Valley rolls in opener; Volleyball, boys golf rankings released; Girls swimming goes outdoors in Vinton.
By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
In week one of the high school football season in Iowa, Class 4-A’s West Des Moines Valley throttled Sioux City West 57-28 at Valley Stadium. Theo Burkett scored Valley’s first two touchdowns and finished with four touchdowns for the night.
Valley scored 35 points in the first quarter before the Wolverines could mount a comeback. West was playing its first game under new coach Andy Yost, hoping to improve on a winless season last year.
Class 3-A’s top-ranked Sioux City Heelan Crusaders pounded Lawton-Bronson 62-13 Friday night in the season opener for both team. Heelan is looking to return to the UNI-Dome where it lost the state championship game to Keokuk last November. Lawton-Bronson was rated among the state’s top 10 in Class 2-A entering the contest.
Defending Class 2-A state champions Solon routed rival Mount Vernon 42-8 for its 14th-straight victory. The Spartans defeated the Mustangs for the sixth-straight year and were led by James Morris’ four touchdowns. He blocked a punt and ran it in for a score, then caught a pass for a touchdown and ran for two other scores from 17 and 66 yards out.
Aplington-Parkersburg outscored Dike-New Hartford 36-27 in the season opener for both teams. The winning Falcons, top-ranked in Class 1-A, will next open their home season next week against State Center-West Marshall in an emotional game for the home team.
A-P’s school and athletic facilities were part of the devastation in the Parkersburg community that was hit by an F5 tornado last May. The reconstruction of the football stadium over the summer received national attention after a group of former Falcon players now playing in the National Football League stepped in to help support the effort.
Volleyball: Preseason Rankings Released
The Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union issued its preseason rankings of the state’s girls volleyball teams late this week. Johnston, Sioux City Heelan, Dike-New Hartford, and Wapsie Valley were voted into the top spots.
Johnston was 40-2 last season as it won the Class 4-A title with a three-game sweep of Cedar Falls in the finals.
Heelan ended its year last November with a 39-16 mark as it needed four games to dispose of Mount Vernon in the Class 3-A championship match.
Dike-New Hartford dropped to 38-8 in losing a four-game heart-breaker to Hull-Western Christian in the Class 2-A championship encounter.
Wapsie Valley needed five games to claim the Class 1-A title from Holy Trinity Catholic, completing a 39-1 season.
Swimming: Girls Meet Goes Outdoors
In some parts of the country, having a swim meet outside may not make many waves. But it will be a first in Iowa when the combined program of Vinton-Shellsburg and LaPorte City-Union hosts a girls swimming meet on Saturday, Aug. 30 at the Vinton Municipal Pool.
Records from both the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union and the Iowa (Boys’) High School Athletic Association apparently don’t show an outdoor competitive meet ever happening at the varsity high school level in Iowa history before this. Girls swimming is competed in Iowa in the fall, while the boys programs compete in the winter.
Vinton-Shellsburg coach Jeff Holmes came up with the idea to spur interest in the program. His program and the other competing teams got a waiver from the IGHSAU to hold the meet, because competition doesn’t officially begin until the following week.
Cedar Rapids Prairie-Williamsburg, Charles City, and Decorah are also taking part.
"This will be big to keeping our program alive. The kids are going to like it; it’s going to be fun," Holmes told the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Boys Golf: Ottumwa No. 1 in IHSGCA Ratings
Ottumwa, with three of the top five individual golfers, leads the rankings of the Iowa High School Golf Coaches Association ratings, first issued Wednesday.
The Bulldogs have the best team rating at 147.1, followed in second place by West Des Moines Valley at 150.25. Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, and Ames complete the top-five.
The top two individual golfers also come from Ottumwa in Tyler Granneman and Will Eldrenkamp. Teammate Erik Thorgaard completes the individual top-five. Ian Vandersee of West Des Moines Valley (No. 3) and Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Dane Worley (No. 4) are the other individual golfers to make the top five.
Only the state’s largest schools play golf in the fall; the other three classes in Iowa compete in the spring.
