Sports

by Perry Hesse

The Waukon football team suffered a disappointing season opener Saturday afternoon, August 28 losing 45-6 to Class 4A Waverly Shell-Rock (WSR). The game was postponed from the previous evening due to thunderstorms in the area and the football field soaked with over four inches of rain in the previous 48 hours. The weather also caused the cancellation of the freshman game Friday night.

The game was a mirror image to last season when Waukon trounced the Go-Hawks, 45-10, using a veteran team to roll over a team with several sophomores in the starting line-up. However, now that the Indians lost a good amount of starters from last year’s State Championship team, the Go-Hawks now had a clear advantage with 18 returning starters.

Brad Krambeer, ATC (Certified Athletic Trainer) of Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon has been providing the athletic training coverage for the Waukon Indian football team for nearly 30 years. This season, he is turning over the team’s care to his co-worker, Austin Troendle, ATC and DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy).

Krambeer was Troendle’s athletic trainer when he was playing for the Indians in high school, before continuing his football career at Coe College. Now, the two of them work closely together in the Rehabilitation Department of the hospital, sharing insight and coordinating care for many young athletes throughout the area.

“It was a tough decision to leave the Indian sidelines, but with my son now playing college football (at Coe) and my daughter in all her sports, I need to be more free to watch them grow up,” states Krambeer. “The team will be in great hands with Austin. He is very knowledgeable and dedicated, and will do a super job.”

For the second time in program history - and in just the past four years - the Waukon football team will return to the field as the defending Class 2A State Champions, the grid Tribe having played to supremacy over all of Class 2A last fall. Also for the second time, however, defense of that crown will be left to a small handful of experienced veterans and a larger group of those waiting in the wings to carry on the football Indians’ recent trend of State Play-Off success.

The 2021 Kee football team will benefit from half of this season’s squad returning as varsity letterwinners, many of them earning that distinction for multiple seasons. A total of 12 experienced veterans will return from last fall’s 5-4 squad that posted the program’s first winning record in six seasons and its first State Play-Off victory since Kee joined the ranks of Eight-Player football, all of that success happening despite the season taking place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A majority of this season’s 12 returning veterans come from a senior class that has been the foundation of success for the Kee boys athletic program over the past couple years, including the Hawks’ most recent accolades of a Class 1A State Tournament Runner-Up finish in baseball just over one month ago.

Despite ultimately fielding one of its youngest teams in recent memory, the Waukon baseball team put together one of its best overall seasons in the past decade during its 2021 campaign. At times, with as many as three each of sophomores and freshmen in its line-up, the diamond Tribe’s 15-16 season record included the program’s most wins in a season and the Indians’ first postseason venture into a district tournament championship game since the 2011 Waukon baseball team played its way to the Class 3A State Tournament.

The Waukon High School and Middle School football coaching staffs are planning to host the 2021 Waukon Indian Middle School Football Camp August 22-24. The camp, run by the Waukon football coaching staffs with help from current and former high school players, is a non-contact camp aimed at teaching the fundamentals of offensive and defensive play for the Waukon football program.

Participants should plan to attend camp in shorts and a t-shirt, and should bring football cleats. Camp will take place at the middle school practice football field west of the Waukon High School parking lot.

The middle school camp for students entering seventh and eighth grades this fall will be held Sunday-Tuesday, August 22-24. The camp will be held from 5-7 p.m. both Sunday and Monday evenings, and then from 3:35-5:35 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

The 2021 Kee baseball campaign proved to be the best season recorded by a Hawk diamond squad in the past decade, as this year’s Kee diamond dwellers not only played to the program’s first State Tournament appearance since the 2011 season but also played to the same season grand finale result as those Hawks from 10 years ago - a Class 1A State Tournament Runner-Up finish, also posting the most wins in a single season since 2011 with this summer’s 35-10 overall record. Although Kee head baseball coach Jim Mauss acknowledges this year’s season result is a great accomplishment, he also sees it as something that should be the norm, rather than the exception.

The Waukon softball team played to a 12-19 overall season record during its 2021 campaign, those 12 wins representing the second-most wins the diamond Tribe has recorded in a season in the past nine summers, second only to a 14-19 effort two seasons ago. The Lady Indians recorded their first wins since that 2019 season, including their first Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) victories in two seasons, as the Tribe diamond dwellers played to a 3-15 result in NEIC competition to finish seventh in this season’s final league standings.

Waukon Park & Recreation will be offering youth programs in football and volleyball again this fall. Those programs include Nerf Flag Football for first and second graders this fall, Flag Football for third and fourth graders, volleyball for third and fourth graders, and traveling volleyball for fifth and sixth graders.

Deadline to register all of these programs is Friday, August 27. Those interested may pick up a registration form at the Waukon Wellness Center, register online, or look at the City of Waukon website under the Park and Rec link or at the Waukon Park & Rec Facebook page for registration forms or additional registration information.

Those with further questions should contact Kim Kraus at waukonparkrec@gmail.com or text/call 563-568-7131.
 

Those who want to be active during the fall months should think about signing an adult kickball team up today. The league is open to high school sophomores (16 years of age) through adults. Games will be played Monday nights (possibly some Tuesdays/Wednesdays, if needed) at the Waukon Softball Complex by the Allamakee County Fairgrounds.

The league will start either Monday, August 23 or August 30. Anyone who would like to sign a team up or who needs any questions answered should contact Kim Kraus at waukonparkrec@gmail.com or text/call 563-568-7131. Teams must be signed up by Wednesday, August 18.