College Football: Cyclones Land Four on USA Today All-American Preseason Team, Hawks Get One:
The Iowa State Cyclone football team keeps hauling in preseason honors.
Yesterday, the Cyclones received four preseason All-Americans.
Breece Hall, Charlie Kolar and Mike Rose were named to the USA Today First Team All-America Preseason Football team.
Safety Greg Eisworth was a second team choice.
Hall has the chance to contend for 2,000 rushing yards this season, after scoring 21 touchdowns and averaging 131 yards on the ground per game last season.
Iowa center and Solon graduate Tyler Linderbaum was a first team choice for the Hawkeyes and is the preseason favorite for the Rimington Trophy, given annually to the nation’s top center.
Clemson leads the way with six picks, while Iowa State has the four selections.
Iowa State opens their season at home September 4th against Northern Iowa.
College Football: Grand View Selected to Win Heart of America:
The Heart of America Athletic Conference football coaches selected their 2021 Heart North and South Preseason Polls this week, as Grand View and Baker were picked to top the Heart North and South Divisions respectively.
The Vikings captured the Heart North division titles in 2019 and 2020 outright and have earned at least a share of the Heart North championship in five of the six seasons divisional play began in the Heart in 2015.
Grand View features two Mount Pleasant graduates in offensive lineman Chase Adams and linebacker Brody McGhghy.
2021 Heart North Preseason Coaches’ Poll
Place School (1st Place Votes) Points
1st — Grand View (5) 25
2nd — Culver-Stockton (1) 21
3rd — William Penn 16
4th — Clarke 12
5th — Peru State 11
6th — Graceland 5
Conference play begins August 28th and wraps up on November 13th.
Prep Volleyball: Gazette’s Linder Picks Preseason Top-10
Cedar Rapids Gazette columnist Jeff Linder has released his preseason top-10 volleyball rankings and as you would expect, there was some local flavor in his 1A rankings.
Kicking things off, the Nikes of Notre Dame are Linder’s preseason No. 1 in Class 1A.
The Nikes went 19-5 last season en route to claiming their first ever State Championship.
Not to be outdone, fellow Super Conference rival and Henry County program New London is No. 5 in Linder’s poll.
The Tigers return several key pieces from last year’s group that finished 22-8 as a 1A State Qualifier.
In Class 3A, West Burlington is primed for a breakout season.
The Lady Falcons biggest addition is snagging Maureen Heath — Iowa’s third winningest volleyball coach of all-time — from New London.
West Burlington finished last year 18-4 and was a 3A regional quarterfinalist one season ago.
Major League Baseball: Field of Dreams Game Puts Iowa on Center Stage:
More than three decades after the film, the Field of Dreams is back in center stage tonight as the world watches the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees play in Dyersville tonight, in the MLB Field of Dreams game.
This will be Iowa’s first ever Major League Baseball game, with an expected crowd of 8,000 in attendance, more than the double that of the population of Dyersville itself.
Both teams will wear throwback jerseys for the contest, harkening back to the legends of the 1919 season.
Tonight’s game will begin at 6:15 p.m. and can be watched on the FOX family of networks state wide.