Sports

ALTA - It was the first time this season that the Alta-Aurelia and Newell-Fonda baseball teams met up this season and it was in perhaps no bigger situation on Saturday night. The two competed against one another for the right to be the 1A-District 2 champions and to advance to Tuesday night’s Substate Championship contest. The Mustangs were able to hang on to take a 7-5 decision against the Warriors...

REMSEN — While not the home team on the scoreboard, MMCRU Head Coach Kayla Means said the atmosphere at the Remsen Sunrise Park field they share part-time with Remsen St. Mary’s made her team feel right at home. “We knew it was going to be a fun atmosphere coming into this game being we also play on this field as a home field, it’s their home field,” Means said. “The atmosphere was fun to play in. I thought the girls did a really good job finally getting on the bats there in the seventh inning.”...

REMSEN — It looked like the MMCRU baseball team was going to cruise to a win over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Wednesday in War Eagle Conference action. The team got out to a 5-0 lead through four innings, but the Hawks tied the game with a five-run fifth and then took the lead in the top of the seventh. The Royals came back in their last at-bat to get the win in dramatic fashion by a 7-6 score...

ORANGE CITY - Cherokee's Covid-19 shortened softball season ended for good here Wednesday night in a Class 2A Quarterfinal 10-0 loss to host MOC-FV. "After the game, I told the girls that I'm so pleased with their progress this year and the best part is we don't lose anyone from the roster for next year," said Cherokee head coach Jen Ohlendorf...

I didn’t fire Denny Holton. That brother from another mother quit to appease his family, socialize more, sip Jameson, bird watch, and live a longer, fuller, more enriched and relaxed life while sampling the great outdoors. I just don’t understand it...

PETERSON - Sioux Central's 6-9 Rebels scored a dozen runs in the first three innings on just six hits to sideline an error plagued Cherokee squad in five innings here Wednesday night, 12-1. It was the tenth loss for the Braves (2-10), who return here Saturday for a first round...

ALTA - For the first this season on Tuesday night, the Alta-Aurelia baseball team experienced something they hadn’t done yet. The Warriors were downed by Coon Rapids-Bayard, 12-5 for their first loss of the year. Alta-Aurelia broke the scoreless game open with a run in the bottom of the second. However, the Crusaders scored twice in the third and twice in the fourth, A-A adding a run in the home half of the fourth frame to trail 4-2...

STORM LAKE - The Cherokee Braves baseball and softball teams found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard on Monday night when they visited Lakes Conference rivals, Storm Lake. The Braves baseball team found themselves shut out, 8-0. Cherokee allowed a run in the first, four in the third and three in the sixth...

The mighty purple and white of Meriden-Cleghorn. The Comets. So many outstanding coaches, teams and athletes who made great memories. At a quick glance, Comet teams from the 1972-73 season were particularly successful in football and wrestling, and followed up with a strong track season and a 15-5 baseball campaign...

Call this one an ‘old fashion shellacking.” After winning two straight, Cherokee’s baseball Braves suffered a 17-0 shellacking at the hands of a 2-4 Hull Western Christian Wolfpack squad here Wednesday. Cherokee mustered just two hits logged by the Benson twins, Joe and Trey...

SHELDON - You want positives? Okay. You need not look further than the Cherokee vs. Sheldon baseball game Tuesday here. There were plenty positives to choose from in Cherokee’s 6-4 win over Sheldon, the second straight win for an over-achieving, determined, and youth stacked Braves’ ball club...

188 Golfers Shoot Qualiying Rounds Anderson Nails Down No. 5 “You know, when you win, no matter how many times, you never know if you’ll ever win it again,” said J.D. Anderson of West Des Moines after claiming his fifth championship here Sunday in the 86th Annual Sioux Valley Amateur Match Play Golf Tournament...

Tyus Adkins, first-year Cherokee varsity baseball coach, welcomed 32 players to initial practice on Monday afternoon. Adkins replaced longtime Cherokee coaches Cory Ege and Jared Kirkeby, who resigned at the end of last season. Assisting Adkins this season will be coaches Adam Rapp and Kris Alesch...

“A work in progress” best describes this summer’s Cherokee Braves’ softball squad. Twenty players reported for initial practice on Monday under the tutelage of first year head coach, Jen Ohlendorf, and assistant coach Brandon Slaughter. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, Cherokee will play a 12-game slate, beginning with a home game against Spirit Lake on Thursday, June 17...

The Class 3A seventh ranked Spirit Lake Indians rallied for 16 runs in three innings and handed a very young and inexperienced Cherokee girls’ team a 16-1 loss in the Braves’ season opener here Wednesday. Spirit Lake, 3-0, scored three runs in the first, but the Braves countered when Dena Claycamp smashed a homerun over the left-centerfield fence in the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately for the Braves, that would be all the scoring for the hosts...

