By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
Bob Timmerman has been an ever-present face on Dubuqueland gridirons for much of the past half-century. Timmerman is in 50th year of coaching high school football and still very active on the field.
He’s been coached at Wahlert, Beckman and Hempstead over his long career, in addition to a couple of other locations. Timmerman now tutors the Hempstead freshman team.
Timmerman is in the Iowa High School Hall of Fame. At age 71, Timmerman’s resume includes stops as a coach of wrestling and football at Carroll Kuemper and at Rock Island Alleman, Ill.
In 1963, Timmerman moved to Dubuque, where he coached wrestling and football at Wahlert. He became head football coach and head wrestling coach at Beckman in 1966, where he stayed for eight years before coming back to Dubuque in 1974 to coach the Hempstead varsity football program and to assist in wrestling.
In 1991, Timmerman stepped down from the varsity football job to coach the school’s freshmen, where he’s been ever since.
His boundless energy is a testament to his continuing desire to coach. Dubuque native Greg Purnell, who played for and coached with Timmerman before making his own mark at Marion Linn-Mar, can attest to that.
"If you can do that for 50 years, that's quite a bit of stamina, and quite a bit of enthusiasm," Purnell told the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. "Those are Bob's strong points."
Football: CAM Playing for “35”
The football team at Cumberland-Anita-Massena, or CAM, has a little something extra to play for this season. The slogan is, “Strive for 35.”
No. 35 would have belonged to Cody Olsen this fall for a team that’s now unbeaten in six games and ranked in the state polls.
Olsen died in an automobile accident last April and last week’s homecoming game with Coon Rapids-Bayard was a tribute to him and his family. 35 balloons were lifted in his honor before the contest, won by CAM 56-20.
The season has been a well-received change for a program that was 28-44 since 2000 prior to this fall, and now the eight-man football school is thinking playoffs.
CAM’s only playoff experience came in 1995. Prior to the merger, Anita was in the state playoffs in 1985 and Cumberland-Massena was in the playoffs five times, including its last visit in 1991.
But, last week in particular, they were more focused on honoring a teammate they miss on the gridiron.
Football: Mills Carries the Mail for Alta
Jack Mills is the featured running back for the Alta Cyclones, and he doesn’t it mind a bit. In fact, he’s taking the featured running back label to new personal heights.
The senior wingback ran 29 times for 182 yards in Alta’s 36-6 Class A district victory over Correctionville-River Valley last Friday. Both numbers of carries and yardage were personal bests for a back that had carried the ball only 16 times this season before Friday night’s game.
It was also Mills’ third-straight game of 100 or more yards for Alta, a team ranked ninth in the Class A poll with a 5-1 mark. He now has 638 yards and eight touchdowns for the season.
Mills becomes part of a tandem of dangerous running backs for the Cyclones, who also feature Mike Huseman, a sprinter on state championship relay teams in Class 1-A the past two seasons.
Volleyball: State Rankings Change Little
There’s only one change at the top of the Iowa High School Girls’ Athletic Union state volleyball polls at the end of last week. That’s in Class 4-A, where West Des Moines Valley takes over the No. 1 spot from Dubuque Hempstead, which dropped to sixth.
The 1-A top five teams remain the same, with Fairbank-Wapsie Valley leading the pack, followed by Gilbertville-Don Bosco, New London, Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock or AGWSR, and Preston.
The 2-A poll has the top seven remaining where they were last week, led by 22-0 Hull-Western Christian, followed by Dike-New Harford and IKM-Manning in the top three.
There’s a little more movement in the 3-A rankings after top-ranked and unbeaten Mount Vernon. Defending state champion Sioux City Heelan moves from third to second, Marion moves up to third and Algona hops into the mix at number four. Fifth-placed Winterset falls from being second last week.
This week’s top five in 4-A includes Valley, Johnston, Ankeny, Iowa City West, and Cedar Rapids Kennedy.
