LH Sports Magazine

The Little Hawk

SPORTS 2

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NEW TRADITION For the first time since 2002, City High Wrestling beat West.

WHERE WILL IT GO FROM HERE?

Schedule

Away Games 2/12 girls bb: vs Iowa City West @ City High School 2/12 Boys bb: vs Iowa City West @ city high school 2/13 Boys Swimming: state meet @ Marshalltown YMCA 2/13 wrestling: District Meet @ Burlington High School 2/13 Bowling: district meet @ plaza lanes in des moines s

80 miles

65

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2/16 boys bb: vs Dubuque Senior @ city high school 2/18 boys bb: at CR Kennedy @ cedar Rapids kennedy high school

Boys Swimming 2/13 State Meet @ Marshalltown YMCA

Wrestling

Bowling

2/13 District Meet @ Burlington

2/16 Districts @ Plaza Lanes Des Moines

STATE COVERAGE FOR ALL SPORTS ONLINE

2/24 State Meet @ Plaza Lanes Des Moines

Girls Basketball 2/12 vs Iowa City West 2/20 Sub-state SemiFinals

(ONLINE SCOREBOARD) Visit thelittlehawk.com for schedules and score updates on our interactive scoreboard.

Boys Basketball 2/12 vs Iowa City West 2/16 vs Dubuque Senior 2/18 @ Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2/22 Sub-state Quarter Finals vs. TBD

Little Hawk Sports [on the web]

Letter From The Editors

W

ell. we survived the chaos of the holidays, the New Year, and now the caucuses, but with the calendar canging over to the sleepy month of February, we are reaching the end of the winter sports season. We have coverage of the end of basketball season, as the #3 ranked girls prepare to make a run at a state championship. However, we haven’t forgotten about the boys. They look to finigh the season strong as well.

On the cover, we have the wrestling team, which beat West High for the first time in 12 years in January. We have a story on what the team plans to do with this new accomplishment and carry it forward.

We also have coverage of the bowling and swimming teams, which look to finish out their seasons at the state meets strong as well. While we don’t have any playmaker profiles or Rec League in the paper, as we simply ran out of room, but you can find all of that online at www.thelittlehawk. com. Check out our hella confusing map graphic to find all the games! Be sure to go check it out! Signed, Jonathan House and Brady Vanlo

@LHSBrady Gabriel Weigel continues his web coverage of the Piper brothers, two gymnasts at City High operating at the highest level of highschool gymnastics. Follow their story at bit.ly/1L8Whpg

@JonathanHouse6 @Dombalfox @littlehawksports

After WEst, boys rebound

By Dominic Balestrieri-Fox

I

t’s been weeks since City’s first meeting with West High this season, but with tonight’s matchup, a review of the game couldn’t be more timely.

Head coach Don Showalter feels that the team has improved since falling to West 45-31, an opinion echoed by his players.

“I think we’re doing a good job of ball movement, getting the ball inside to our big guy, Micah [Martin ’16], and we’re doing a much better job of shooting,” Showalter said.

Henry Mulligan ‘16 agrees that technique and mentality have been some of the most important changes.

“We’re finishing games a lot better in the fourth quarter,” Mulligan said. “We finish practices out. The last 20 minutes of practices we really focus.”

Applying those changes to the game is the real test for the team. “[We have to] just play our game. We don’t really do anything differently than what we’ve done.

Just close out on shooters, rebound a lot, box out, watch out for Wali [West High’s power forward, who dunked on the opening drive during the first West match] on the lobs,” Jason Jones ‘16 said.”

Showalter is excited for the matchup.

“I’m looking forward to the game; I think our kids have the mindset that we can take on anybody, play anybody,” Showalter said.

FOR More Playoff Updates, GO TO THElittlehawk.com at bit.ly/1VRmsq4

OPPOSITE: Mikayla Lacey ‘17 and Ashley Joens ‘18 guard a West High player during their January 8th matchup between cross-town rivals. LEFT: Kenya Earl ‘17 passes to Sydney Schroder ‘17 against West High. The game ended 70-67 City High in double overtime.

PHOTO BY JOSEPH CRESS

SHOOTING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP A combination of on and off-the-court chemistry and almost a full season of practice has led the girls’ basketball team to a top five position in the state.

By Jonathan House The City High girls’ basketball team is riding a wave of momentum with a #3 state ranking next to its name. The girls have gone 16-3 to start the season.

“We earned that ranking, and now it’s not to let up, that’s the key,” Head coach Bill McTaggart said of climbing to number three.

