Sports

The Waukon boys basketball team returned to competition following the holiday break to face a pair of teams very similar to themselves with just a single loss each so far this season. Both of those games were played away from home on back-to-back days and the Indians earned a split of that pair, falling to a Charles City team yet to be defeated in Northeast Iowa Conference play, 77-72, Friday, January 5 before bouncing back the very next day to claim a 57-47 win over Wapsie Valley in a game played Saturday, January 6 at Wartburg College in Waverly.

The Waukon wrestling team returned from its holiday break with a late week slate of competition this past week, wrestling a home dual meet before competing in a weekend tournament. The mat Indians hosted Decorah in that home dual Thursday, January 4, falling to the visiting Vikings by a 67-9 final result before wrestling to a runner-up team finish at the Central Elkader Tournament Saturday, January 6 behind the strength of four individual tournament championships.

The Waukon girls basketball team came back from its holiday break with a split of its first two games of the new year, both of them being played at home. The Indians were handed a 66-49 loss by MFL/MarMac Tuesday, January 2 in their first game back in 2018 but bounced back with a 59-22 triumph over Charles City in Northeast Iowa Conference play Friday, January 5.

Now holding a 7-4 season record, including a 5-1 mark to sit in second place in the current Northeast Iowa Conference standings behind Class 3A second-rated Crestwood, the Indians were scheduled to host North Fayette Valley Monday, January 8 before playing at New Hampton Friday, January 12. The basketball Tribe will then have a week off before playing host to Oelwein Friday, January 19.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition by clicking here.

The postseason honors keep filing in for the Waukon football program after the Indians played to a Class 2A State Championship with a 12-1 season record in 2017, the program’s first-ever State title. The Iowa Football Coaches Association (IFCA) recently released its season honors, naming Waukon High School head football coach Chad Beermann (photo above) the IFCA Class 2A Coach of the Year and Waukon football senior Mitchell Snitker (right photo) the IFCA Class 2A Player of the Year.

The 2017 Waukon volleyball team compiled a season record of 8-29-2 this past fall but showed signs of being able to accomplish so much more. That single-digit win total wasn’t helped along by the Indians’ results in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play, as the Tribe netters fell shy of a win in any of their six NEIC dual or tournament matches this season to finish in seventh place in the final league standings.

The return to the volleyball sidelines of a former head coach, Randy Nordheim, who once had the program at its pinnacle with State Tournament qualification in 2003, was cause for added optimism for this season. However, Coach Nordheim would be the first to admit that his time away since then from a game that has changed so much during that stretch likely played a big role in a season that certainly didn’t play out as he anticipated.

The 2017 Kee volleyball season played out to a 21-15 overall record that included a mark of 5-4 in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Hawk netters in the upper half of this season’s final UIC standings under first-year head coach Lynn Winters. For an overall young squad that featured just three seniors on its roster, the Hawks played to a fairly consistent level of success, never losing more than three matches in a row while putting together a couple of four-plus match victory streaks that included one of the best postseason runs in the history of the Kee volleyball program.

Both the Kee and Waukon athletic teams will be returning to competition following the holiday break, starting that return shortly after the new year begins. That schedule for both the Hawks’ and Indians’ returns to competition in the initial weeks of January is slated as follows:

Kee -
The Kee boys and girls basketball teams will return from their holiday break with competition toward the end of the week following the New Year holiday, beginning Thursday, January 4 with the Kee boys playing host to Houston, MN. Both the boys and girls will then play at Clayton Ridge Friday, January 5 before both host Starmont Tuesday, January 9 and then play at MFL/MarMac Friday, January 12.

In its lone competition prior to entering the current holiday break, the Waukon boys basketball team rode a bit of a rollercoaster before finally coming away with a 67-59 home victory over Decorah in Northeast Iowa Conference play Thursday, December 21. Much like any teenager would try and do with such a ride, the basketball Indians took advantage of as many free rides as they could get in racking up a 27-7 scoring advantage at the free throw line over the visiting Vikings, nearly half of those freebies providing 13 of the Tribe’s 16 points in the final frame to help seal the victory.

Just like many holiday travelers, the Waukon girls basketball team was on the road this past week, wrapping up the 2017 portion of this season’s schedule with a pair of final pre-holiday contests. Unlike many during the holiday season, however, the basketball Indians were better at receiving than giving, as they handed out a pair of losses to their guests and came home with an undefeated week of competition, first unwrapping a 62-43 win at Clayton Ridge Monday, December 18 before gifting a 37-32 Viking defeat to the Decorah girls Thursday, December 21.

Entering the holiday break with a 6-3 season record, including a 4-1 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference play, Waukon will return to action after the holidays with a pair of home games, Tuesday, January 2 against MFL/MarMac and Friday, January 5 against Charles City.

The Kee girls basketball team brought the 2017 portion of this season’s schedule to completion in strong defensive fashion with a pair of non-conference victories over teams from different states, likely reaching a defensive effort of record proportions in its final game before the holiday break. The Hawks opened the week with a 52-23 home triumph over Mabel-Canton, MN Tuesday, December 19 before posting that epic defensive stifling two nights later in a 59-9 hammering of De Soto, WI Thursday, December 21, also at home, to extend Kee’s current winning streak to six games.

That six-game streak of success has the Hawks entering the holiday break with a 9-1 season record, including an undefeated mark of 5-0 in Upper Iowa Conference play. Kee is scheduled to return to action following the current holiday break with a Friday, January 5 road game at Clayton Ridge before hosting Starmont Tuesday, January 9, both of those games being Upper Iowa Conference contests.