Sports

The Kee boys basketball program will have a collection of 20 young men to choose from for its 2014-2015 season, but only one of those players will bring back varsity letterwinning experience from last season’s team that posted a 3-18 season record. Senior Dylon Peterson will be the lone returning varsity veteran this year, but brings with him multiple years of letterwinning experience in addition to team leadership numbers in scoring and three-point field goals while also ranking second on last year’s team in steals, blocked shots and assists on his way to receiving All-Conference Honorable Mention.

The 2014-2015 season got off to a promising start for the Kee girls basketball team, as the Hawks opened the new season with a 61-39 win at home over intra-county foe Waukon Friday, November 21. The Hawks benefited from a strong second half on both ends of the floor, using their overall height advantage to open up a rather close, 25-22 halftime advantage with an 18-6 third quarter outscoring that helped widen the gap to victory.

The Waukon girls basketball team got its 2014-2015 season underway with a not so happy homecoming debut for first-year head coach and Kee High School graduate Andy Sires. The Indians were outsized and outgunned by the host Hawks in the second half, allowing just a 25-22 halftime deficit to get away to a 61-39 loss in Lansing Friday, November 21.

The Kee football team had its 2014 season brought to a close where half of Iowa’s high school football teams in the Eight-Player classification wished they could, meeting a majority of its team goals in the process. The Hawks played to a 6-3 regular season record that included a 5-0 mark at home and 4-3 District 4 record to earn State Play-Off qualification for the sixth consecutive season, ultimately having that play-off journey ended by second-rated and undefeated Janesville in the opening round of postseason play to finish the season with a 6-4 record.

The 2014 Waukon boys cross country season provided a great deal of “firsts” for fourth-year head coach Tara Stein, the greatest among those being the first time she has coached a team or individual runner to State Meet qualification. After a five-year complete absence from the season grand finale held at Fort Dodge each season, Coach Stein guided both her team - with its third-place State Qualifying Meet finish - and an individual runner - sophomore Tyler O’Neill and his seventh-place State Qualifying Meet finish - to every high school cross country team’s ultimate destination.

The 2014 Waukon volleyball team showed some fairly strong improvement in its second year under head coach Peyton Lapel, nearly doubling its match win total from last fall’s 9-25-4 overall record on the way to a 16-22 mark this season. The Indians didn’t make much headway from last season’s Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) result, finishing in sixth place once again with a 1-6 final record, but took some further steps forward in other aspects of the season.

Completion of the 2014 Kee cross country season brought with it an end to one of the largest displays of commitment the Hawk distance running program has seen in quite some time. Five seniors formed the upperclassman leadership core for this year’s team, including Keegan Ahouse, Tom Brennan, Michael Harris, Sam Hisel and Nolan Welsh, with Hisel and Welsh committing themselves to the sport for all four years of their high school career, Harris being a three-year high school competitor and Ahouse and Brennan participating in each of the last two seasons.

Following back-to-back seasons of State Play-Off qualification and two of the most successful seasons in program history, the 2014 Waukon football team was looking to continue that trend heading into this past fall. However, the injury bug and a formidable Class 2A District 3 schedule turned out less desirable results for this year’s gridiron gang, the Indians, instead, playing to a 3-6 overall record and a 2-4 mark that placed them fifth in the final District 3 standings.

The Kee girls basketball team will feature just one senior for the 2014-2015 season but will look to benefit from the return of five varsity letterwinners that helped produce a 12-9 overall record last season. Three juniors and one sophomore complete that list of varsity veteran returnees for a small and overall young squad of 16 players made up of the letterwinning senior and juniors, seven sophomores and five freshmen.

The Waukon girls basketball program will look to make a fresh start as its 2014-2015 season gets underway, but still with a considerable amount of familiarity in its personnel. Andy Sires will assume the head coaching role of the program for the first time, but brings with him the assistant coaching experience from the past 13 seasons that have included some of the most successful basketball played in Waukon High School history.