Sports

The lifeguarding staff at the Waukon Family Aquatic Center is getting set to wrap up the 2024 summer season. A total of 30 lifeguards - the most in several years - made up this year’s staff, and most of them are pictured at right.

Waukon Family Aquatic Center management says the last day the facility will be open this summer is Sunday, August 18 - just over two weeks away. Management staff wants to thank these lifeguards for stepping up and helping keep the aquatic center open every day this summer. Follow Waukon Aquatic Center on Facebook for aquatic center updates or call 563-568-9464.

The Waukon High School football coaching staff is hosting its 2024 Waukon Indian Football Camp Monday through Friday, August 5-9. The camp, run by the Waukon coaching staff, is a non-contact camp aimed at teaching fundamental instruction in offensive/defensive techniques necessary for the execution of Waukon’s system of play.

Participants should plan to attend camp in shorts and a t-shirt, and should bring football cleats as well as shoes appropriate for the gym. Camp will take place behind Waukon High School on the practice football fields. In the event of lightning or inclement weather, the camp will be held indoors.

The high school camp is for students entering grades 9 through 12 this fall and will be held from 4:30-8 p.m. each evening. Friday, August 9 will last later because it will involve equipment check-out for the season.

The 2024 Waukon softball season played out to an 8-20 overall record in the inaugural year for new head coach Dustin Rounds. That season mark included a 2-13 result in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the Lady Indians in sixth place in the final NEIC standings before having their season ended in the opening round of Class 3A Regional Tournament play with a loss at the home of fellow NEIC squad New Hampton.

The Waukon softball team had both its regular season and overall season brought to completion this past week with two final losses that wrapped up the diamond Tribe’s 2024 campaign. The Lady Indians first ended their Northeast Iowa Conference and regular season schedule with a 6-2 loss at home Monday, July 8 to Crestwood before starting and finishing their overall season with an opening-round loss in Class 3A Regional Tournament play, 11-1, in a mercy-rule six innings at New Hampton Thursday, July 11.

That regional loss brings the Tribe’s 2024 diamond campaign to an end with an overall record of 8-20 that includes a 2-13 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the Indians sixth in the final NEIC team standings. With that regional win over the Indians, New Hampton advanced to the regional semifinals Saturday, July 13 where they also had their season brought to a close with a 6-1 loss at home to Independence.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2024 season brought to an unfortunate close by two forces of nature - one in name only - in its furthest advancement in postseason tournament play since 2021.

The Kee baseball team had its 2024 season brought to a close this past week, both by an all too common foe in recent years yet in a very rare and unfortunate manner. After playing its way to the Class 1A District Championship game for a third time in the past four seasons with a 10-0 mercy-rule win in six innings at home over Turkey Valley Tuesday, July 9 in the district semifinals, the baseball Hawks were matched up for the fifth time in the past six seasons with fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) top contender South Winneshiek in a postseason battle that has also turned out to be a stepping stone for eventual State Tournament qualification for one of the two squads in each of the four postseason match-ups prior to this season.

The 2024 Kee softball season was brought to a close this past week, but not before the softball Hawks took a strong initial step down their postseason path and then battled to the end in their season-halting loss. The Kee girls opened their Class 1A District 7 Regional Tournament with a 10-0 home triumph in a mercy-rule five innings over fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squad Central Elkader Monday, July 8 before having this summer’s campaign brought to a close with a 5-0 loss at Central City Wednesday, July 10 in the regional quarterfinals, but not before battling the host Wildcats to just a 1-0 deficit until the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Waukon Golf & Country Club hosted its annual 4-Gal Invitational Tournament Monday, June 24. In addition to crowning a tournament champion with its own unique story this year, the tournament has also adopted a theme in the past two years of “Pink Out” in support of breast cancer awareness.

Chris Weymiller of Harpers Ferry inspired the tournament participants with her talk about her own breast cancer journey from 2023, and the tournament raised $500 this year that is being donated to the Veterans Memorial Hospital Mammography Program. The tournament received donations from Veterans Memorial Hospital, Waukon Golf and Country Club, Pop’s Produce, Howard’s Home Furnishings, Aztec Parlor, Hello Sunshine, Steel Cow, Laurie Moody, and the committee of Barb Hanson, Nancy Einck and Linda DeBuhr.

The Waukon baseball team wrapped up its regular season winning two of its final three games of that pre-tournament slate this past week to bring its scheduled regular season games to a close. That final week in regular season play started with a road sweep of Crestwood Monday, July 1 by scores of 11-0 and 3-1 before Mother Nature forced a series of reschedulings that included cancellation of a Tuesday, July 2 home date with North Fayette Valley by rainy weather and a Wednesday, July 3 home game with Oelwein being called off in order to make up a final Northeast Iowa Conference game at Class 2A sixth-rated New Hampton that had been rained out as part of a Friday, June 28 doubleheader and ended up in a narrow loss, 3-1, for the diamond Tribe.

The Kee baseball team finished off its regular season this past week with three final wins before starting postseason tournament play. That final week of the regular season included an 8-3 win at Turkey Valley in the Hawks’ Upper Iowa Conference finale Monday, July 1 before Kee’s diamond dwellers wrapped up their regular season with consecutive non-conference victories at home, 10-2 over Riceville Tuesday, July 2 in a game that had been suspended from May 16 and an 8-4 triumph over Janesville Wednesday, July 3.

The Hawks wrapped up their regular season with a 24-10 overall record that includes a 13-5 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed them third in this season’s final UIC team standings. They then opened Class 1A District Tournament play Saturday, July 6 at home against Edgewood-Colesburg with a 6-1 victory.