LEMARS- A veteran stacked LeMars Gehlen baseball club took advantage of seven Cherokee errors and 14 walks on the way to a 20-2 season opening, one-sided win over Cherokee’s youthful Braves here Monday night. In a game that went just four innings, Gehlen turned a 6-1 first inning lead into 20-1 with a 14-run explosion in the second inning. Officially, game over...

CORRECTIONVILLE - Dean Norris, head girls’ softball coach at River Valley, returns five letter winners and his top four hitters from last year’s 17-17 ball club. Returning to spark River Valley Wolverine fortunes this 2020 season are veterans, Juniors Taylor and Kaylee Knaack, and sophomores Brittany Meyer, Katrina Todd and Daisy Olais...

ALTA - A quick glance at the 2020 Alta-Aurelia’s baseball roster reveals vast experience at key positions back from a team that finished 17-10 and missed a return trip to the state tourney, losing in extra innings to Hinton in a district final. In 2018 the Alta-Aurelia Warriors played in the state tourney for the fourth time in school history. In 2019 the Warriors missed the state mark by just two games...

MARCUS - MMCRU Coach Kayla Foresman is all smiles this summer as she returns eight lettermen, five of whom earn War Eagle All-Conference honors in 2019. A year ago, the Royals finished the season 16-11 and fifth in the War Eagle Conference. And, everyone is back, which is great news for Royal softball fans...

HOLSTEIN - A year ago, Ridge View fielded a young and inexperienced team. Not this summer as Raptor head coach Shannon Tesch welcomes eight lettermen returnees to the diamond for this COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. The Raptors opened the new slate on Monday at Kingsley against an always tough Kingsley-Pierson club...

MMCRU’s 2020 Royals baseball squad was hit hard by graduation, losing the service es of seven key seniors. “We’re a brand new team this summer, filling a lot of holes,” said Cam Kuchel, Royals’ head coach. “But we have a strong sophomore class and talented classes below them,” he added quickly...

While people die and America roils with no leadership from the fool on the Hill, I bag my sadness for a time to revel in the joy that our high school baseball and softball players have a go-to plan to PLAY BALL! And, with most area prep teams saddled with underclassmen, as many upperclassmen have disdained their final years of playing ball in their shortened, pandemic seasons, I thought it appropriate to offer a few tips to those young, inexperienced athletes. ...

—Ida Grave eliminated Cherokee’s basketball Braves 58-56 in District 3 finals ending Cherokee’s record at 15-6 on the season. The Braves were co-champions of the Lakes Conference with Storm Lake. Larry Timmerman led Cherokee with 19 points, while Steve Larson and Tom Graves reached double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively...

—LeMars Gehlen’s Joe Pitts belted a pair of homers and racked up six RBI’s in a 24-5 Gehlen Jays win over South O’Brien’s Wolverines. “Gehlen came in with good sticks,” said SOS head coach Mark Schnoes. For Gehlen, 23 of the 24 runs scored were earned runs...

Last week our governor, Kim Reynolds, opened the door for high school athletics to begin practice on June 1st, which has sent coaches and athletes scrambling to put together formidable squads in such a crazy time frame. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (GHSAU) and the Iowa high School Athletic Association (IHSAA) announced they were all in saying there will be state tournaments for softball and baseball despite a shortened season due to COVID-19...

Cherokee preps will join other Iowa high school girls’ softball and boys’ baseball teams in returning to the diamond for practice on June 1. A cloud of uncertainty has hung heavy over all sports as high school spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19. We all wondered when. or even if high school sports would return to competition...

—In women’s recreational slow pitch softball, Dan’s Cyle defeated Cherokee Farm Service 15-9. In that game, Barb Mott cracked a triple, Traci Gravenish had two doubles, while Bobbi Rasmus and Linda Loucks each had a double. Also, Deb Sorenson and Ruth Thompson each had two singles for the victors. For Cherokee Farm Service, Kathy McClaren had a triple and three singles...

—Ryan Kolpin paced Aurelia to a 22-1 win over Sutherland in Sioux Valley Conference baseball action, going 4-for-4. Brad Rohwer accounted for Sutherland’s only score, a round tripper in the bottom of the first. —Brian Parrott highlighted a 13-run Willow first inning with a grand slam homer as the Thunderbirds got back on the winning track with a 13-3 drubbing of Lawton-Bronson here Monday...

—Willow’s Thunderettes captured first place points in the 440-yard dash, discus and 880-yard medley relay at the Odebolt-Arthur Relays. Linda Bruning dashed to a :62.8 time to win the 440, while teammate Cindy McCoy grabbed top honors in the discus with a 95-4 toss...

Saying “goodbye” to our beloved friend and fan Kenny Bern wasn’t easy, especially for family, especially for his next door neighbor, and especially for the adopted family he spent so many holidays with. When we lose people we love, it takes time to sink in as we reflect often how this person impacted our lives...