A legendary husband and wife coaching tandem are returning to West Des Moines Dowling to coach girls basketball. Bob and Sharon Hanson will leave Omaha's Creighton University to come back to the program they turned into a juggernaut.
The Hansons have coached five state championship teams, including four for the Maroons. The other state title came at Des Moines East in 1979 when the state played six-player girls hoops.
Sharon Hanson leaves a position as associate athletic director at Creighton, where Bob was a golf coach and compliance director in the athletics program.
In 28 years of coaching, the Hansons have a 646-196 record. The Dowling state championships came in 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2000.
They replace the retiring John Wilkinson, who was an assistant at Dowling when the Hansons last coached there. Under Wilkinson, the Maroons haven't done badly, appearing in five state tournaments with a runner-up finish five years ago.
Girls Soccer: Johnston ends Valley winning streak
Johnston stopped a five-year winning streak with a 2-1 victory over West Des Moines Valley at Valley Stadium Monday night. Kate Neilsen scored the winning goal at the 74-minute point in the match for the third-ranked Dragons against the top-ranked Tigers.
The streak was 77 matches long against Iowa competition that dated back to June of 2004, when Valley lost to cross-town rival Dowling in a regional match, 1-0.
The last loss of any type by Valley came two years ago in the Brine Tournament of Champions at Burlington, when St. Teresa's Academy of Kansas City won 4-3.
Track and Field: Flood wins third straight title at Drake Relays
West Des Moines Dowling junior distance runner Katie Flood claimed her third straight 3,000-meter run at the Drake Relays last weekend.
Flood, who has also dominated cross country in Iowa despite knee injuries, became the second high schooler to win the 3,000 three straight years. The last to do it was Sarah Gray of Cedar Falls from 1995 to 1997.
Her winning time of 10:12.50 was the slowest of her three championship runs, however, as she ran a meet record 9:44.56 in her freshman year and added a 9:56.23 clocking last year as a sophomore.
Boys Basketball: Assumption hires new coach
Joe Barrer is coming back to Davenport to coach the Assumption Knights boys basketball program. Barrer comes back to take over his high school alma mater a decade after helping take the team to the 1999 Class 3A state basketball championship.
Barrer replaces Pat Finn, who resigned a month ago.
He comes to Assumption after coaching at Cedar Rapids Xavier last season.
"He’s a good Assumption guy," Principal Andy Craig told the Quad City Times. "Being an alum from here and having a lot of alums that work for us, immediately when you get a resume or a letter interest from an alum, your interest sparks. They know where we are trying to go."
From Assumption, Barrer went on to play at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, graduating six years ago. He was a graduate assistant at George Mason when they reached the Final Four three years ago. He also coached the sophomore program at Chicago Brother Rice before taking over at Xavier last season, where his team finished 8-15.