The Little Hawks have won a share of the MVC. However, a loss to Linn-Mar on senior night last Friday was a minor setback in the Little Hawks’ MVC season. The playoffs start on Saturday, February 20th. The Little Hawks will play either Ottumwa or Burlington at home.

The team looks to finish up the regular season strong against West tonight, before it goes to the playoffs.

“We’re making sure that we are focusing on practice, making sure that we are playing

our game, and making sure that we are doing everything right, so when it comes to the playoffs, we’re not struggling to go against the good teams,” Kenya Earl ‘17 said about the upcoming playoffs.

McTaggart agrees that rebounds and turnovers have been a point of emphasis, and that the team must focus on using every possession to its fullest to compete against the state’s other top teams.

“We have to have good possessions, we can’t come down and have a bad shot or a bad possession, we gotta do a better job of having good possessions every time,” McTaggart said.

The Little Hawks have been led by Courtney Joens ‘16. The Illinois commit scored her 1,000th career point on January 22nd against Dubuque Hempstead.

“It’s a great accomplishment, only a certain amount of people can do it,” Joens said of reaching the milestone.

The Little Hawks also have been lead by Ashley Joens ‘18, Courtney’s sister, who leads the team with 19.6 points per game and in rebounds. Kenya Earl is third in scoring and is averaging 13.3 points per game.

Both Earl and Joens believe that team chemistry is a crucial part to the success of both them and the team. Team members use group chats to communicate with each other outside of practice.

“A lot of just getting along together outside of practice and during practice, and then carrying that over to the court [has been something we’ve been doing all season],” Joens said of the team’s chemistry.

RIGHT: Jacob Powers ‘16 catches the leg of Iowa City West High’s Hunter Davis ‘18 before gaining a pin on the night. The night marked the Little Hawks’ first win against West High since 2002, a span of 14 years.

PHOTO BY JOSEPH CRESS

VICTORY AGAINST WEST

By Brady Vanlo With Districts taking place on February 13th, it’s almost time to wrap up the 2015-2016 wrestling season.

Head coach Cory Connell is pleased with his team’s performance not just on the mat, but also off.

“We’ve been working hard year round, just doing things right,” Connell said. “We’re performing well not only on the mat, but also in the classroom, at home and doing the right things everywhere” Senior wrestler Nic Jarvis feels that the improvement has made for an exceptional senior year.

“From a wrestler’s perspective, I’m very proud to be apart of this team and to accomplish everything we’ve done this season, especially coming from where we were a couple years ago,” Jarvis said. “It’s been a fun senior year.”

This will also be a season to remember due to the defeat of West High on January 7th for the first time in 14 years.

“It’s always nice to beat your rivals, but being able to take part in beating [West] for the first time in 14 years it’s just surreal” said Jacob Dykes ‘18 Now the team is working on refining their moves as they prepare for state.

“With a big part of the season approaching, we’re really just focusing on the little things we need to do to make ourselves better,” Connell said. “I think we’ve got real good chances at qualifying [for state] at some weights, but we’ve got to go out and earn those spots.”

FOR More Coverage Updates, GO TO THElittlehawk.com at bit.ly/1Q3H7sP

LAST LAP

As the season boils down to the state meet, the Little Hawks prepare for their final races.

By Gabriel Weigel

T

he swim season is almost through.

City took 3rd place at districts on Saturday, February 6th, qualifying for State in the 200 medley (Andrew Parr ‘16, Nate Katalinich ‘16, Eric Thomas ‘18, Riley Hall ‘18), 100 backstroke (Parr), and 100 breaststroke.

Captain Cole Donahue ‘16 is very proud of the leadership that the upperclassmen

demonstrated this year.

“We have a very young team this year, but they have continuously stepped up and competed all season,” Donahue said. “We were also fortunate to have some more upperclassmen take leadership roles as well.”

Max Friton ‘16 agrees with Donahue that the improvements made this year will

serve as a building block for a team that can compete at higher levels next year.

“We have helped a lot of new swimmers who had very little experience to gain a lot of knowledge about swimming,” Friton said.

The IHSAA State Tournament will take place at 12:30, February 13th at the Marshalltown YMCA.

PHOTO BY CELESTE CHADWICK

QUEENS Madeline Deninger

With a team made up entirely of seniors, City High’s girls’ bowling team has largely spent the last four years together.

