High School Football
WACO will host practice from 5 pm to 8 pm tonight.
Van Buren County will have their practice this week starting at 7 am and going to 10 am.
Danville will continue practice this week as the Bears look to make it back to the playoffs. Head coach Cody Thompson talked about what kind of culture he’s looking to build with the team,
“You know, we spent a lot last year, you know, trying to figure it out, trying to develop that. But I’d say our culture is we’re going to outwork people, you know, we may not be the biggest. We may not be the fastest right, but we’re going to outwork people and ultimately outplay them.”
High School Volleyball
WACO will practice tonight from 5 to 8 pm.
Van Buren County will have their practice starting at 4:30 pm.
Meet the Players Nights
New London’s “Meet the Players” night will be on Friday, August 23rd, at 5:30 pm with cross country and volleyball introductions and scrimmage taking place in the Charles Lorber Gym. On the football field, cheer and football will have their introductions with a football scrimmage against Wapello to follow.
Winfield-Mt. Union’s “Meet the Players” will take place on Wednesday, August 21st, at 6:30 pm. Head coach Scott McCarty discussed some of the names to look out for in the upcoming season,
“We’ll look at Cooper Buffington. He’s been kind of a stalwart for us in the workout arena here since we’ve started there, you know, he’s an All-State player for us last year. Works pretty hard and he’s developing into a vocal leader. Nobody really had to last year because of the group we had. So, it’s kind of fun to watch these kids mature into that position. Jake Edwards also, he’s been stepping up and Grant Anderson. Those three guys really have done a nice job of being leaders. I guess I’ll throw Max Edwards in there too. As a junior, he’s really done a nice job of helping his teammates and those kinds of things. So yeah, those, those guys, I would say are leaders right now for us.”
Mt. Pleasant will have their “Meet the Panthers” night on Friday, August 23rd, starting with an intrasquad volleyball game at the high school gym starting off the night at 5 pm. The football team will scrimmage Danville at 7:30 pm.
High School Cross Country
New London will practice this week with a 9 am start time. Junior high runners are encouraged to join the high school practices for extra conditioning as their first practice is scheduled for Friday, August 23rd, at 4 pm.
Fairfield will continue having practice at 7:45 am at Waterworks for the week.
Mt. Pleasant will continue their team camp today.
Van Buren County will start their practice at 4 pm at the track.
College Football
The University of Iowa will officially kick off the season on Saturday, August 31st, at home against Illinois State at 11 am.
Iowa State will take on North Dakota on August 31st at 2:30 pm at home.
Award Watch List
The linebacker duo of Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson will set the tone for the Iowa defense this season as they were named to the Butkus Award watch list, the award given to the best linebacker in the nation.
Higgins was a FWAA First Team All-American pick last season after leading the Big Ten in total tackles with 171, which also ranked third in the nation.
Jackson racked up 110 total tackles last year as he earned Third Team All-Big Ten Honors by the league media. He has 464 career tackles, which is currently the 12th most in FBS history.
This Day in Sports History
1936 – The United States beats Canada, 19-8, in poor conditions outdoors to win the gold medal in the inaugural men’s basketball competition at the Olympic Games in Berlin.
1959 – The first American Football League meeting is held in Chicago; charter memberships handed to Dallas, New York, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles and Minneapolis-Saint Paul; ‘AFL’ named following week.
2016 – Usain Bolt wins the Olympic 100-meter gold medal in 9.81 seconds at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics – first man to win the event three times.