Sports

ALTA - Both games of a coed doubleheader here Monday proved to be “typical” first games of the season. Like most season openers, both games were littered with typical early season mistakes, but there were also some bright spots sprinkled in. Ridge View’s Raptors swept the area twin bill, winning the girls’ game 70-30 and claiming a close 43-40 victory in the boys’ nightcap...

South O’Brien, Alta-Aurelia and Cherokee featured football players respresented on the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association (IPSWA) 2019 football all-state teams released recently. Leading the way locally with a spot on the Class A first team offense is South O’Brien’s talented running back, senior Tristan Wilson, the only first team selection in the Chronicle-Times six-school coverage area...

PARKER HONORED Although we were unable to talk directly to our good friend and former Cherokee Brave and University of Iowa Hawkeye, Parker Wildeman, we want to recognize and congratulate him for being inducted into the IHSAA Football Hall of Fame last week in Cedar Falls...

SIOUX CITY - Without even looking at the stat sheets, it was apparent the hot three-point shooting and physicality of a veteran Sioux City West squad spoiled Cherokee girls’ basketball season opener here Monday night. West pulled away from the youthful Braves squad in the second half to log a convincing 90-70 victory...

The big question for the Cherokee basketball Braves this season is whether or not this talent-stacked contingent will mesh into a cohesive and efficient ball club. There’s no question the talent is there bolstered by the return of six lettermen with a ton of playing time under their belts...

Mat Braves Return 8 Veterans

Six Cherokee football players earned Class 1A Northwest All-District honors, three on first team and three on the second team First team selections were sophomore punter Mason Carver, and seniors Trevor Lundquist on defense and Ryan Hurd on offense...

Brandon Slaughter, Cherokee head girls’ basketball coach, says this year’s lady Braves will play “with a chip on our shoulder.” “We lost some very talented seniors from last year’s team,” admitted Slaughter. “So, because of that, not very many folks believe this Cherokee team will be as good as we have been in recent past.”...

BRITT - The state’s No. 1 ranked Class A team, West Hancock’s Eagles, eliminated South O’Brien here last Friday in a 43-0 quarterfinal playoff game. South O’Brien finishes the season as district champs and 9-2, the best finish for a Wolverine squad since 2013...

A Bird in the hand… Way back in the late 1960s when Cherokee IC boys basketball teams were rampaging all comers, this college boy, fortified by a few lagers, sat on the IC stage during a game, riding the refs for all their “bad” calls. I was a know-it-all jock who played the game all my life and had also taken sports officiating classes in college, refereed a few junior high and JV games and therefore had all the answers. ...

In the cartoon “Peanuts,” Charlie Brown walks off the diamond with Lucy, his head down and dejected. “Another ballgame lost! Good grief!” he says. “I get tired of losing. Everything I do, I lose!” Lucy replies: “Look at it this way, Charlie Brown. We learn more from losing more than we do from winning.”...

ANOTHER MILLER MAKES MARK Cherokee sports fans still remember Damon Miller and all the positive things he accomplished as a Cherokee Brave in the 1990s. Unarguably one of the best catchers to ever play baseball here, Miller was also a solid and productive point guard for four years and just as good a football player to ever put on the black and gold...

ORANGE CITY - Bryce Kremer smiled and was glad to pose for a group picture with six very giddy-happy Cherokee lady Braves. Kremer will join the Cherokee girls’ cross country team at the state meet on Saturday, Nov. 2, in Fort Dodge after qualifying for the second consecutive year here Thursday afternoon...

I feel compelled to share some personal observations about what happens every fall in Chariton, our Hy-Vee sister city located in south central Iowa. Most folks here know Chariton and Cherokee share some commonality. Both cities rely heavily on Hy-Vee for employment opportunities with warehouse facilities in both locations. ...

Cherokee’s 1956 football Braves, under second-year coach Bruce Pickford, turned around a struggling program and finished 6-3 that year. Take note. Programs that struggle can be rectified. The ’56ers are the proof’s pudding. The Braves of ’56 halted a two-year skid and turned things around to reestablish a winning foundation for many successful Pickford coached Cherokee teams to follow...

HOLSTEIN - Manson NW Webster improved to 2-6 and spoiled Ridge View’s senior night here last Friday, clipping the host Raptors 29-12. Ridge View, 1-7, cap the 2019 football season at IKM-Manning (5-3) this Friday. “We played well at times, but were a little inconsistent on both sides of the ball,’ said Dale Tokheim, Ridge View head coach. “It was a close game throughout and we just didn’t make a big play when we had the chance.”...

Cherokee’s dedicated senior weightlifter football lineman Kaleb McGee is capable of carrying a lot of weight around Washington High School hallways here. McGee recently established two new Washington High School lifting records and hence a unanimous selection for our weekly Chronicle Times ”Prep of the Week” honors...

END OF THE BENCH OCT. 21 KEEPIN’ UP WITH THE JONES’ The torch has been passed. By now most everyone via social media has heard the news about West Sioux’s Hunter Dekker breaking the state prep career passing record set by Cherokee’s Tyler Jones from 2005-2008...

Cherokee junior running back Cael Wood rambled for 179 yards on 24 carries behind some unselfish lead blocking by teammate Trevor Lundquist in a 44-0 “Senior Night” victory over MVAOCOU last Friday night. “Wood ran really well and our blocking up front was good,” said Cherokee Coach Tony Gunter. “The two-back set with Trevor (Lundquist) taking on the role of lead blocker worked out well,” he added...

