Sports

The Waukon volleyball team opened its season by winning four of six matches at the Mabel-Canton Tournament held in Minnesota Saturday, August 30. That 4-2 record in the Tribe’s pool play matches would have advanced the Indians into a final bracket-round match to play for third place at the tournament, but Iowa high school rules limit the Indians to playing just six matches in a single day. Within their pool play matches, the Indians’ only match losses came to the two teams that would eventually play for the tournament title. The Tribe netters fell in straight sets to eventual tournament runner-up Rushford-Peterson, 18-25 and 19-25, and undefeated tournament champion Mabel-Canton, 9-25 and 17-25.

The Indians were scheduled to play at Postville Tuesday, September 2 and will then have back-to-back matches to begin next week, Monday, September 8 at MFL/MarMac and Tuesday, September 9 at home against Decorah.

The 2014 Kee volleyball team will return six varsity letterwinners from a squad last season that finished with an 8-18 overall record, including a 10th-place Upper Iowa Conference record of 2-7. That mix of returning varsity experience will combine with some young newcomers to hopefully make for a formidable Hawk line-up throughout the year, according to Coach Rich Ellis.
“Our biggest key will be team continuity,” Coach Ellis said. “The girls will need to learn how to play together and be willing to play where the team needs them the most. We will have a few girls playing new positions this year and they are going to need to accept their new role in order for us to be successful.”

The 2014 Waukon football team returns 23 varsity letterwinners from the most successful season in program history last fall, an historic campaign that saw the Indians play to a Class 2A State Runner-Up finish and rewrite a number of school records in the process. While a great deal of key contributors to last season’s success moved on with graduation this past May, including four players participating in Division I programs at UNI, Iowa and Oregon State, second-year Waukon head coach Chad Beermann says there certainly isn’t any sort of “one-and-done” mentality when it comes to wanting to continue the kind of success the program has developed over the last couple seasons.

The 2014 Waukon volleyball team will look to improve on a 9-25-4 overall record posted by last year’s squad in its first year under the guidance of head coach Peyton Wacker. Now in her second year at the helm and newly married, Coach Peyton Lapel will see the return of five varsity letterwinners from last year’s crew that also finished sixth in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings with a 1-6 record, along with a large group of 10 seniors that will make up a majority of this fall’s 14 team members in this season’s early-going.
Four of those five returning letterwinners also headline that large senior class, including two-year letterwinners Allie Schwartz and Jackie Welch and first-year letterwinners Katelyn Kolsrud and Thea Meyer. Sophomore Regan Wasson rounds out the list of returning letterwinners from last season, making considerable contributions and gaining valuable experience as a middle hitter for the Tribe as just a freshman last fall.

The 2014 Kee cross country season looks to be completely one-sided this fall, as no girls have reported for early-season practice thus far for the Hawks. Veteran coach Gary Bottorff has also seen a bit of a drop in overall numbers on the boys’ side of the team equation this season, as just nine competitors have been putting in early-season work-outs for the Kee boys.
Of those nine, six return with varsity letterwinning experience for Coach Bottorff, and five of this season’s team members are seniors. Four of those team members can boast that most veteran combination of being both a senior and a returning varsity letterwinner, that quartet including Sam Hisel, Michael Harris, Nolan Welsh and Tom Brennan. The sophomore pair of Evan Whalen and Spencer Colsch round out this year’s list of seasoned returnees, having earned their first varsity stripes last season as freshmen.

Nine returning letterwinners bolster Kee football hopes for 2014 campaign
 

The Waukon baseball team played to an overall record of 6-25 this season, a mark second-year head coach Jerry Keenan says doesn’t necessarily reflect the potential that he saw in this year’s team that returned a dozen letterwinners with varsity experience from a nine-win crew one season earlier.
“I am not certain that our record was always indicative of the way that we were capable of playing,” Coach Keenan said. “The way we played the last two weeks of the season was very encouraging as we look forward to next season. I am proud of these young men for the way they represented our school district and our communities.”

The 2014 Waukon softball team played to an overall season record of 7-25 this summer, posting a mark of 2-16 to place seventh in the final seven-team Northeast Iowa Conference standings. A reversal of a handful of close games this season - nine contests decided by three runs or less - would have evened out that season mark, but this season’s diamond crew seemed to make things a bit more difficult for itself with some offensive and defensive woes.
“Our greatest challenges throughout the season were producing runs and minimizing errors,” Waukon softball coach Bob Wasson said. “For next season, I think that the girls will need an increased focus on hitting during the pre-season, and that with more experience the number of errors will hopefully decline as well.”

by Val Meyer

Kee softball head coach Liz Hill was named Class 1A Northeast District Coach of the Year by the Iowa Girls Coaches Association following completion of the 2014 softball season. Hill guided the softball Hawks to their best season in program history that included a school record for wins in a season in Kee’s 34-10 overall record. The Hawks also played to a 20-2 Upper Iowa Conference record to win their first-ever conference championship, and also won two of three games at this season’s grand finale in Fort Dodge to claim Class 1A State Tournament Runner-Up accolades in just the second-ever State Tournament appearance in program history.