maly, too: Like I've always said, never underestimate Gary Swenson when it comes to big football games. The man has stood in the bright lights far too many times on Friday nights, and he's been on the big stage far too many times to be intimidated by an opposing team that won the state's class 4-A championship last season and won its first three games in decisive fashion this season en route to the No. 1 ranking among Iowa's largest high schools. Swenson, who has already won five 4-A state titles at Valley, masterminded the Tigers' stunning 24-21 victory tonight over crosstown West Des Moines rival Dowling in front a massive standing-room-only crowd at Valley Stadium. This was a Dowling team that people were saying was even better than the one that marched to the 2013 4-A championship at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. If nothing else, Valley's homecoming victory tonight served notice that Dowling won't be able to waltz to another championship without having some tarnish on its record and without likely being challenged a second time by Valley when the state playoffs start. Despite the loss to Valley, I'm sure Dowling will again be favored to win the 4-A state championship. The Maroons are loaded with talent, starting with a quarterback who has already said he'll be playing his collegiate football at Iowa. I fully expect Dowling to run roughshod over every other team left on its regular-season schedule. I mean, I'd heard so many stories about how good Dowling was prior to the start of the 2014 season that I thought Tom Wilson's team belonged in the Western [or Eastern] Division of the Big Ten instead of in a high school league made up of some solid teams from suburban Des Moines such as Valley, Waukee, Johnston, Urbandale, Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial, plus some hangers-on from the city like Roosevelt, Lincoln and Hoover whose programs have sunk so far that they should be playing flag football on Saturday mornings at Tower Park in the northwest part of town. But on this beautiful September night in West Des Moines, Gary Swenson displayed his vast coaching knowledge again--and it was against Wilson's loaded lineup. Who'd have thought that a kid--a sophomore kid--named Rocky Lombardi would clearly outplay Dowling's quarterback in this classic of a game? Who would've thought that Valley would lead at halftime, 24-7? Certainly not the Dowling fans who more than filled the seats on their side of the stadium. The johnny-come-latelys had to stand along the fence at the north side of the field. Gee whiz, I began wondering as I consumed my $2 sack of popcorn at intermission if the idiots in the opinion section of the paper downtown were already cranking up their computers so they could again accuse Valley, in some silly Roses & Thistles garbage, of pouring it on once they heard that the Tigers had roared and soared to a 17-point lead. Valley is, of course, historically the high school that editors at the paper love to hate because of its fancy stadium, its superb new auditorium that serves the arts, and that people in West Des Moines are willing to spend money on schools instead of apartments on Court Avenue. The good news is that those clowns at the money-strapped paper will be gone after they're forced by the Gannett Co. to re-apply for their jobs. For me, tonight was a wonderful experience. I loved every minute of it. I'm pretty certain Gary Swenson and Rocky Lombardi did, too.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Like I've always said, never underestimate Gary Swenson when it comes to big football games. The man has stood in the bright lights far too many times on Friday nights, and he's been on the big stage far too many times to be intimidated by an opposing team that won the state's class 4-A championship last season and won its first three games in decisive fashion this season en route to the No. 1 ranking among Iowa's largest high schools. Swenson, who has already won five 4-A state titles at Valley, masterminded the Tigers' stunning 24-21 victory tonight over crosstown West Des Moines rival Dowling in front a massive standing-room-only crowd at Valley Stadium. This was a Dowling team that people were saying was even better than the one that marched to the 2013 4-A championship at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. If nothing else, Valley's homecoming victory tonight served notice that Dowling won't be able to waltz to another championship without having some tarnish on its record and without likely being challenged a second time by Valley when the state playoffs start. Despite the loss to Valley, I'm sure Dowling will again be favored to win the 4-A state championship. The Maroons are loaded with talent, starting with a quarterback who has already said he'll be playing his collegiate football at Iowa. I fully expect Dowling to run roughshod over every other team left on its regular-season schedule. I mean, I'd heard so many stories about how good Dowling was prior to the start of the 2014 season that I thought Tom Wilson's team belonged in the Western [or Eastern] Division of the Big Ten instead of in a high school league made up of some solid teams from suburban Des Moines such as Valley, Waukee, Johnston, Urbandale, Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial, plus some hangers-on from the city like Roosevelt, Lincoln and Hoover whose programs have sunk so far that they should be playing flag football on Saturday mornings at Tower Park in the northwest part of town. But on this beautiful September night in West Des Moines, Gary Swenson displayed his vast coaching knowledge again--and it was against Wilson's loaded lineup. Who'd have thought that a kid--a sophomore kid--named Rocky Lombardi would clearly outplay Dowling's quarterback in this classic of a game? Who would've thought that Valley would lead at halftime, 24-7? Certainly not the Dowling fans who more than filled the seats on their side of the stadium. The johnny-come-latelys had to stand along the fence at the north side of the field. Gee whiz, I began wondering as I consumed my $2 sack of popcorn at intermission if the idiots in the opinion section of the paper downtown were already cranking up their computers so they could again accuse Valley, in some silly Roses & Thistles garbage, of pouring it on once they heard that the Tigers had roared and soared to a 17-point lead. Valley is, of course, historically the high school that editors at the paper love to hate because of its fancy stadium, its superb new auditorium that serves the arts, and that people in West Des Moines are willing to spend money on schools instead of apartments on Court Avenue. The good news is that those clowns at the money-strapped paper will be gone after they're forced by the Gannett Co. to re-apply for their jobs. For me, tonight was a wonderful experience. I loved every minute of it. I'm pretty certain Gary Swenson and Rocky Lombardi did, too.

Valley's students--like their football team--got it rolling early in their homecoming football game

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.