Sports

The Waukon boys basketball team played its way to a 13-9 season record despite a slow start to the season. After having the beginning of their 2019-2020 campaign delayed by the extension of their State Runner-Up football season, the Indians muddled through a 2-4 start to the season before coming together to finish the season with 11 more wins in comparison to just five more losses.

“This year’s team started out 2-4,” Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann said. “The guys kept great attitudes, stayed positive with each other, and continued to push each other. They turned their season around to finish the regular season 13-8.”

“As our defense and rebounding improved this season, our record improved,” he explained. “We will have some talented offensive players returning next season. We will need guys to make a commitment on the defensive end and on the boards to reach our potential for next season.”

The Iowa Girls Coaches Association has announced that it is partnering with the Klinge family to offer an annual scholarship in memory of Gene Klinge, the winningest coach in Iowa high school girls basketball history. The value of this scholarship will be $500 and must be used to pay expenses of a college/university of the recipient’s choice. Deadline for applications for the scholarship is April 1 of each calendar year.

Klinge accumulated the greatest high school girls basketball coaching record in the state of Iowa, which also ranks 10th nationally. In 52 years of coaching high school girls basketball that included 41 years at West Central of Maynard and his final 11 years at Waukon, Klinge compiled a record of 1,009 wins against just 252 losses. His career included 16 State Tournament appearances, highlighted by a Class 3A State Championship in just his first year coaching at Waukon High School in 2004. Klinge passed away January 16, 2019 at the age of 82.

The Kee boys basketball team played to a 9-13 season record during its 2019-2020 campaign, including an even 8-8 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Hawks in fifth place right in the middle of the league’s final nine-team standings. The Hawks couldn’t quite get past a win streak of more than two games, reaching that mark on three occasions this season, but they also never lost more than three games in a row, falling to that fate just a couple times.

Kee’s season was brought to a close in the Class 1A District 4 quarterfinals with a 68-54 loss to Janesville, who eventually fell to Kee’s fellow UIC colleague, Turkey Valley, in the district finals. The Trojans then took their postseason road to the brink of State Tournament qualification, falling to Lake Mills in the Class 1A Substate 2 championship game.

The Waukon Park & Recreation Youth Soccer Program is for boys and girls in Kindergarten through sixth grade. Basic fundamentals of soccer will be taught along with team participation. Teams will be grouped together as follows: Kindergarten is alone, first and second graders will be together, third and fourth graders will be together, and fifth and sixth graders will be together.

Different size fields and balls will be used to accommodate the lower ages and skill levels. All players must wear shin guards and they must be covered by socks or pants. Cleats are optional for foot apparel.

The games will be played Saturday mornings starting April 18 and will run for five weeks as follows: April 18, April 25, May 2, May 9 and May 16. The make-up dates will be Monday, May 18 or Tuesday, May 19, if needed.

The Waukon wrestling team battled to a 5-15 dual meet record during its 2019-2020 campaign. That season mark included a winless result in its six Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) dual meets that placed the mat Tribe in seventh place in the final NEIC standings, the same standing the Indians finished with at this year’s NEIC Tournament as well.

This season’s results were mainly a product of a line-up that was oftentimes only half filled throughout the season. A good portion of those vacancies were the result of injuries that sometimes left only six Indians competing in a 14-weight line-up.

The 2019-2020 season came to a close for the Kee boys basketball team in its Class 1A District 4 quarterfinal match-up Thursday, February 20, but not without showing some fight against a team with twice as many wins and a third as many losses as the 9-12 Hawks battled a 17-4 Janesville team at Nashua-Plainfield High School to determine postseason advancement. The two teams played to an early draw, but a single-digit second quarter for the Kee boys proved to be too much to completely overcome in falling by a 68-54 final result.

The 2019-2020 season for the Waukon girls basketball team was finally brought to a close this past week, but not before a thrilling ride that took the Lady Indians to the brink of a return trip to every team’s ultimate destination. That biggest thrill came in the form of a 60-59 triumph on a last-second shot that helped the Tribe upset its as-of-late biggest rival, eighth-rated Crestwood, in a Wednesday, February 19 Class 3A regional semifinal battle for the ages at Cresco. That win took the Lady Indians to the brink of a return trip to the State Tournament, but another familiar foe at that point, Davenport Assumption, dashed those season grand finale hopes the Tribe had built in the first half, pulling away from a halftime Indian lead to end the Tribe’s season with a 55-42 defeat Saturday, February 22 in a regional finals battle played at Dyersville Beckman.

The first Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament experience for Waukon wrestling freshman Jakob Regan ended up being shorter than he obviously would have liked, but the 106-pounder came within a couple inches and a couple seconds of having that first-ever trip become much more. Although he lost both of his matches at the tournament in the opening session of the Class 2A season grand finale Thursday, February 20 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Regan had both of those opponents on their back at one point to collect near-fall points and nearly end the matches early in his favor.

Qualifying as a freshman for the season grand finale, Regan becomes the first Waukon wrestler with the potential of being a four-time State Tournament qualifier since Waukon High School 1990 graduate Steve Pladsen accomplished that feat. Regan closes out this season with a 32-12 record.

The “rubber match” third meeting between the Waukon boys basketball team and fellow Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) squad Crestwood certainly had more meaning to it than just deciding which team would win a three-game series when the two teams took to the floor in Waukon Thursday, February 20 for their Class 2A District 7 semifinals battle that would determine whose season would end and whose would extend. Having split their regular season home and away series in NEIC play with an early 64-38 loss at Crestwood and a more recent 60-57 Indian win at home, that home court advantage for the Indians waned away in the second half of this contest as the visiting Cadets outgunned the Tribe after the halftime break to turn a 37-35 Indian lead at that midway point recess into a 69-61 end to Waukon’s 2019-2020 season.

UPDATE: Regan caught some big moves in his second State Tournament match but fell by a 12-4 major decision to fourth-rated Albia sophomore Carter Anderson, having his State Tournament experience ended.

Waukon wrestling 106-pound freshman Jakob Regan came up just a bit shy in his first State Tournament match, 6-5, against seventh-rated South Hardin/BCLUW sophomore Carter Kolthoff. He will wrestle again yet this afternoon (Thursday).

Full details of Regan's first-ever State Tournament journey will be featured in the February 26 edition of The Standard! You can subscribe to The Standard's print edition or e-edition by clicking here.