maly, too: The Best Basketball Story In Greater Des Moines--West Des Moines Valley's Unbeaten and 2nd-Ranked High School Girls' Team--Cruises Past Xavier of Cedar Rapids, 55-31, To Improve Its Record To 10-0. I Passed Up the Trip To My Old Hometown [And Even Passed Up the Kolaches At Sykora's Bakery On The Avenue], But I'm Happy for Coach Joe Sigrist and the Ongoing Success Of His Tigers

Saturday, January 11, 2014

The Best Basketball Story In Greater Des Moines--West Des Moines Valley's Unbeaten and 2nd-Ranked High School Girls' Team--Cruises Past Xavier of Cedar Rapids, 55-31, To Improve Its Record To 10-0. I Passed Up the Trip To My Old Hometown [And Even Passed Up the Kolaches At Sykora's Bakery On The Avenue], But I'm Happy for Coach Joe Sigrist and the Ongoing Success Of His Tigers

Jeff Linder of the Cedar Rapids Gazette did the unthinkable--calling Valley's unbeaten and second-ranked girls' basketball team Dowling--but I'll excuse him.

For those of you who are unaware of the situation, both Valley and Dowling are huge high schools whose campuses are just a few miles apart in the city of West Des Moines.

They are heated rivals on the athletic field and in the athletic arena.

I mean, the highlight of every season in any sport is when Valley, the public school, plays Dowling, the Catholic school.

I'm sure Linder put in a long, tough day today. Long, tough days can produce mistakes.

Indeed, all days are tough in the newspaper business, not just at the Gazette.

But it was good to see Valley win another easy one over Xavier on what was referred to as Rivalry Saturday in downtown Cedar Rapids.

We watched the Tigers smother Hoover of Des Moines, 68-40, last night at Bill Coldiron Fieldhouse on the Valley campus for their ninth straight victory, and my kids kept asking if we wanted to ride to Cedar Rapids with them for today's game.

"We'll be stopping for kolaches at Sykora's Bakery on The Avenue," one of 'em said.

That almost did it.

As tempting as the kolaches, the rye bread and all the other Czechoslovakian baked goods at Sykora's sounded, we stayed home and kept track of Valley's blowout against Xavier via text messages from the Maly gang that made the trip.

Nice going, Tigers. Keep up the wonderful work..

Meanwhile, Jeff Linder's story that was posted on Twitter via KCRG-TV follows. I'm sure the Gazette's copy editors got Linder's mistake in the third paragraph--saying Dowling and not Valley drilled Xavier--corrected for the print edition.

By JEFF LINDER

Cedar Rapids Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — This isn’t a time to get hung up on wins and losses.

For Cedar Rapids Xavier, it’s a two-week stretch of survival and improvement.

Class 5A second-ranked West Des Moines Dowling jumped on the 4A No. 5 Saints from the start and posted a 55-31 triumph as part of the Rivalry Saturday girls’ basketball event at the U.S. Cellular Center.

“We’re in a tough part of our schedule right now, but we knew it would be tough at the beginning of the season,” said Xavier Coach Tom Lilly.

Tough is an understatement.

In a two-week post-Christmas stretch, Xavier’s slate features Davenport Assumption, Cedar Rapids Washington, Valley, Cedar Rapids Kennedy and West Des Moines Dowling.

That’s not the recipe for a gaudy win-loss record. But then again, Xavier lost nine games last year and won a 4A state championship.

The Saints slipped to 6-5 with Saturday’s outcome.

“We have to continue to improve our basketball IQ,” Lilly said. “We have to play smarter, know when to attack and when to back off and run our offense.”

Valley (10-0) jumped out to a 25-9 lead after a quarter, 37-16 at halftime.

Point guard Madi Agey paced the Tigers with 13 points. Hannah Fuller added 12 on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor.

Morgan Breitbach scored 10 for Xavier. Maddie Bertsch posted six points and seven rebounds.

WEST DES MOINES VALLEY 55, CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER 31

At U.S. Cellular Center

WDM VALLEY (55): Madi Agey 4-9 4-4 13, Whitney Fuller 1-6 3-6 5, Grace Vander Weide 3-12 3-4 9, Hannah Fuller 6-7 0-2 12, Kasey Feldt 2-3 2-3 6, Courtney Carr 3-4 0-1 8, Emily Smith 0-2 0-0 0, Lexi Merritt 0-2 0-00, Taylor Steil 0-1 0-0 0, Leah Lodermeier 0-0 0-0 0, Jadyn Loecke 0-0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Ward 1-2 0-0 2, Jackie Feldt 0-0 0-0 0, Jamie Feldt 0-0 0-0 0, Casey Carr 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-48 12-20 55.

C.R. XAVIER (31): Abby Watson 0-5 0-0 0, Hayley Deutmeyer 2-10 1-1 5, Lizzy Bailey 2-2 1-3 5, Morgan Breitbach 4-6 2-3 10, Maddie Bertsch 3-8 0-2 6, Jenny Dickes 1-3 0-0 2, Meghan Joens 0-3 0-0 0, Erin Drahozal 0-2 1-2 1, Brylee Bastian 0-2 0-0 0, Claire Christianson 0-1 0-0 0, Madi Nelson 0-0 0-0 0, Kylie Tritle 1-1 0-0 2, Kiana Stanek 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-44 5-11 31.

Halftime: Valley 34, Xavier 16. 3-point goals: Valley 3-14 (Agey 1-2, W.Fuller 0-3, VanderWeide 0-4, C.Carr 2-2, Smith 0-1, Merritt 0-1, Steil 0-1), Xavier 0-2 (Dickes, Stanek 0-1). Team fouls: Valley 12, Xavier 17. Fouled out: none. Rebounds: Valley 35 (Vander Weide 9), Xavier 34 (Bertsch 7). Assists: Valley 8 (Agey, Vander Weide 3), Xavier 4 (Deutmeyer 3). Steals: Valley 11 (four with 2), Xavier 6 (Dickes 3). Turnovers: Valley 11, Xavier 23.

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.