Sports

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...

The Cherokee Braves traveled to Storm Lake last Friday for a chance to get back the Battle Axe from the Tornadoes in a season opener. The Battle Axe remains comfortable in Storm Lake for the third year in a row as Storm Lake took down the Braves 41-6. (The last time the Braves beat Storm Lake and won the Battle Axe was in the fall of 2015 when Cherokee won 27-22)...

SPENCER - “Top to bottom, our kids rand fantastic and we could not be happier withe opening meet,” commented Cherokee Head Cross Country Coach Matt Hoskinson following his team’s effort here last week. “We had some young kids really step up in their first meet and our veterans ran strong,” added Hoskinson...

A year ago River Valley’s Garrett Trapp was sidelined for the season when he suffered a concussion in the second game of the 2018 football campaign. Well, Trapp is back and after miss most of last season, he’s making up for lost time. Last Friday night, Garrett, a 5-11, 150-pound quarterback, turned in an impressive individual performance to earn Chronicle-Times Prep of the Week honors...

There are 30 Braves listed on this year’s roster headed by former Gehlen Catholic head coach and Cherokee’s new football boss Tony Gunter. Gunter replaces Travis Schipper, who resigned the football coaching post here at the end of last season. In seven seasons as head coach here, Schipper went 15-49...

Josh Landhuis, Cherokee Activities Director, has been busy upgrading the trophy case at Washington High School. “Our main objective in revamping the trophy case was to recognize all our former players who received state honors,” he said. “We had a large numbers of photos and plaques that were being stored underneath the trophy case and not being displayed due to lack of space. ...

It was a hot time in the old town last weekend. Class reunions, anniversary celebrations, birthday bashes. As my favorite mother-in-law Marilyn BeVard used to say, “we had it going on.” So, Cherie, my better half by a long ways, joined me in slapping a shine on our best pair of tennies and crashed a couple parties...

A well deserved “tip of the hat” to Aurelia’s Becky Bloom and Cherokee’s Lyndsay Wolfswinkel for offering a “Beach Volleyball” recreational league for area girls in seventh and eighth grades this past month. We witnessed some of the action recently and commend Bloom and Wolfswinkel for the format in which this program is designed. Parents have no involvement except to get the kids to the courts...

Alta-Aurelia led the way in landing four players on prep baseball’s Northwest All-District teams released by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association earlier this week. In Class 2A, Alta-Aurelia’s Warriors, who finished 17-10 on the season, placed junior Logan McCoy on the All-District First Team, and three players - sophomore Trey Engelmann, junior Michael Ryherd and senior Aric Stephan, on the All-District Second Team...

After attending the Iowa Girls’ Athletic Union sponsored State Softball Championships in Fort Dodge last week, one thing became very clear - pitching is the straw that stirs the drink in this prep sport. No doubt, pitching in baseball is important as well, but in high school girls’ softball, it’s paramount. It’s apparent that if you have a good pitcher on the roster, you legitimately have a crack at a state championship...

That Mr. Anonymous fellow struck again in this sweet little slice of Iowa, last week privately footing the bill for entry fees for the Cherokee High School cross country teams in the popular, growing, annual 5K Run/Walk/Stroll Glow Run organized by Cherokee Trails Committee, among others...

FORT DODGE - Alta-Aurelia’s wild ride to the state tournament came to a screeching halt here late Thursday night in a 3-0 loss to Class 2A State Champion North Linn. The loss ends AA’s season at 22-10 after making their second straight appearance in the state tournament...

FORT DODGE - When this high school softball season opened in May, Alta-Aurelia’s wasn’t on anybody’s radar to play for a state championship. Hmmmm, someone forgot to tell the Warriors. On Wednesday, the Warriors eliminated No. 2 seed East Marshall 2-1 to gain a berth in last night’s Class 2A Championship game against No. 1 seed North Linn (41-4)...

A gratifying benefit in this business of covering local high school sports is the people you meet a long the way. This work provides me with the opportunity to build relationships with the folks I work with on a daily basis. Many of those acquaintances become lifelong friends, and I’m humbled to have a long list of players and coaches who remain close friends to this day...

Sometimes I get tired, but never as tired as I get when I hear gifted athletes cry about how hard they worked while on their journey to fame and fortune and being drafted into the pros or recruited by a major D-1 college. Let’s see…you’re 6-8, 250 pounds, and can jump over LeBron’s ego. After striking that sperm/egg lottery, you picked up a basketball, found a basket, and played hoops for 18 years. Hey, tough gig. Where do I sign up?...

