Sports

Congratulation's to Cherokee's 2020-21 state tournament bound Braves! No doubt, a huge accomplishment by a group of talented young ladies who will never forget the experience of playing in a state tournament atmosphere. A little advice from an old silver headed Irishman - "Enjoy every minute. Soak it up, all of it."...

ROCKWELL CITY - The bus ride home last Saturday night had a different vibe than the previous three years for Cherokee girls' basketball Braves. After losing three straight regional final games, this 2020-21 Cherokee Braves' squad celebrated all the way home last weekend after defeating Panorama 74-46, and punching their ticket to the state tournament...

ORANGE CITY - It was an emotional walk to the locker room for Cherokee seniors Braydon Farver and Colten Woltman here Thursday night following a 59-44 tournament loss to Unity Christian. The last time for anything positive is sad. However, Farver and Woltman left the floor knowing they gave their best effort. The two seniors represented Cherokee basketball for four years and were the epitome of hard work, dedication and leadership, setting a great example for future Braves...

Cherokee's Braves woke up from a first half nap and outscored MVAOCOU 20-4 in the third quarter on the way to a 58-34 Class 2A district tourney win here Tuesday afternoon. The win qualified the Braves for a second-round contest played at Orange City against Unity Christian on Thursday night. Earlier this season, Unity clipped the Braves 71-61...

ALTA - Cherokee's junior varsity boys' basketball squad capped a 4-11 season with a hard earned 47-43 win over Alta-Aurelia here last week. Cherokee turned a 18-23 deficit at halftime into a 35-32 lead after three quarters. "We had 21 turnovers in the first half, but our defense started to get stops and were were able to go up three going into the fourth quarter," said Cherokee JV coach Mike Nixon...

Cherokee junior Will Lugar and senior Braydon Farver were recently named to first and second teams, respectively, when coaches released All-Lakes Conference elite squads last Thursday. :Lugar was Cherokee's lone player to make the first team and was a unanimous selection by loop coaches. Farver received second team recognition...

Cherokee's Lakes Conference champion Braves landed three players on the first team All-Lakes Conference squad and another on second team. Cherokee seniors JeMae Nichols and Teagan Slaughter were joined by junior Lexi Pingel on the elite first team, released by coaches last Thursday. Also for the Braves, sophomore Kenna Mongan was named to the second team all-league roster...

Cherokee seniors JeMae Nichols, Teagan Slaughter and Grace Anderson were all smiles here Monday evening after defeating Spirit Lake 57-22 and officially claiming their fourth consecutive Lakes Conference championship. "This is a pretty cool deal," said Cherokee head coach Brandon Slaughter of his senior trio's fourth straight title. "So happy for Teagan, JeMae and Grace being a part of four straight conference championships," he said...

SAC CITY - It was Coach Mark Hurd's birthday Monday. He didn't get the present he wanted. Hurd was hoping for his Cherokee basketball team to get a win against a tough East Sac County squad. It didn't happen as the Braves dropped to 9-10, losing 77-67 to a 14-3 Raiders' squad on this sub-zero winter eve...

Class 3A, No. 1 ranked Cherokee will begin girls' tournament competition this Saturday at 7p.m. against Carroll Kuemper (4-13) here. There are eight regions in each of the five classes, which means the Braves have to win three games to earn a ticket to the big dance at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, March 1- 6...

SPIRIT LAKE - Cherokee's Class 3A, No. 1 ranked Braves traveled north here Tuesday on a cold and foggy winter night and had little trouble warming up in a 69-44 win over a 5-12 Spirit Lake Indians squad. The win marks the 12th straight time the Braves have defeated Spirit Lake, losing to the Indians way back in 2015...

Cherokee's Class 3A, No. 1 ranked Braves improved to 16-0 here Friday night with a dominating 33-point win, 76-43, over Western Christian. The visiting Wolfpack, a tradition rich program, historically dominated the Braves with 14 straight wins beginning in 2006 until 2018 when Cheerokee stopped the skid with a 77-65 win...

Gage Johnson won by decision 10-5 over Jett Van Es (Sioux Center) Carter Hautt won by fall in 2:40 over Mitchell Fischer (Sheldon) Jackson Kinnetz won by fall in 1:37 over Manny Robles (Sioux Center) Brock Kannegieter won by decision 5-2 over Dillon Wittrock (Okoboji)...

Will Lugar put on a one-man show here Tuesday night and scored a career high 29 points to fuel Cherokee's 69-56 win over Estherville-Lincoln Central. Lugar, a gifted player, was awesome often on this night. The lanky junior hit 9-11 from the field (81.8%), 3-4 from the arch (75%) and was 8-10 from the free throw line (80%)...

STORM LAKE - History shows it's been 11 years since Storm Lake has beaten Cherokee in girls' basketball. Friday night the domination continued as the Class 3A, No. 1 ranked Braves rolled over the Tornadoes, 68-23, and improved to 14-0. Storm Lake's gals are 1-12...

