lake.”

Grid Tribe battles through misfortunes, but high-flying Falcons piece together first-ever State title

Some would say it’s beginner’s luck, as the OABCIG Falcons won the Class 2A State Championship in their first-ever appearance in that season climactic event played Friday, November 22 at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls.

Some would say it’s a one-man show, as that OABCIG squad was led by the arm and legs of junior quarterback Cooper Dejean, who accounted for 420 of the Falcons’ 455 yards of total offense in the game.

But Waukon football coach Chad Beermann says his team’s 37-12 loss in his third State Championship game appearance at the helm of the Indian grid program was simply an unfortunate bump in the road against a worthy opponent during an otherwise stellar season and successful recent era of Waukon football.