“It’s been a pretty good season so far. We’ve had good scores. We haven’t had a perfect season. We have always had good scores, but sometimes there are better teams,” captain Taylor Hayslett ‘16, who bowls an average of 150 per game, said. “I guess this season I just wanted to make the most of it because it’s my senior season, and I think that’s what we’re all thinking.”

Joining the teams this year is head coach Andrew Gonner’s sister, Elizabeth, a former bowler at Mt. Mercy University.

“My first year with the team has gone extremely smoothly so far. My family and I went to most of the bowling meets last year to cheer on Andrew and the team,” Gonner said.

“I met most of the players then and got to know their games just by watching.”

Defending the Queenpin, the team’s meet against West High on January 29th posed high stakes for both teams. The girls won with a

Close Split For Boys In KingPIN MATCH

ABOVE: The girls’ bowling team celebrates after winning the Queenpin. PHOTO BY JOSEPH CRESS

score of 2499 over West’s 2295.

“I am very happy for the girls on retaining the queen pin as this was one of our main goals this season,” Andrew Gonner said. “Their match was very competitive and was a good match to have leading up to state.”

Using her experience of bowling collegiately, and for most of her life, Gonner brought new techniques to both teams with the ultimate goal of making state as a team.

“I introduced many new drills this year to focus on form. This helps ensure that our

players are getting the basics down before we add more complicated steps,” Gonner said. “I have also put an emphasis on the importance of spares by rewarding players if they throw a clean game.”

Whether or not the girls make it to state will depend on the district meet on February 16th.

“At regionals, we’d like to try our best and make it to state as a team, and if we can’t we’re going to root on our teammates and try and have some individuals go to state,” Hayslett said.

The boys’ bowling team entered its second season this year with Andrew Gonner as head coach. Captain Garrett Highly ‘17 looked forward to improving on what the team started last year.

“I really thought we had some high standards [going in]. Last year, we didn’t do as well as we’d like, but it was our first year with our new coach,” he said.

Gonner says the team went into the season with a focus on preparedness for the end.

“This season we made our strategy to be 3/4 of the season as a practice process, and the last 1/4 of the season to play with the rosters and start peaking for state,” he said.

With the final goal of making state as a team in mind, Gonner brought with him a few new coaching strategies.

“The new coach brought everyone’s game up 20 pins on the average. So far, we’re on track.

We’re doing better than last year. There’s a lot of good guys; every week it’s different except for your top three guys,” captain Austin Young ‘17, who has the highest pin average on the team with 184, said. “The way he coaches, it’s not go out and bowl three games and see what your score is. It’s try and bring up that score through drills and what not.”

Gonner is head coach for both the boys’ and girls’ teams. Because of this, captains such as Highly take on leadership roles on the team.

“We are supposed to lead drills [as captains], which I think we do a pretty good job on that,” Highly said. “We’re supposed to keep the other guys positive when we get down. I think we do a pretty good job there, but there’s some things where I think we should make more calls.”

On January 29th, the boys’ competed in one of their biggest meets of the season, the battle for the Kingpin against West High. The team lost with a score of 2814 against West’s 2920.

“We have lost 4 matches within 100 pins, but we have never given up,” Gonner said. “The match against West could be the match we look back on as the moment we turned into a challenging team to face.”

Looking ahead, both teams will compete in the district meet on February 16th, which will determine who moves onto state.

“Our regional is very favorable to us,” Gonner said. “Both [teams] have a good chance if we peak and have all members bowling well on the same day.”

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DANCE PLACES 11th IN NATION

By Veronica Abreu

R

ABOVE: Hailey Fay, Grace Williamson, Elke Windschitl, Ella Lowry, Cori Slocum, Ellie Ballard, Abby Postman, Alivia Baldridge, Amelia Cain, Marisa Milavetz pose for photo after the competition. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY DANCE TEAM

oller coasters weren’t the reason the dance team screamed at the national championships.

“We have worked extremely hard this season and to be rewarded with this is unbelievable,” Abby Postman ‘19 said.

City had been rolling going into nationals with wins at the Iowa competition, Prairie, and state.

“We have been the underdogs for so long and now we have proven that we are a forced to be reckoned with,” Postman said This trip wasn’t the first time the team went to the UDA National Dance Team Championship. Two years ago, after making it to the semi-finals, the team had set a goal to make finals.

“Being 11th in the nation means a lot to all of us, and I’ll never forget the feeling when they announced we made it into the final. It feels good to bring home a trophy and to have represented City High,” Grace Williamson ’17 said.