106 double forfeit 113 Angelo Di Pol WC wins by forfeit 120 Simon Mummert Cherokee over Vince Cander Kooi WC by fall in :35 126 Ryder Van Bemmel WC wins by forfeit 132 Nathan Harvey Cherokee wins by forfeit 138 Colin Pick Cherokee over Skyler Mullinix WC by fall in :29...

It's okay. You can call it an ugly win. That's what it was. But it was still a win for the state's Class 3A, No. 1 ranked Cherokee Braves over a determined OABCIG club here Monday night. When the dust settled, Cherokee finished on top 54-47 and improved to 13-0 as the visiting Falcons fall to 6-7...

We're already at the mid-season mark in the high school basketball 2020-21 season and have some statistics to share. First, several area basketball teams have earned high rankings in recent polls. Our own hometown Braves are ranked No. 1 in Class 3A girls' ratings, while another Cherokee County team, MMCRU's Royals, are ranked fifth in Class 1A...

We all can be so proud of our area high school students and how well they've coped with this terrible pandemic called Covid 19. We've witnessed their strength and courage at every turn in our gymnasiums and in the halls of every high school. So just for a moment, think of what they've overcome and give them a pat on the back...

When pre-season state rankings were first announced last November, West Monona was ranked seventh in Class 2A and Cherokee third in Class 3A. The two teams met here Monday night in a lopsided 67-28 Cherokee win. The Braves, now 12-0 atop the Class 3A rankings, are averaging 73.5 points a game with a defensive average of 42.4. With the loss, West Monona's Spartans still boast an impressive 9-3 record, but are no longer listed in current rankings...

I couldn’t be prouder of how our men competed tonight especially the first competition back from break. All of our guys battled through the entire matches. We grew as a team and as wrestlers tonight. That’s what I ask my guys to do everyday and they were able to do just that. ...

Braves Get Tigers By 1

Cherokee dominated Manson Northwest Webster here Tuesday night and caged the Cougars early before notching a 73-35 win and ending a three-game skid. It was all good for the Braves (5-4) in their return from the holiday break. Everything seemed to click sparked by intense and bothersome defense along with good ball movement offensively...

In our final game of the season we traveled to Hartley for a makeup game. HMS had 8 kids so we let the boys decide how they wanted to handle playing a team with only enough kids to play one game, we were proud of the boys deciding unanimously that they wanted all 18 of their teammates to play. ...

With a couple minutes left in the game, Cherokee trailed Spirit Lake by just six points but were never able to take the lead and fell 61-55 here last Tuesday. Spirit Lake, undefeated at 7-0, utilized strong three-point shooting to take control of the game early, hitting eight threes in the first half to post a 32-20 halftime lead...

The Cherokee Braves wrestling program hosted their popular Paul Fuhrman invite tournament last weekend.  The Braves were able to crown two champions as they welcomed Sheldon-South O’Brien, Kingsley-Pierson, MOC-Floyd Valley, Sioux Central, Western Christian, MVAOCOU, North Union, and East Sac County...

ESTHERVILLE - It was clear early Cherokee's Class 3A, No. 3 ranked, basketball girls were too much for 12th ranked Estherville-Lincoln Central here Tuesday night. The result was a convincing 62-41 win, the seventh win in a row this season for the Braves...

“Walk a little slower Daddy, I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall. Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see. So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me…” Aurelia native Tom Radke this season coached St. James Academy in Lenexa, Kansas to the first football state championship in school history, navigating the most difficult of paths along the way...

Camille Zwiefel recorded a career high 20 points and picked off four steals to highlight a lopsided 91-25 win over Storm Lake here last Friday night. Zwiefel's 20 points coupled with teammate JeMae Nichols' game high 23, along with four steals and six rebounds, bolstered the Braves to a 5-0 record before defeating Ridge...

ORANGE CITY - In an early season battle between two Class 3A ranked teams, Cherokee's No. 3 Braves rode the offensive wave of JeMae Nichols in the second half and rolled to an 80-66 win over No. 7 ranked Unity Christian here last Friday. "Anytime you play Unity, it's going to be a dog fight," said Brandon Slaughter, Cherokee head coach. "I was a little nervous as we came out and missed a lot of easy...

This community lost its “Everyman” last week when LeRoy Lanxon died of Covid at age 88. “Everyman” is defined as an ordinary or typical human being. And although that’s simply not the case with this man, it was what he sought and how he lived, and was plenty good enough for him...

The Cherokee Braves wrestlers have been getting prepared for their season to start as they will start their Varsity season at Maple Valley Anthon Oto Charter Oak Ute with a double dual on December 1st . Other important dates for the Brave wrestlers include a home double dual against Spirit Lake on December 17th, the Paul Fuhrman invite in Cherokee on December 19th, a home double dual on January 7th, and a home meet on January 21st...