News Center newsletter

The 2023 Waukon football team will have an overall young look to it, as the program will have to overcome the graduation of nearly two dozen seniors from last fall’s squad that played to a 6-4 season record, a fifth consecutive undefeated Class 2A District championship and a sixth consecutive qualification for the Class 2A State Play-Offs. A group of just eight players with letterwinning experience return to lead an overall collection of 52 players working to try and extend those streaks this fall.

Those eight returning veterans include the senior half-dozen of Brody Berns, Jacob Courtney, Isaac Ericson, Dylan Hogan, Kole McCormick and Jack O’Neill. The junior pair of Graine Curtin and Carson Hager also return as underclassman veterans who gained letterwinning experience last fall.

The 2023 Kee football team will have half of its players returning with varsity letterwinning experience from last season’s result of a 2-6 overall record. Eleven of this season’s 22 players return from that squad that battled through injury and other challenges to also piece together a 1-4 mark in Eight-Player District 5.

“We return a nucleus of junior and senior guys that have been tossed into the fire and had to grow up quickly,” Kee football coach Chad Winters said. “Hopefully that experience they gained last year will be beneficial for us on both sides of the ball. We return four of our top six tacklers, our starting QB, and two of our top three receiving threats from a year ago.”

A number of new faces will be featured within the 2023 Waukon volleyball campaign this fall, including at the very top of that totem pole as 2018 Waukon High School graduate Carley Sweeney takes over the head coaching reins of the Tribe’s net program. Greeting Coach Sweeney in her debut season will be a number of new varsity faces this season, as just three letterwinners return from last fall’s 16-19 season result.

Sweeney played her senior season with the volleyball Indians in 2017, one of the three sports she participated in for the Tribe during her high school career. Since then she has been a volunteer assistant coach for the Waukon volleyball, girls basketball and golf programs.

The three varsity veterans headlining this season’s experience include the senior pair of Kloe Hemmersbach and Lynsey Houg, along with sophomore Willa Troendle. Each of them will provide their own bit of leadership to this season’s team, according to Coach Sweeney.

The 2023 Waukon girls cross country season will not only benefit from returning nearly all of its competitors from last season but will also have the added bonus of fielding its largest participation numbers in more than a decade as the Lady Indians take to the course this fall. Having graduated just one senior from last season’s squad, head coach Tyler Scholl has welcomed 30 young ladies so far to this fall’s early-season practices.

“We have the largest group of kids out for girls cross country within the last 10 years,” Coach Scholl explained. “It’s been fun seeing 30 girls in grades 7-12 out for the sport and seeing how the team continues to mature and grow because of our leadership from the upperclassmen. We have new runners on our squad that have put in the work this summer and proved they can run on the heels of our veterans. Our freshman class will have a significant impact on our squad and I’m excited to see them grow into the sport.”

The Kee cross country program will field two teams heading in opposite directions for 2023, as far as participation numbers. The Lady Hawks have had their squad dwindle to just one runner this season, while the Kee boys should be able to consistently tally a team score as their participation has grown to six athletes this fall.

“We had a good first week of practice,” Kee cross country coach Pat Wagner said. “All the athletes came in physically fit and all seven of them did good work.  I am looking forward to our season.”

The Hawks were scheduled to get their 2023 season underway at the Edgewood-Colesburg Invitational Tuesday, August 22 before wrapping up the month of August at the MFL/MarMac Invitational Thursday, August 31. The month of September will open with two meets in the first week of that month, beginning with the Clayton Ridge Invitational at Guttenberg Tuesday, September 5 and then the Luther Invitational in Decorah Saturday, September 9.

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) will be visiting Lansing’s Music in the Park Thursday evening, August 24, beginning at 5 p.m. and offering free blood sugar testing and blood pressure checks with immediate results by Angie Mettille, Diabetes Educator.  The hospital typically offers these two tests at many area events and often times catches individuals who unknowingly have high results. Both of these checks take just a few seconds to perform and are free of charge.

Veterans Memorial Hospital Community and Home Care - Allamakee Public Health is looking ahead to the month of September which is National Preparedness Month, to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time.

“We want to encourage everyone in the area to remember to have a preparedness plan because disasters do happen,” states Sheryl Darling-Mooney, RN, Allamakee Public Health Supervisor. “In the wake of the devastation in Maui, we felt this was a good time to remind the public to have a plan. We can have very volatile weather in the Midwest and we encourage everyone to follow these suggestions from Ready.gov, to make a plan and be ready, just in case.”

Veterans Memorial Hospital has announced it will return to using Meduit to help with the collection of accounts for healthcare services.  Meduit is the nation’s largest revenue cycle solutions company who serve over 1,000 medical facilities within 48 of the United States. With the help once again of Meduit, Veterans Memorial Hospital will be able to provide cash acceleration to significantly improve financial performance. Veterans Memorial Hospital used the help of this outside agency with their account collections until the last few years and has decided to return to this same service.

Veterans Memorial Hospital Speech-Language Pathologist Steven Mazzafield offers a Stroke Support Group for individuals who have experienced a stroke, as well as caregivers and family members affected by stroke.

Monthly meetings are held the first Thursday of every month at 2 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH). The next Stroke Support Group meeting will be held Thursday, September 7, at 2 p.m. in the Large Conference Room.

This month, Mazzafield will be giving a presentation on the different types of strokes.  Anyone is welcome to attend who may want to learn more.

The Stroke Support Group provides opportunities to share tips, tricks, or trials among participants, offer support for caregivers, and provide an opportunity for socialization.

Every two seconds someone needs blood! The next LifeServe Blood Center blood drive will be held Thursday, September 7, from 12-5 p.m., at the First Baptist Church located in south Waukon. Blood drives are held once a month in Waukon, to allow for more donors to give. The LifeServe Blood Center supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital with its blood and blood products.

Blood centers across the United States see a decrease in blood donations during the busy summer months.  During the summer, people become more active, have busier schedules, spend more time outdoors and take vacations. While donations decline, hospitals see an increase in the need for blood. More driving can mean more automobile accidents.  A person who has suffered severe injuries from an automobile accident can need up to 50 units of blood.