Sports

The Kee boys basketball team opened its 2020-2021 season in thrilling fashion, taking its first game of the season right down to the final seconds - literally - to pull off a 57-55 comeback victory over Central Elkader at home Friday, December 4. The Hawks and Warriors were locked in a back-and-forth battle throughout the contest until Central nearly doubled up its Kee hosts in third quarter scoring, but the Hawks rallied back to return that favor in the fourth quarter, overcoming a near double-digit deficit to come away with the two-point triumph on a tie-breaking lay-up by junior Tyson Cota as the final buzzer sounded.

The 2020-2021 Waukon girls basketball season will have a different look to it for a couple reasons, one coming from the much wider outside world and the other from within. The much more positive of the two is the internal change, as Waukon High School graduate and multi-year assistant basketball coach Ben Rausch has assumed the varsity head coaching role for the program following the retirement of Greg Criswell after his three-year stint at the top of the Lady Indian totem pole.

Rausch is a 2006 graduate of Waukon High School and brings an extensive basketball resumé to his new head coaching position. That basketball experience stems from playing the game at multiple levels, and coaching at multiple high school levels as well.

For the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four years, the Waukon boys basketball season will be getting a late start due to the success of Waukon’s football team during the previous fall season. While many would classify that situation under the old cliché of a “good problem to have,” compounding that “good problem to have” is the fact that many of this year’s basketball players factored heavily into this year’s Class 2A State Football Championship, including this winter’s five returning letterwinners from last season’s 13-9 Waukon boys basketball campaign.

“We’re getting another late start on this basketball season, but we are really excited about what our team can be,” shared Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann, who, himself, helped engineer the Indians to their second State Football Championship in the past four years as the grid Tribe’s offensive coordinator. “Hopefully, our guys can get a full season to show what they are capable of doing.”

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams opened up their 2020-2021 season hosting Tripoli Tuesday, November 24. Both teams faced consistent visiting Panther squads that each had no bowlers finish below a 250-pin individual match series total that fueled a 2424-2623 loss for the Waukon boys and a 2111-2388 loss for the Indian girls.

The Indians were next scheduled to bowl at Decorah this Friday, December 4. The bowling Tribe will then travel to North Iowa Friday, December 11 before hosting Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, December 18 prior to the holiday break.

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The 2020-2021 Kee boys basketball team returns an abundance of experience this season, as all but two now graduated seniors return from a squad that played to a 9-13 season record last winter. With all that experience returning, about the only thing that might stand in the way to continued improvement in the program this season is the COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted nearly everything else so far this year and has actually already thrown an early wrinkle into the Hawks’ early-season preparations.

“We had a good first week of practice,” Kee boys basketball coach Pat Wagner said. “Unfortunately, our district is going to shut down for a week (November 23-27) and we are not going to be able to work-out.  I hope this does not come back to bite us.”

The 2020-2021 Kee basketball season has been looked forward to since the Lady Hawks ended their 2019-2020 campaign with a 15-8 season record last winter and seven letterwinners from that winning campaign were slated to return this winter season. Although what has transpired since the end of that season in the realm of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a number of aspects both prior to and heading into this season, that pandemic has made this winter’s campaign looked forward to even more but also offers its own set of challenges in order to make it happen.

The 2020-2021 Waukon wrestling season will be one filled with new experiences as the wrestling Indians get set to take on a bit more than just their fellow mat opponents during this winter campaign. In addition to the challenges posed by those standing directly across the mat from the Tribe grapplers, this year’s wrestlers will also be battling an opponent that can be all around them, on or off the mat, in the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing teams to also focus their preparations on overcoming that foe as well on a daily basis.

Guidance handed down by State of Iowa Public Health officials and the Iowa High School Athletic Association will impact everything from practices, meet and tournament competition, and even weigh-in procedures, among other facets. However, Waukon wrestling head coach Mason Berns and his charges know that all of these changes being made are in an effort to keep everyone healthy and to allow the season to be able to take place.

Waukon football team wins second Class 2A State Championship in four years with 28-14 triumph over CL/G-LR

Although history was initially made for the Waukon football program with its first-ever State Championship three years ago, the 2020 Waukon football team was looking to write its own piece of history in its own way when it returned to the Class 2A State Championship game for the second year in a row, looking to record a different fate than its State Runner-Up finish from one year earlier.

The 2020 Waukon bowling season was scheduled to get underway this week as originally planned, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not to say there hasn’t been some impact from the virus, especially in preparation for the competition season scheduled to begin Tuesday, November 24 when the bowling Indians host Tripoli.

“I am doing it different this season,” Waukon bowling coach Jerry Keenan said of his teams’ early practice sessions this season that were held simultaneously in previous seasons. “Boys are practicing on one night, girls on another night, and then I bring them all together and we work on Baker (games) the next night.”

This year’s squads are about as balanced as they have ever been since the bowling program began, as this year’s boys and girls teams have nearly equal numbers of participants this season. A total of 14 boys and a program-best 15 girls have reported for duty so far in this early season.

Competition cheer squad finishes as Class 2A Runner-Up at State Championships

The year 2020 has brought an abundance of change with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the high school cheerleading season has not been immune to that. But, even with the limitations and adjustments that have had to be made throughout this fall season, one thing that has not changed is the fact that the Waukon High School cheerleading squad continues to be one of the best among its peers.