maly, too: It's a Bittersweet Wacky Wednesday for Me. I Talked About Writing To 5 Groups Of Wacky-Dressed Kids and Teachers At Mount Olive Lutheran School, Then Watched Valley's Girls' Basketball Season End At 22-2 With a 68-60 Loss To Southeast Polk In the Class 5-A State Tournament. 'When We Got To 22-1, We Thought We Could Win It All. But It Just Wasn't In the Cards,' Tigers Coach Joe Sigrist Tells Me

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

It's a Bittersweet Wacky Wednesday for Me. I Talked About Writing To 5 Groups Of Wacky-Dressed Kids and Teachers At Mount Olive Lutheran School, Then Watched Valley's Girls' Basketball Season End At 22-2 With a 68-60 Loss To Southeast Polk In the Class 5-A State Tournament. 'When We Got To 22-1, We Thought We Could Win It All. But It Just Wasn't In the Cards,' Tigers Coach Joe Sigrist Tells Me

By RON MALY

I wasn't aware that this was Wacky Wednesday until the day actually got here.

Then it really got wacky for me.

A good news/bad news Wacky Wednesday, actually.

Julie DenHerder, the worship and music ministry director at Mount Olive Lutheran Church and School in Des Moines, contacted me a while back to see if I'd be interested in participating on fine arts day during National Lutheran Schools Week, which happens to be this week.

Wacky Wednesday at Mount Olive

Julie explained that she wanted me and three or four other people to talk to Mount Olive's students about what it is we do.

My assignment, obviously, would be to talk with the students about writing. Julie knew that I've had a long career as a writer and that I'm still practicing the craft in the form of authoring books and writing columns on 15 Internet websites.

I agreed to be at the school from 1 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. today.

However, little did I know then that the Valley High School girls' basketball team I've been following closely all season would be playing in the class 5-A state tournament on the day Wacky Wednesday was being celebrated at Mount Olive.

By the way, Wacky Wednesday at the school consisted of the teachers, staff and students dressing as wacky as they wanted throughout the day. You'll see the outfits in the photos below and at the right side.

Because of it being Wacky Wednesday at Mount Olive, and because I had every intention of getting to Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines for at least some of the Valley-Southeast Polk basketball game that began at 3:15 p.m., the day got wackier for me than for a lot of others.

The 20-minute sessions--five in all--with the kids went smoothly at school. I told 'em how I'd gotten hooked on writing when, as a fourth-grader at Lincoln School in Cedar Rapids, I finished second in a city-wide essay contest.

In my essay, I wrote about why Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees was my favorite baseball player, and I received a Louisville Slugger bat as my prize.

I told the kids that when Miss Dennis, the principal at Lincoln, found out I did so well in the essay contest, she asked me to give a speech to all of the other students at the school.

I told the kids today that everyone needs confidence-builders throughout their lives, and that was one I received. Many thanks, Miss Dennis.

I also told the kids at Mount Olive about how one of my teachers at Wilson High School in Cedar Rapids--I think her name was Miss Jeffries--told me in an 11th-grade class, loudly enough so everyone else could hear, "Ron, I think you should go into some sort of journalism or writing career because I think you write very well."

Another confidence-builder, obviously.

I treasure the memory of Miss Jeffries to this day.

The second part of Wacky Wednesday didn't go well for me.

After leading early in the game, 17-4, Valley lost to Southeast Polk, 68-60.

Thus ended the Tigers' marvelous season.

A 22-2 record. The disappointment of seeing their hopes for a state championship halted in the late afternoon of a cold, gray day in March.

I had watched the progress made throughout the season by Joe Sigrist's Valley team. The only loss in the Tigers' first 23 games was at Dowling.

I had a one-on-one conversation with Sigrist in the quiet of the interview room late in the day at Wells Fargo Arena.

It was difficult listening to him talk about the costly defeat.

"Tough loss, Joe," I said. "But when the season began, did you envision getting this far with this team?"

"I did," Sigrist said. "Getting here [to the state tournament] was our big goal. And, when we got to 22-1, we thought we could win it all. But it just wasn't in the cards."

I made it to my seat on press row at the arena at halftime after the drive down I-235 and finally finding a place to park.

So I wasn't there early enough to see Valley's spurt to a 17-4 lead.

When I asked Sigrist what happened after that, he said, "We missed a couple of assignments defensively and we let Southeast Polk get hot behind the arc. But they're great shooters. We tried to get out on their good shooters and sag back for help on the non-shooters."

Sigrist said Valley didn't execute its game plan "the way we thought we could. They have tremendous shooters, and got those second-chance rebounds at crucial moments. Tip your hat to Southeast Polk."

This was Sigrist's second season as Valley's coach. He went 14-8 in his first season.

"I knew we'd be be better this season," he said. "We came in at 6 a.m. three days a week during the summer, and these girls worked hard to achieve this goal of getting to the state tournament. I'm so proud of them for winning our conference outright.

"It hurts right now, but we need to look at our tremendous accomplishments this season. I'm just so proud of our seniors, who got us to the state tournament for the first time in seven years. It's an honor to be their coach. The seniors can hold their heads high, knowing they put this program back on the map."

Sigrist, 32, said he's been teaching in the West Des Moines school system for seven years.

He teaches math at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School, and told me he has "worked my way up" the coaching ladder.

"I was an eighth-grade boys' coach ,at Stilwell Junior High, then when Jeff Horner got theValley boys' job, I joined his staff as a sophomore coach," he said. "When this girls' coaching job became available, I put my name into the hat, and I was fortunate enough to be chosen.

"I have no regrets. I love coaching these girls. They're an amazing group."

The extent of Sigrist's girls' coaching are the two seasons at Valley.

"I coached boys for nine years," he said. "That was in Ohio, Arizona and Iowa.

Sigrist was born in Massillon, Ohio--a city known more for football than its basketball--and said he's "a big Ohio State fan."

But he didn't attend Ohio State.

"I went to a small Catholic school, Walsh University, where I played basketball and baseball," he said.

Valley's administration and fans should feel fortunate he's here now.

The guy did an outstanding job in his second season as the girls' basketball coach.

Wacky Wednesday at Mount Olive Lutheran, courtesy of Facebook

Ron at Wacky Wednesday With Kids I

Ron at Wacky Wednesday With Kids II

Ron at Wacky Wednesday With Kids III

Ron at Wacky Wednesday With Kids IV

Ron at Wacky Wednesday With Kids V

Valley's orange-clad fans at Wells Fargo Arena on Wacky Wednesday

[Photos by Mount Olive teachers and staff and Ron Maly]

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.