By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
The head of the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union could be looking for a new job, heading back to his college alma mater.
IGHSAU Executive director Troy Dannen is one of five finalists for the position of athletic director at the University of Northern Iowa. This past week, Dannen was part of a public forum to explain his vision for the Panther athletic program.
Dannen is the head of the sanctioning body for girls’ high school athletics in Iowa, representing 70,000 athletes. The union head has been in his current job since 2002 and has worked with the organization since 1988.
Baseball: Seeding in the Works for 4-A Baseball
Iowa’s large school baseball teams will be seeded into the postseason this summer, part of a two-year experiment being used by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.
In the past, teams were assigned district opponents, regardless of record, and played through pre-determined brackets to get to the state tournament in Des Moines.
This year, the Association will seed teams after 30 games with July 4 being the cut-off date. Only games against Iowa opponents will be counted.
Baseball: West Monona Pitcher Headed to Mount Marty
Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D., has announced the commitment of Onawa-West Monona pitcher Adam McVay to the NAIA school, located near Sioux City, Iowa.
McVay is a left-handed pitcher for the Spartans, who was 6-0 with a 1.58 earned run average last summer. He helped his team to a 20-6 record and a conference championship, striking out 41 batters in 53 innings pitched.
McVay plans to major in history at Mount Marty.
Wrestling: Davenport Wrestlers Commit to Northern Iowa
Two wrestlers from Davenport recently announced their intentions to compete for the University of Northern Iowa.
Blayne Beale of Davenport West and Alec Hoffman of Davenport North have announced their plans to attend the Division I school in Cedar Falls.
A 135-pounder, Hoffman has placed at the state wrestling tournament in each of the last three seasons, including runner-up finishes in his last two years. This year, Hoffman was 37-4, losing in the state finals to Nick Moore of Iowa City West.
At 285 pounds, Beale was a fourth-place finisher for West, losing to future Iowa State Cyclone Eric Thompson in the first round, and then falling short against the 2006 state runner-up, Alex Petersen of Indianola, in the third place match.
Wrestling: Ames Has New Wrestling Coach
The new wrestling coach in Ames is Drew Kelly, who comes to Ames after being an assistant coach at conference rival Fort Dodge the last three seasons.
Kelly has also been an assistant coach at Waterloo Columbus.
He was a three-time state champion for Charles City in his high school career and lost only one match his last three seasons. His overall record in high school was 133-10.
Kelly will take over for Chad Zmolek, who will stay on as boys soccer coach for the Little Cyclones. Zmolek was head coach for the wrestling program for just one season.
Boys Tennis: Dusenberry Coaching Final Time for Atlantic
When the state boys tennis tournament is played in Waterloo this weekend, it will be the final appearance for a longtime coach from western Iowa.
Stuart Dusenberry will be coaching his final meet for the Atlantic Trojans. He’s been coach in Atlantic for the past 24 seasons. Dusenberry’s doubles team of Chris Van Cleave and Taylor Petersen will be competing in the Class 1-A tournament at Byrnes Park in Waterloo.
This year’s team was 10-2 in dual meets, and Dusenberry’s squads were 193-68 in his career. This year’s squad was the Hawkeye 10 Conference champion and also claimed the district championship.
Softball: Sioux City North Players
Two softball players from Sioux City North took the field just a couple of hours after the single-engine airplane they were flying in had made an emergency landing in a corn field.
Alexa Rudeen and Kate Knepper were flying from a regional golf meet in Fort Dodge back to Sioux City for a softball game last Monday afternoon.
A friend of Rudeen’s family, Steve Mayo was flying them in the airplane as a favor, so the pair could compete in the golf meet and then get back to play in a softball doubleheader for North against Storm Lake.
However, the plane’s engine malfunctioned and landed in the field near Salix, located about 20 miles south of Sioux City. No one was injured in the incident and the plane did not take on any visible damage.
Rudeen is a senior shortstop for the Stars and tore her ACL last season, which has inspired her to play as many games as possible this season. Knepper is a sophomore catcher. Their travel plans apparently had the approval of their coaches.
"She did not want to miss one minute of any game and she kind of worked it out with the two coaches,” Kaye Rudden – Alexa’s mother – told the Sioux City Journal. “She didn't want to miss it."
Alexa, who plans to play softball at the University of South Dakota next season, hit a home run in her last at-bat of the doubleheader against Storm Lake. Her mother said it was something she hasn’t done since eighth grade.