Sports

Luke O’Hare, a 6’4” senior on the Rushford-Peterson High School boys basketball team in Minnesota and the son of Brenda and 1988 Waukon High School graduate Tim O’Hare, was recently honored for scoring the 1,000th point of his high school varsity basketball career. The young O’Hare has been a three-year starter and four-year varsity contributor for the Trojans and has averaged 13.1 points and 2.3 assists per game, becoming the sixth player in school history to achieve that “grand” scoring landmark. He is the grandson of Mike and Virginia O’Hare of rural Lansing.

The most recent previous Rushford-Peterson player to score 1,000 points in his varsity career also has Waukon ties. Charlie Krambeer, the son of Brian and Jean (Asleson) Krambeer and the grandson of Ken and Gloria Krambeer of rural Waukon, achieved that milestone during his senior season in 2015. Submitted photo.
 

The Waukon boys basketball team turned in one of its better seasons in recent history and one of its best Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) seasons in over a decade, eclipsing the 15-win mark for just the third time in the past decade and playing to its best NEIC record and team finish in well over a decade, all while setting some records along the way to a 15-6 overall result and 9-3 runner-up effort in NEIC play. All those achievements were accomplished under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that veteran Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann says dealt his team somewhat of a bittersweet hand this past year.

The Kee boys basketball team played its way to an 11-11 season record during its 2020-2021 campaign, posting double-digit wins for the first time in three seasons and for just the third time in the last nine years. In addition to that improved, double-digit win total, Kee boys basketball coach Pat Wagner feels another success emerging from this season laced with uncertainty was being able to play through the entire season schedule without any sudden adjustments having to be made due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We got really lucky,” Coach Wagner said. “We got all of our games played and had no issues with COVID-19, so I feel like the pandemic had little or no effect on our team. We had a good season; not a great season but a good season. Eleven wins is the most a Kee High boys team has collected in a long time. We picked up two more wins than last season and finished in the upper half of a very competitive Upper Iowa Conference.”

A pair of Class 3A State Tournament semifinalist teams from each of the last two seasons took to the court in the opening round of this year’s Class 3A Girls State Tournament Monday, March 1 when the 14th-rated and seventh-seeded Waukon girls basketball team returned to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines following its 2019 semifinals run to take on a second-rated and second-seeded Clear Lake team that was returning from that same result just last season. With remnants of each of those previous squads, along with new supporting cast members, taking the floor against one another vying for a return trip to that same round at this year’s season grand finale, it was the more recent experience of Clear Lake that eventually shined through in a 45-24 Indian defeat.

The Waukon boys and girls bowling teams both wrapped up 2020-2021 campaigns that were right around average in regard to their respective season win-loss records. The Waukon boys finished the season with a 3-5 overall season record while the Lady Indians rolled their way to an even 4-4 season mark that included a 3-1 record in their North Central Bowling Conference to place them atop the Eastern Division of that larger conference for the second consecutive season.

“We had very successful seasons for both of our programs this season,” Waukon bowling coach Jerry Keenan said. “We set several new individual high games and series along the way.”

This season’s greatest accomplishments, however, were likely not measured by those win-loss numbers. Completing just the fifth year of the program’s existence, Coach Keenan continues to enjoy the growth that he witnesses both in his overall program, as well as within the individual bowlers throughout each season.

The 2020-2021 wrestling season saw the Waukon mat team battle well through a variety of things, both on and off the competition mat. The Tribe wrestled to a 2-20 overall record in dual meet competition this season, getting one of those wins against a Northeast Iowa Conference in a late-season victory over Oelwein.

One of those battles off the mat was one all teams had to deal with this past season, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced teams into adjustments in their practice regimen and competition schedule. The Indians fared well throughout that pandemic battle, not having to make any severe or sudden adjustments forced by the virus, as some teams had to do throughout the season after the virus hit members of those squads.

Only one team has been able to beat the Waukon boys basketball squad in its past 13 games since the first week of January. Unfortunately, that team from now State Tournament bound Dyersville Beckman has handed the Indians two losses in that timeframe, and, most unfortunately, the second of those losses brought an end to the bucket Tribe’s 2020-2021 season in the Class 2A District Tournament championship game played Tuesday, February 23 at West Delaware High School in Manchester.

After falling at the home of the Blazers, 70-65, January 23 in a game where the Indians had bolted to a double-digit first quarter lead but saw it erode away in the second half, it was Beckman that got out to the early lead in this postseason tilt. The Tribe recovered enough to hold a 30-28 halftime lead but suffered an 18-9 outscoring in the third quarter that, despite a valiant fourth quarter effort, the Indians couldn’t quite fully recover from in having their season ended by a 55-49 defeat.

The Waukon girls basketball team had its 2020-2021 season come to a close where every team strives to be at the end of any season, as the 14th-rated Lady Indians fell to second-rated Clear Lake in the opening round of the Class 3A State Tournament Monday, March 1 by a final score of 45-24. The loss ends the bucket Tribe’s winter campaign with a 19-5 overall record, tying the most wins in a season recorded by the Lady Indian program in the past decade, the Tribe finishing 19-4 in both its 2018-2019 and 2010-2011 campaigns.

The Indians gave the returning State Semifinalist Lions all they wanted through much of the first half, holding a 12-11 lead over Clear Lake after one period and a 17-16 edge midway through the second frame. But single-digit vs. double-digit scoring in each of the game’s final three quarters left the Indians in holes of 21-17 at halftime, 32-20 after three quarters and the 45-24 end result.

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.

Waukon girls basketball team earns its second State Tournament trip in three years with a 67-53 regional semifinals win over North Fayette Valley and a 60-37 domination of sixth-rated Osage in regional finals

The Waukon girls basketball team has played its way to every team’s ultimate destination for the second time in three seasons, making its way through a pair of teams this past week in Class 3A Regional Tournament play that each had half as many losses as the basketball Tribe’s now 19-4 season record. The 14th-rated Indians first disposed of 20-2 North Fayette Valley at home, 67-53, in the regional semifinals Wednesday, February 17 before powering through sixth-rated and defending Class 2A State Runner-Up Osage (21-2) by a 60-37 final result in the regional finals Saturday, February 20 at Waverly-Shell Rock High School to earn their first trip back to the season grand finale since the Tribe’s “final four” finish in 2019.