By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
Basketball: Player of the Year Honors Announced
This year’s Iowa Mr. Basketball comes from Class 4-A state champion Iowa City High, as Matt Gatens was given the honor.
The future Iowa Hawkeye averaged over 22 points a game for the Little Hawks. He finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,928 points. Gatens also averaged over six rebounds a contest this season for the 25-1 City High.
Iowa’s Miss Basketball comes from central Iowa, as Jennifer Jorgenson of Southeast Webster-Grand was selected. The 5-foot-11 Jorgenson was the state’s leader in points per game at 30.4 and assists per game at 8.9. She also averaged over 12 rebounds a contest.
Jorgenson finished her career as the state’s No. 2 all-time leading scorer with 2,708 points. She is fourth in career rebounds at 1,184 and fifth in assists at 621. She’s committed to play at the University of the Pacific next season.
The winner is chosen by the Iowa Newspaper Association.
Football: Coaches Named For Shrine Bowl
This year’s Iowa Shrine Bowl football squads will be coached by Aurelia’s Myron Radke and Gary Swenson of West Des Moines Valley.
Radke will head the North squad and Swenson leads the South into the annual battle of top high school football seniors, which will be played at Cyclone Stadium/Jack Trice Field in Ames July 26.
Radke has been at Aurelia for 23 seasons, where he’s led five teams to the state playoffs and one to the championship game. His career record is 134-86.
Swenson has been leading the Tigers since 1995. Swenson has also coached at Spencer, West Marshall, Manning and Washington, fashioning a 252-85 record. He has led teams into the playoffs for the past 21 years and has four state titles during that time.
Assistant coaches for the North team are Bob Read from Linn-Mar in Marion, Kevin Hammer from Alta, Keith Hanks Sr. from Sioux City North, Aundra Meeks from Waterloo Columbus and Todd Coy from South Hamilton in Jewell.
The South assistants are Scott Carlson from Waukee, Mark Camenisch from Boone, Lance Pedersen from Wilton, Chad Edeker from Waco in Wayland and Todd Quick from Hamburg.
Softball: New Coaches Named At Waukee
Waukee has named a brother-sister combination to be the new softball coaches for the upcoming summer season. Andrea Wilmes and Lou Yacinich Jr. will be heading the program during the upcoming campaign.
Wilmes was an assistant at West Des Moines Valley, coaching a state championship team with the Tigers last summer. Yacinich is currently the softball coach at Grand View College in Des Moines.
Their father, Lou Yacinich, Sr., is the long-time baseball coach at Grand View. They replace Jen Slauson, who left the position at the beginning of year. She won 401 games and two state titles for Waukee.
Johnston Names New Coaches
New coaches have also been named at nearby Johnston High School in the Des Moines metro area. Aaron Tecklenburg becomes the new wrestling coach and Bret Posegate will be the Dragons’ new baseball coach, beginning in 2009.
Tecklenburg starts next season in his first head coaching job. Most recently, he was the assistant coach at LaPorte City-Union. He was a four-time state qualifier and twice a placewinner in the state tournament while wrestling at Marshalltown High School.
Mark Schillerstrom was the interim wrestling coach at Johnston this season.
Johnston’s baseball team this season will be coached by Randy Wee, who will resign at the end of the summer season to focus more on his work with schools on healthy diet and exercise for students.
Posegate was Ames’ baseball coach from 1991 to 1999. He’s now a special education teacher at Johnston.
Track: Davis Retires From Coaching At DM East
A new coach is taking over the Des Moines East girls’ track program, as 61-year old George Davis is retiring immediately. Ken Morton takes over for Davis, who is leaving a 34-year career as a girls’ basketball and track coach, including 14 seasons as the head of the East girls’ track team.
"It was a difficult decision, but I knew it was time," Davis tells the Des Moines Register newspaper. "I figured it would be in the best interest of East High if those freshmen would start under his program, rather than start under me and have me gone in two months."
Davis has coached 22 state champions in his career.
