Wednesday, February 12, 2014

You know me. Whenever and wherever there's music, especially when my grandchildren are involved, I'll be there. The Valley High School Choir Department turned in a wonderful performance last night at the Valley Sweetheart Show in the Norwalk High School Auditorium. Valley's vocal performers and drama departments are using auditoriums in communities such as Norwalk and Waukee this school year because Valley's new auditorium is under construction. The Sweetheart Show featured the Choralation & Show Choirs, Vocalese, Vocal Point, Vox & Syncopation Jazz Choirs and other small group performances. The music was outstanding, and so was the literature that fans of the show received when they entered the auditorium. Included were photos of a number of the performers as they looked when they were toddlers. Pictures on a printed page don't have sound, but you could pretty much figure by looking at those photos that the kids were headed for big things in vocal music. All in all, it was excellent entertainment for parents, grandparents and friends of the talented students.

And now this from the West Des Moines Community Schools on Facebook:

Record Number of Entries Advance to IHSSA All-State

Valley High School and Walnut Creek Campus will be sending a record 21 performances to the Iowa High School Speech Association’s All-State Festival Saturday, February 22 at Iowa State University. This is the first time a WCC entry has advanced to all-state competition.

Entries receiving a I rating at districts advance to the state competition where three judges critique the performance. Performances that receive at least two all-state nominations and are in the upper percentages of point ratings advance to all-state.

Valley’s 20 all-state entries set not only a school record, but a state record as well. Each school in the state is allowed to enter up to 23 performances into competition. Valley set a record earlier this year by having all 23 of its district entries advance to state competition.

“I am honored to work alongside such an incredible, dedicated team and family of directors, students and parents,” said Valley drama director Stacy Hansen. “The IHSSA offers opportunities for all students, and we strongly believe in that philosophy. Everyone is truly on the same team.”

Walnut Creek Campus junior Gabe Mason, coached by WCC teacher Ted Vandeventer, also advanced to all-state in the solo mime category. While Valley Southwoods did not have any acts advance to all-state, a record was set for the school with all nine of its entries receiving a I rating at state contest.

Valley/WCC All-State Entries

READER’S THEATRE

“Missing”

Directed by Stacy Hansen
Stage Managers: Kathryn Catellier, Haley Melz
Sarah Clarke, Liz Cleven, Sam Cohrs, Keaton Denker, Brandon Devine, Lucy Gee, Annie Howard, Matthew Hrdlicka, Michael Keay, Claire Maly, Savannah Mendenhall, Chris Ortiz, Ryan Voggesser, Annie Weinberg and Daniel Williams

SOLO MIME

“Bring Him Home”

Directed by Adrian McLain
Sammie Binns
Gabe Mason (Walnut Creek)

GROUP IMPROV

Directed by Joe Van Haecke
Malique Drees and Danny Williams
Mason McCoy and JJ MIcka
Hira Mustafa and Grady Stein

CHORAL READING

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”

Directed by Stacy Hansen
Stage Managers: Katherine Smoldt, Allison Streck
Sam Cacciatore, Jared Freiburg, Chloe Goodman, Andy Han, Grace Harper, Jessica Martens, Abbie Martin, Anna Mockricky, Elise Ramaekers, Emma Stier, Daniel Soto, Melanie Taylor, Nick Wang, Will Ward and Jake Wheeler

GROUP MIME

“Dallas, 1963: A Conspiracy Theory?”

Directed by Derek Clausssen
Jared Freiburg, Kenzie Hamlett, Micala Johnson, Jake Leiberton, Mason McCoy and Ryan Voggesser

“The Water Goblin”

Directed by Derek Claussen
Hannah Anderson, Julia Anderson, Lily DeTaeye, Abbie Martin, Melanie Taylor and Nick Wang

“Berlin: A Family Divided”

Directed by Adrian McLain
Chiara Guggiari, Connor McCarville, Daniel Miller, Nico Mulhern, Angelina Mullican and Sarah Phillips

MUSICAL THEATRE

“Young Frankenstein”

Directed by Brianne Magel & Megan Helmers
Stage Manager: Kathryn Smoldt
Sam Cacciatore, Sammy Jordan, Maria Lind, Jessica Martens, Daniel Soto and Will Ward

“Carrie”

Stage Manager: Allison Streck
Sam Cohrs, Brandon Devine, Abby Hudson, Kara Masteller, Nicole Miller and Emma Stier

“Dogfight”

Stage Manager: Marisa Potts
Keaton Denker, Chloe Goodman, Andy Han, Michael Keay, Dani Lipman and Lauren Pfeil

ENSEMBLE ACTING

“Of Mice and Men”

Directed by Angela Vogel
Malique Drees and Chris Ortiz

“To Burn a Witch”

Directed by Allison Krois
Lucy Gee, Abby Hudson and Kara Masteller and Jaclyn Warden

T.V. NEWS

Directed by Glen Biermann
Tanner Barkley, Kyra Cooper, Rachel Ehrecke, Alex Johnson, Haley Melz, Hira Mustafa, Elizabeth Reed, Katherine Smoldt, Sidd Somayajyk, Chase Stine, Grady Stein, Sam Throm, Lejla Avdic, Emily Carr, Bailey Cook, Rebekah Conard, Natalie Dean, Sam Dayton, Reid Epstein, Josh Farmer, Cheyenne Hensley, Alison Isenhoff, Elle Little, Sarahi Lopez, Olivia McDermott, Alyson O’Hara, Brianne Tuttle, Megan Vratsinas and Matt Yeates

CREW: Isabella Hake, Erin McCauley and Cheyenne Vanlandingham

FILM

“Eternity”

Directed by Allison Krois
Mallory Heil, Cameron Hillsmen, Samantha Ivie, Carly Johnson, Maria Larson, Olympa Manning, Paige Marshall, Caroline Stump
Jazlyn Talley, Pearl Tate, Cody Thompson, Nathan Thompson, Spencer Tramontina, Maren Tuttle and Ramya Vemulapalli

“A Touch of Love”

Directed by Allison Krois
Student directed by Alex Fell and Chase Stine
Tanner Barkley, Cooper Christensen, Katie Daft, Dylan Davis, Baldeep Dhingra, Benjamin Galiano, Lea Gouvenou, Lisa Jacobsen, Gabe Klein, Alex McNunn, Zacharias Miller, Blake Porter, Alyssa Tainter, Thanat Wangsiripaisam and Alejandro Wurts

RADIO NEWS (two teams)

“UWN: The Splash”

Directed by Glen Biermann

“W.A.L.T”

Cooper Christensen, Rachel Ehrecke, Grace Harper, Annie Howard, Matthew Hrdlicka, Anna Mockricky, Elizabeth Reed, Chase Stine, Jaclyn Warden and Jake Wheeler

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.