Sports

The 2023 Waukon baseball season continued to build on a renewed foundation with a third consecutive season of 15 wins that marks the best consecutive season stretch for Waukon baseball since the two-year span of a combined 51 wins during the diamond Tribe’s 2007 and 2008 campaigns that included the program’s best-ever season record of 29-10 in 2007. This season’s 15 wins all came in the regular season, marking the most regular season victories for the Indians since 2008, and improves upon the 14 wins garnered during last summer’s regular season and another 14-win regular season from the Tribe’s 2011 campaign that marks the most recent best record during a 17-22 campaign that took the Indians to their last State Tournament appearance, that season grand finale coming amongst Iowa’s Class 3A ranks.

Despite fielding nearly an entirely new squad of varsity players this summer, the 2023 Kee baseball team played its way to an even season record of 19-19. Returning just one of its day-to-day players from the previous season that graduated nine seniors, and having just one senior headlining this season’s upperclassman leadership, that average season record included a well above average mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play of 12-6 that placed the Hawks in a tie for second place (record-wise) with an MFL/MarMac squad that played its to the brink of Class 2A State Tournament qualification but that Kee had beaten in two of the three games the two teams played against one another this year.

The Harpers Ferry Fireflies played in the National Granny Basketball Tournament held July 15-16 at Luther College in Decorah, winning five of their six games played to end up as the National Tournament Runner-Up for the second consecutive season and for the third time in the last four tournaments.

The Fireflies have finished either first or second in each of the last seven Granny Basketball National Tournaments, winning four National Championships in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021 and adding runner-up finishes in 2019 and last year in 2022 to this season’s second-place final result, with no tournament being able to be played in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than a dozen local young men and women of high school to heading off to college age have been serving local residents and visitors to the Waukon Family Aquatic Center again this summer in a capacity they never hope to use, but one in which they are more than prepared to do so, if necessary.

Pictured above are members of the lifeguard staff for Summer 2023 at the Waukon Family Aquatic Center. Left to right - Front row: Hayden Palmer, Ashlin O’Neill, Cameron Johnson, Maycie Curtin, Halea Corwin, Sarah Hennessy, Reagan Lubahn and Bailey Sherman; Back row: Waukon Family Aquatic Center Manager Julie Lenth, Draemon Berger, Avalea Burns, Ella Homewood, Keeran Barr, Olivia Bossom and Waukon Family Aquatic Center Assistant Manager CC Althoff. Not pictured: Ethan Baker and Caleb Perkins. Submitted photo.
 

The 2023 Firecracker 5K held Saturday, July 1 was the lead-off event for the Fourth of July holiday weekend in Harpers Ferry. The event is hosted by Harpers Ferry Boosters, Inc. and is the organization’s main annual fundraiser which helps the group offer financial support to many organizations and worthy causes benefiting Harpers Ferry and Allamakee County throughout the year.

The top overall female finisher was Addy Carlson, and the top male finisher was Michael Goodenbour, both of Cedar Falls. The top finishers in each age division each won a medal and are listed in the chart accompanying this article. Special thanks to Kaylee Bachman for singing the National Anthem prior to the start of the race.

The Waukon softball team played to a 16-15 season record that may seem to be about average on paper but was actually well above average in so many more aspects. That 16-15 result marks the first time in more than a decade that the diamond Tribe has recorded both a winning record and 15 wins in a season.

“I think our greatest accomplishment was how well these girls played together and never gave up in any game we played,” Waukon softball coach Melissa Ward shared. “It showed in how close of games we played and our ending record this season. Our 16-15 record is the first year since 2010 where the softball program has won more than 15 games and had a winning record. It’s hard to have teams that know each other as well as this squad did. The experience and leadership this team had was great. There will be a solid group of returners coming back next year, so being able to play the game the way we know how will be what we need to build on moving forward.”

Completion of a real estate transaction that resulted in the Waukon Wrestling Club non-profit group purchasing the shop area steel building (pictured in the photo background above) at 807 1st Avenue SW in Waukon further resulted in a generous donation presented to the Waukon Wrestling Club by Sweeney Real Estate of Waukon, the agency involved in the property transaction. The shop building was previously owned by Adam and Jennifer Hooten as part of the Teddy’s Auto Sales location, and the Waukon Wrestling Club had recently purchased the building to create a new training facility for the Waukon Wrestling Club and its many youth participants of all ages and skill levels.

Waukon High School baseball senior catcher Carter Schellsmidt has been chosen to play in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) Senior All-Star Series scheduled for this weekend, Thursday, July 27-Saturday, July 29, at Merchants Park in Carroll. Schellsmidt was selected to play catcher for the Small Schools East squad in the series, taking the field with another fellow player from northeast Iowa, South Winneshiek senior Keagen Streeter. He becomes just the third Waukon player to take part in the All-Star Series, joining 1999 Waukon High School graduate Josh Rissman and 1996 graduate Brian Curtin, whose career hits record Schellsmidt surpassed earlier this season.

The 2023 Kee softball team returned enough players with varsity letterwinning experience to more than fill a nine-player line-up, as all but two eighth graders on this season’s squad brought some veteran varsity experience to this summer’s campaign that ended up at a 15-18 season record. Having more than half of those letterwinners return with just a single year of high school softball experience as freshmen this year, and having that overall young squad play a stringent non-conference schedule that accounted for 14 of this season’s losses, kept the Lady Hawks hovering near an average result in the win-loss column for another season, but the effort they put forth this summer soared far above average and gives veteran Kee softball coach Liz Hill something to look forward to continuing to build upon.

The Waukon High School football coaching staff is hosting its 2023 Waukon Indian Football Camp Monday through Friday, July 31-August 4. 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 4 will last later because it will involve equipment check-out for the season.