Sports

The Waukon boys basketball team book-ended this past week with results on each end of the win-loss spectrum and by differing degrees, playing both games on the road. The bucket Tribe opened the week pulling out a 52-50 triumph in the final seconds at Sumner-Fredericksburg Monday, December 7 before traveling to Class 3A top-10 rated Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, December 11 and surrendering a 65-49 final result in Northeast Iowa Conference play.

The Indians were supposed to also play this past week at Crestwood Tuesday, December 8 but had that game postponed when the Cadets suspended program competition for a couple weeks due to COVID-19 exposure. That game was scheduled to be made up Monday, December 14.

The Waukon wrestling team had a full slate of competition in the latter half of this past week, competing in a dual meet Thursday, December 10 before a weekend tournament two days later. The mat Tribe first competed at Class 3A second-rated Waverly-Shell Rock in that Thursday dual, falling by a 69-10 final result. The Indians then had seven matmen take part in the South Winneshiek Invitational Saturday, December 12, with three of those wrestling Indians earning placewinnings at their respective weights to help the Indians finish ninth as a team.

The Waukon wrestling team opened its 2020-2021 season with a busy week of wrestling three dual meets and one tournament in its initial week of competition. The mat Tribe began that busy week with a road quadrangular at Postville Tuesday, December 2 in which the Indians lost to Nashua-Plainfield, 65-12, to Postville, 42-36, and to Oelwein, 43-42, on a criteria tie-breaker. The Indian matmen then wrestled at the Wapsie Valley Tournament Saturday, December 5, finishing tied for ninth place in the 13-team field behind the lead of sophomore Jakob Regan winning the 120-pound weight class at the event.

The Kee boys basketball team opened its 2020-2021 season in thrilling fashion, taking its first game of the season right down to the final seconds - literally - to pull off a 57-55 comeback victory over Central Elkader at home Friday, December 4. The Hawks and Warriors were locked in a back-and-forth battle throughout the contest until Central nearly doubled up its Kee hosts in third quarter scoring, but the Hawks rallied back to return that favor in the fourth quarter, overcoming a near double-digit deficit to come away with the two-point triumph on a tie-breaking lay-up by junior Tyson Cota as the final buzzer sounded.

The 2020-2021 Waukon girls basketball season will have a different look to it for a couple reasons, one coming from the much wider outside world and the other from within. The much more positive of the two is the internal change, as Waukon High School graduate and multi-year assistant basketball coach Ben Rausch has assumed the varsity head coaching role for the program following the retirement of Greg Criswell after his three-year stint at the top of the Lady Indian totem pole.

Rausch is a 2006 graduate of Waukon High School and brings an extensive basketball resumé to his new head coaching position. That basketball experience stems from playing the game at multiple levels, and coaching at multiple high school levels as well.

For the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four years, the Waukon boys basketball season will be getting a late start due to the success of Waukon’s football team during the previous fall season. While many would classify that situation under the old cliché of a “good problem to have,” compounding that “good problem to have” is the fact that many of this year’s basketball players factored heavily into this year’s Class 2A State Football Championship, including this winter’s five returning letterwinners from last season’s 13-9 Waukon boys basketball campaign.

“We’re getting another late start on this basketball season, but we are really excited about what our team can be,” shared Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann, who, himself, helped engineer the Indians to their second State Football Championship in the past four years as the grid Tribe’s offensive coordinator. “Hopefully, our guys can get a full season to show what they are capable of doing.”

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams opened up their 2020-2021 season hosting Tripoli Tuesday, November 24. Both teams faced consistent visiting Panther squads that each had no bowlers finish below a 250-pin individual match series total that fueled a 2424-2623 loss for the Waukon boys and a 2111-2388 loss for the Indian girls.

The Indians were next scheduled to bowl at Decorah this Friday, December 4. The bowling Tribe will then travel to North Iowa Friday, December 11 before hosting Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, December 18 prior to the holiday break.

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The 2020-2021 Kee boys basketball team returns an abundance of experience this season, as all but two now graduated seniors return from a squad that played to a 9-13 season record last winter. With all that experience returning, about the only thing that might stand in the way to continued improvement in the program this season is the COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted nearly everything else so far this year and has actually already thrown an early wrinkle into the Hawks’ early-season preparations.

“We had a good first week of practice,” Kee boys basketball coach Pat Wagner said. “Unfortunately, our district is going to shut down for a week (November 23-27) and we are not going to be able to work-out.  I hope this does not come back to bite us.”

The 2020-2021 Kee basketball season has been looked forward to since the Lady Hawks ended their 2019-2020 campaign with a 15-8 season record last winter and seven letterwinners from that winning campaign were slated to return this winter season. Although what has transpired since the end of that season in the realm of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a number of aspects both prior to and heading into this season, that pandemic has made this winter’s campaign looked forward to even more but also offers its own set of challenges in order to make it happen.

The 2020-2021 Waukon wrestling season will be one filled with new experiences as the wrestling Indians get set to take on a bit more than just their fellow mat opponents during this winter campaign. In addition to the challenges posed by those standing directly across the mat from the Tribe grapplers, this year’s wrestlers will also be battling an opponent that can be all around them, on or off the mat, in the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing teams to also focus their preparations on overcoming that foe as well on a daily basis.

Guidance handed down by State of Iowa Public Health officials and the Iowa High School Athletic Association will impact everything from practices, meet and tournament competition, and even weigh-in procedures, among other facets. However, Waukon wrestling head coach Mason Berns and his charges know that all of these changes being made are in an effort to keep everyone healthy and to allow the season to be able to take place.