Cherokee youth joined the varsity Braves in honoring the flag prior to the homecoming football game here last week. A large crown attended the game in which the Braves lost to East Sac 56-0.

With the fast approaching high school volleyball, cross country and football tournaments and playoffs just around the bend, a reminder to our area basketball and wrestling coaches to please take time and return questionnaires we sent out two weeks ago seeking information on the upcoming winter sports season...

Some 514 middle school through senior high runners representing 11 school districts battled a hilly Cherokee Golf Course and significant winds here Tuesday afternoon in the annual running of the Cherokee Cross Country Invitational. Not only were there over 500 runners, the course overflowed with throngs of encouraging fans as they cheered on runners on this beautiful fall afternoon...

It was ugly early. It never got better for a stunned Cherokee football team here last Friday night. In fact, in what is one of the worst whippings in modern Cherokee football memory, as East Sac’s Raiders dominated the Braves everywhere and slapped an overwhelming 56-0 win on the board to spoil the hosts Homecoming 2019...

STORM LAKE - Cherokee’s “A” and “B” teams recorded 3-0 wins over Storm Lake volleyball teams here Thursday. Cherokee’s “A” team improved to 4-0 on the season with set wins over Storm Lake of 25-18, 25-14 and 16-14. Paris Frederickson was perfect in serves at 17-17 and logged five aces to lead Cherokee’s serving statistics...

SIOUX RAPIDS - Sioux Central’s Rebels raced to a 35-0 Class A District football win here Friday night over a winless Ridge View Raptor squad. It was all the Rebels, now 3-2, in this district opener. The visiting Raptors never got untracked and fell to 0-5 on the season...

MARCUS - MMCRU’s Royals forfeited their game last Friday with LeMars Gehlen due to several circumstances. However, the Royals are still on tap to play South’OBrien at Paullina this Friday. On Monday morning, MMCRU Coach Kyle Oswald issued this statement:...

SANBORN - Cherokee Middle School cross country runners turned in respectable performances here Monday afternoon led by Aurora Christianensen’s ninth place finish of 9:53 over the 1.4-mile course. Another top finisher for Cherokee was Bryce Robinson with an 11th place in 9:28...

Cherokee’s volleyball Braves finished 2-3 in matches at the Cherokee Invitational Tournament here last Saturday. “We played pretty well at times, but still struggle some with playing at the same level of consistency throughout a match,” said Cherokee Head Coach Charity Anderson. “We also need to keep working on preventing teams from going on runs and cutting down on our unforced errors...

PAULLINA - State-ranked South O’Brein made it four in a row this season by dominating Sioux Central here Friday night in a 42-16 win. The Wolverines take their 4-0 record into district place this week on the road to Harley-Melvin-Sanborn before rounding out the season at home against MMCRU Oct. 4, at LeMars Gehlen on Oct. 11, home against Akron-Westfield Oct. 18 and at Hinton on Oct. 25...

That Big, Bad Bob is Marcus native Bob Brady who will later this month be inducted into the Iowa Men’s Fast-pitch Softball Hall of Fame. Hell, I put him in there. Me and along the way a team of other talented, local fast-pitch icons like Dan Schuver, Gene Anderson, Larry Goose Galvin, Harlan Roos, Ronnie Miller, Gary Slota, Bob Nelson, Ron Ogren, Pete Mathern, Mark Ammons, Doug Miller, Chris Campbell, Tommy Estes, Dick Hirschman, Shorty Steffens, Jim Rogge, Roger Smith, Ronnie Means, Billy Brady, last but never least brother Giles, and probably a few others I can’t remember. ...

AURELIA - On Friday the 13th, under the light of a harvest moon, South O’Brien’s talented running back Tristan Wilson slipped through a crease in the defense and busted a big one for an 83 yard touchdown. That TD and the successful two-point conversion that followed gave SOS an 8-0 lead in the second quarter. Then a late game score capped a 15-0 win over a now 1-2 Alta-Aurelia...

DA GROVE - A high powered Class 2A OABCIG Falcon offense racked up 383 yards of offense in a lopsided 64-19 win over Class 1A Cherokee here Friday. Falcon junior quarterback Cooper Dejean hit 14 of 18 passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed five times for 73 yards and two more touchdowns, while the hosts rushing game generated 207 yards on the ground...

BRUNSVILLE - On a hot and humid Tuesday afternoon, Cherokee’s cross country’s contingent competed again several 3A and 4A teams. “This was a little dog in a big dog fight type of meet for us,” said Cherokee Coach Matt Hoskinson. “I’m extremely happy with how we competed against the bigger schools as several of the teams were ranked team as well as featuring several individually ranked competitors.”...

JaMae Nichols and Tegan Slaughter had 15 kills each and Camille Zwiefel logged 43 assists in Cherokee 3-1 volleyball win over Emmetsburg here Thursday. Grace Anderson and Aliyah Graybill also had strong games at the net with nine and seven kills, respectively, for the Braves...

Just last month, the Iowa High School Athletic Association sent out a statewide release putting all fans on notice. The release came from the desk of Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, and from Tom Keating, executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association...