High School Football
WACO will kick off the season with a week zero matchup against Central City tonight at home at 7 pm.
Winfield-Mt. Union will scrimmage Midland tonight at 5 pm at home.
Central Lee will take on Keokuk tonight at 6:30 pm for a scrimmage at home.
West Burlington/Notre Dame will scrimmage Burlington at 6 pm tonight at Bracewell Stadium.
Mt. Pleasant will face off against Danville tonight at 7:30 pm for a home scrimmage. Head coach John Bowlin enters his second season at the helm, which has helped calm down the pace of the offseason and helped better prepare himself and the team,
“I think our players have a better, better understanding this year. You know, I think I think they know more about you know what I expect of them, and you know just getting to know them for that year and spending every day there in the weight room with them and getting prepared, I think you know one thing I preach to them is, you know, what their work they do is going to show up. You know, you got to believe in the process. You know, the work you do. And I think it’ll show up for us on Friday nights and you know, hopefully we can come out to be a much more competitive team this year.”
High School Volleyball
West Burlington and Winfield-Mt. Union will travel to West Liberty tonight for a scrimmage starting at 4:30 pm. Washington, Muscatine, and Solon will also be participating.
Central Lee will host a scrimmage tonight at 5 pm against Keokuk.
Holy Trinity Catholic and West Burlington will travel to Mediapolis on Monday, August 26th, at 4:30 pm for a scrimmage with Fort Madison, Wapello, and West Liberty also participating.
WACO will be hosting a tournament on Monday at 5 pm with Burlington Notre Dame, Columbus, Pekin, Centerville, and Van Buren County also competing.
High School Volleyball Rankings
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) released their preseason rankings yesterday for the upcoming 2024 season and two of our local teams made the top 15 for their respective classes.
For Class 2A, West Burlington is ranked #11 to start off the year after falling to #14 Grundy Center in last year’s Regional Championship contest. Last year’s SEISC champion, the Falcons return most of their roster; however, one of the names not returning is Taryn Havener as she led the team in kills with 335 and blocks with 68.
A good candidate to fill that slot will be junior Brenna Beggs, who posted 241 kills and 34 blocks in her sophomore campaign. Taryn Snodgrass returns after nabbing 900 assists last season, which led the conference. Their top servers in Madelyn Hamelton and Carli Cline return and following behind are their 107 combined aces.
For Class 1A, Holy Trinity Catholic enters the as the #2 team behind last year’s champion Ankeny Christian. The Crusaders are hoping to keep the tradition rolling after making it to state for the 13th time in the past 14 years. The squad was led by five All-Southeast players and, of course, District Coach of the Year, Melissa Freesmeier.
However, two of those All-Southeast members were seniors: Mary Kate Bendlage, who recorded over 1,000 career kills, and Natalie Randolph, an all-around talent. Nevertheless, the Crusaders will be returning towering junior Presley Myers and an experienced sophomore in Adalyn Kruse as the two combined for 479 kills and 206 blocks.
Additionally, Anna Bendlage has had two successful seasons of being the team’s main setter under her belt and Teagan Snaadt is a defensive specialist that keeps plays alive as she led the team with 482 digs.
Meet the Players Nights
New London’s “Meet the Players” night will be tonight 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.
Mt. Pleasant will have their “Meet the Panthers” tonight starting with an intrasquad volleyball game at the high school gym at 5 pm. Introductions of the fall teams will begin at 7 pm, starting with the cross country teams.
Fairfield will have their “Meet the Trojans” tonight with introductions taking place on the track at 6:35 pm. Volleyball and football will have intrasquad scrimmages at 7 pm.
Central Lee will have their “Meet the Hawks” night tonight with the cross country race beginning at 4:30 pm to kick off the night. Volleyball introductions will commence at 6:10 pm in the gym, while dance, football, and cross country team introductions will take place on the football field at 6:20 pm.
Mediapolis will have their “Meet the Bulldogs” tonight starting at 5 pm with a free will donation dinner and a youth football punt, pass, and kick fundraiser. The football team will be introduced at 5:45 pm with a scrimmage against Fort Madison at 6:30 pm to round out the night. For admission, please bring a donation of prepackaged individual snacks for the football team after away games this season.
Southeastern Community College
The volleyball team will travel to Rockford, Illinois today for their opening weekend tournament with their first matchup against Kansas City Kansas Community College.
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.
University of Iowa
Head coach Kirk Ferentz and wide receivers coach Jon Budmayr have been suspended for the first game of the season after a recruiting violation in 2022. The review brought forward that the staff talked to Cade McNamara prior to him entering the transfer portal.
Coach Ferentz and Athletic Director Beth Goetz recommended a self-imposed one-game suspension and loss of one week of off-campus recruiting.
“I frequently tell our players to abide by the rules, and in this instance, I did not.” said Ferentz. “In 26 years as a head coach at Iowa — and more than four decades as a coach — this is my first potential Level II NCAA infraction. I made a mistake and would like to apologize to our players, University leadership, and our Hawkeye football fans. I know Coach Budmayr echoes those sentiments.”
The two coaches will step away from all duties on August 31st and will return to normal duties on September 1st. Assistant Head Coach Seth Wallace will act as Head Coach for the Illinois State contest.
This Day in Sports History
1936 – 17-year-old future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller’s first MLB game as a starter; strikes out 15 St. Louis Browns in 4-1 win at League Park, Cleveland.
1947 – First Baseball Little League World Series, Williamsport, Pennsylvania: Maynard beat Lock Haven All Stars, 16-7.
1992 – Dennis Eckersley, who previously set record for most consecutive saves (40), is the first pitcher to record 40 saves in four different seasons.