Sports

A strong start to their Friday, October 3 District 4 match-up at Springville looked to have the Kee football team in position to create its first win streak of the season, as the Hawks erupted to an 18-0 headstart over the host Orioles within the game’s first six minutes after capitalizing on three consecutive turnovers to start the game. However, Kee’s grid squad returned that turnover favor throughout the game’s remaining three-and-a-half quarters, with the host squad also scoring on three of those miscues while also racking up four scoring plays of 40 yards or more to completely turn the tables on that initial Hawk headstart and deal Kee a 50-18 defeat.

The Waukon boys cross country team hosted 12 other teams in its Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 23, ultimately running to a second-place team finish in a field of what turned out to be eight teams able to compile a team score. The Indians had their top six varsity runners finish within the top-20 individuals in the meet’s 61-runner field, scoring 55 team points to finish behind Decorah’s championship total of 19 points compiled by the Vikings’ five scored runners finishing within the top-six individuals.

The Indians were next scheduled to compete in the Jesup Invitational Tuesday, September 30. They will then take part in the South Winneshiek Invitational Tuesday, October 7 before preparing for their Upper Iowa Conference Meet Thursday, October 16 at Elkader to wrap up their regular season schedule.

In a game between two teams that have been headed in somewhat different directions in this season’s first half, including differing results in their Class 2A District 3 openers a week earlier for the 2-2 Waukon football team and 1-3 North Fayette Valley (NFV), it looked early on as if the two teams were reversing those directions in their Friday, September 26 Homecoming match-up for the host TigerHawks. Falling into an initial 14-0 hole and facing a 28-14 deficit just over a minute into the second quarter, the football Indians made the adjustments necessary to stop an early successful run game for their NFV hosts to all but shut down the TigerHawks over the final three quarters of play for a 36-3 outscoring that launched Waukon to a 50-31 victory and continued an undefeated start to the grid Tribe’s District 3 season.

Senior pair of Elle Wilkins and Willa Troendle each reach the 500 mark of their respective specialties - assists for Wilkins and kills for Troendle

The Waukon volleyball team’s lone night of competition on this past week’s schedule had a bit more riding on it than just a win or loss, as the Lady Indians traveled to Crestwood Tuesday, September 23 in a bit of a rubber match marking the third time the two teams have faced off this season. The two previous match-ups had both been in weekend tournament play, with one team beating the other at the other team’s home tournament, and the most recent of those stolen victories being a Cadet win over the net Tribe in what ended up being the championship match of the Waukon Tournament the Saturday prior to their September 23 Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) match-up.

Coming off a streak of three consecutive losses to teams that currently stand at the top of the Eight-Player District 4 standings with combined season records of 13-1, the Kee football team made a long, unique trip of nearly three hours to Calamus-Wheatland Friday, September 26 for a battle between two teams still in search of their first District 4 victory of the season. That uniqueness involved a rare “matinee” late afternoon start time of 4 p.m. due to the host Warriors not yet having lights installed on their new football field, but the two teams put on an entertaining show in trading blows and leads throughout the entire contest well into the game’s final couple minutes when the grid Hawks had the final say with their ultimate go-ahead score and game-clinching defensive stand to earn their first victory in District 4, 48-43.

The theme for Waukon High School’s 2025 Homecoming was “Battle of the Tribes: Two Tribes, One Victor,” as the Waukon football team hosted the other Indians from this season’s Class 2A District 3, Forest City, Friday, September 19 in the District 3 season opener for both squads. Despite more than a two-hour weather delay due to storms and lightning that pushed the game’s end time near midnight, the host Indians proved early they would be that one victor in the happiest of Homecoming wins by a 46-0 final margin.

As if being matched up against its third consecutive undefeated opponent wasn’t enough of a challenge, the Kee football team also faced weather delays, wet field conditions and early turnovers when the Hawks hosted Central Elkader for their Homecoming football game Friday, September 19. Still, despite having the game delayed for nearly two hours late in the first quarter and again during an extended halftime, Kee’s grid squad fought through two first quarter fumbles - that ended up being the only two turnovers of the ballgame - and a 16-0 early deficit to, basically, win the remainder of the ballgame, playing to a 28-28 tie near the middle of the third quarter before ultimately surrendering a 36-28 defeat to the 3-0 Warriors.

Another meet turned into another victory for the Waukon girls cross country team, as the Lady Indians topped the 14-team overall scoring field at the varsity level of the Starmont Invitational Tuesday, September 16 for their third victory out of three team-scored meets so far this season. The Starmont Invitational tallies team scores for both the complete race of all teams involved and also the further breaking down of the team scoring for Class 1A teams only and for larger schools in Class 2A, Class 3A and Class 4A teams combined.

The Waukon girls had all five of their scored runners finish in the top 30 of the 101 runners in the complete race and in the top 15 of the 56-runner large school field to claim both team titles. Those consistent high-end placewinnings allowed the distance Tribe to edge Class 1A seventh-rated Sumner-Fredericksburg by a 71-73 count in the complete race. 

Hosting its second larger school opponent within its first three games of the season, the Waukon football team once again played a fairly strong first half but could not completely keep up that pace in the second half in falling to an undefeated West Delaware squad by a 34-6 final result at home Friday, September 12 in the grid Tribe’s final non-district game of this 2025 season. Playing the high-powered Hawks to a 0-0 shut-out through the game’s first quarter and to just a 14-6 deficit heading into the halftime break and well into the third quarter, the Indians suffered a pair of turnovers and a 20-0 outscoring over a period of about nine minutes of game time in the late third and early fourth frames to have the game’s final result slip a bit further away in the second half.

The Waukon volleyball team played a pair of true dual matches this past week, with each of them ending up with similar results of an Indian match loss in four sets despite each match featuring opposite aspects of competition. What used to be a Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) match-up at Decorah Tuesday, September 9 is now a non-conference affair following the disbanding of the NEIC at the end of this past school year, with the Lady Indians falling by scores of 20-25, 18-25, 25-22 and 21-25 to the host Vikings. Two days later, in what used to be a non-conference match, the net Tribe hosted an Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) opponent Thursday, September 11 as a new member of that league, also falling in four sets to North Fayette Valley by scores of 25-20, 23-25, 18-25 and 20-25.