Cory Ege announced on social media Friday morning that he is stepping down as head coach of the Cherokee Braves baseball program. Ege, has a long history with Cherokee baseball. He was a key all-state player on the Braves’ state championship team of 2007, and then in 2014 took over the head coaching position here leading the Braves to a Lakes Conference title in 2016 and back to back substate final games in 2016 and 2017...

On paper, Alta-Aurelia’s first round state tourney game Monday against Central Springs could be a doozy of a pitching battle. The game Monday is slated for a 5:30p.m. start at Rogers Complex in Fort Dodge. The Warriors will play the Central Springs Panthers on the Iowa Central CC Diamond...

This was a time you could buy a dozen rolls of Northern for a buck, read about the Vietnam War in the Daily Times, shop at Tots & Teens, grab a Sweezy burger on Main, or a Maid-Rite and homemade fries at the Cottage. Or how about a new 6-speaker stereo phono with AM-FM at Gambles for $199.95?...

Senior Austin Degen it hitting well over .300 for the Ridge View Raptors this summer, but is recognized more for his snazzy defensive glove at first base. Degen was nominated for the Chronicle-Times “Prep of the Week” honors by Coach Shannon Tesch, who can’t say enough about the defense of his first sacker. ...

Clear Lake capitalized on Cherokee fielding errors and walks in the top half of the ninth inning and scored 10 runs. The result was a 16-8 extra inning win for the visitors. Cherokee hook its hopes to the arm of senior Dane Jurgensen through six innings and were able to stay in the game on another gritty pitching performance by the Cherokee senior...

PAULLINA - MMCRU’s boys and South O’Brien’s girls collected win in a split between these two area teams here Monday. In the girls’ contest, Class 1A, 12th ranked SOS battled hard to log a 7-5 win over a gritty and determined MMCRU Royals club. MMCRU held on to a 4-2 lead after scoring four runs in the top of the fourth inning. But the talented Wolverines battle back with three runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to break a 5-5 time and pocketed the hard earned victory...

It was “Senior Night” at the Cherokee vs. Spencer girls’ softball game here last Friday. Here parents of Cherokee’s three seniors gather along the third base line as Payton Slather, Alexus Jones and Lily Anderson are honored. Shown here from left to right ,Wendy Slaughter, assistant coach Brandon Slaughter giving daughter Payton a hug, along with Alexus, Tim and Jada Jones, and Charity, Lily and Joel Anderson...

Cherokee’s lady Braves lost four straight last week, losing to LeMars 6-4, Spencer 16-13, Sioux City East 4-2 and state-ranked Newell-Fonda 11-4. Spencer 16, Cherokee 13: In a Lakes Conference slugest Friday, Spencer outlasted the Braves 16-13 despite the Braves outhitting the Tigers 14-12 and Teagan Slaughter slamming two-run homer...

EGG ON MY FACE I’m terribly embarrassed to learn we published the wrong photo in last week’s Wednesday edition of our “Prep of the Week.” We inadvertently published a photo of Ridge View’s talented Kennedy Mason instead of teammate Kara Richard, who was nominated by her coach and selected for the weekly honor...

LeMars teams played solid defense and chartered a clean sweep over Cherokee softball and baseball teams here Wednesday evening. LeMars won the girls’ tilt 6-4, while the Bulldogs captured the boys’ contest by an 11-7 score. In the bottom of the seventh inning of the girls’ game, Cherokee had two runners on base and LeMars squelched the rally with two defensive catches of hard hit drives by Cherokee sisters Payton and Teagan Slaughter to end the game...

Cherokee teams stayed busy over the past few days on the diamond, with the lady Braves going 1-1 and the Braves showing a 1-3 mark. The lady Braves defeated state-ranked Spirit Lake last Thursday and then lost to Western Christian via the 10-run-rule Monday night. The baseball Braves notched a 5-4 win over Spirit Lake last Thursday, and then suffered three consecutive losses to Newell-Fonda 1-0, Unity Christian 16-1 and Western Christian 13-2...

ALTA - Alta-Aurelia’s gals improved to 15-5 going 2-2 over the weekend, while the AA Warrior boys went 2-1 and improved to 10-6 on the season. AA girls’ softball rundown: AA 13, Sioux Central 3: AA got a balanced offensive performance led by freshman Angela Lopez’ home run and Jessica Flaherty and Alainia Westphal with triples on the way to a 10-run-rule win...