The 2018-19 sports season is in the books, which means I have nothing to do. I stayed busy this sports season by covering 101 total events. Those events ranged as far west as Lincoln, Nebraska, as far north as Sioux City, as far south as Springfield, Missouri and as east as Iowa City. It was exhausting at times, but a ton of fun.
The beauty of covering so many events was that I was fortunate to see many awesome things. I saw so many awesome things that I decided to write about some of them. I wish I could have wrote about all 101 events I covered, but instead, I chose to highlight the top 15 in a three-part series. You can view the first part with moments 11 through 15 here.
Now it's time to dive into moments 6 through 10.
DISCLAIMER: This list only includes events that I physically covered. I did not cover Treynor girls basketballs' state title run or state track, so those are not on the list.
#10 Sami Jahde comes oh-so-close to a state golf title
If the 1A Girls state golf meet would have been reduced to one day because of weather, Sami Jahde would have won a state title. The CAM junior posted an 18-hole score of 77 on day one and led the leaderboards through the day. She also posted a 77 in day two but was outdueled by Alta-Aurelia's Annika Patton, who shot a 70 on the second day to snag the state title.
Jahde had an amazing front nine and nearly managed a hole-in-one, unfortunately, Patton posted a stronger back nine and relegated Jahde to second place. The most impressive part to me about the whole day was that according to her coach, Joe Wollum, Jahde had no clue how she was doing the entire day and she just assumed she was behind when she actually led until the final holes. It might not have ended how she hoped, but she was just a junior and will be even more motivated next year to win the whole dang thing.
#9 CAM plays postseason spoiler with emotional win dedicated to the Wollum family
2019 was a memorable year for CAM athletics. Jahde's aforementioned state title quest and the girls' basketball teams' first state tournament appearance since 1997 probably stick out in the minds of the Cougar faithful, but it was a regular-season football game that stuck out the most to me.
I'm going to prefix this by saying you will be hard-pressed to find a nicer person than CAM's Joe Wollum. Wollum coaches multiple sports (football, girls basketball and golf), is also their AD, does a tremendous job at all the above and is an all-around great person. This year, Wollum and his family experienced a tragedy nobody should ever have to experience (DMart wrote a great piece on Coach Wollum, check it out), despite all this, Wollum stayed strong and showed who he and ultimately the CAM community really are.
I covered the Cougars' final regular-season game against Audubon in Anita. CAM came in 5-3 and had already been eliminated from the playoffs while their opponent Audubon would clinch a playoff spot with a win. The Cougars were also without their Coach Wollum that night because he was tending to something way more important than any football game ever will be. The task of guiding a team that hoped to be playing postseason spoiler fell on former Red Oak coach Barry Bower.
It would have been really easy for CAM to pack it in and call it a year. They were led by a handful of impactful seniors and their season and their careers were coming to a close. Nobody would have blamed them, but that's not what they did.
Instead, the Cougars raced to an early 28-7 lead. Audubon then stormed back, scoring 25 unanswered and taking a 32-28 lead with just seven minutes remaining. The Cougars responded to the adversity and quickly answered with a score of their own and forced a late turnover to seal the victory and dash Audubon's playoff hopes. The postgame speech delivered by Coach Bower as well as the celebration from the entire CAM community gave me chills. That win was bigger than just a football game.
#8 Glenwood girls' track dominates Hawkeye Ten, takes 3A state title
I mentioned in the disclaimer that I didn't cover state track, but I did cover multiple meets that included the 3A champion Glenwood Rams. The Rams were coming off a stellar 2018 campaign and had high hopes for the 2019 season thanks to many returning pieces and the acquisitions of Janette Schraft and Coryl Matheny.
Cory Faust's squad set the tone early in the season with a dominant victory at the Hawkeye Ten South meet in Creston. The Rams won 16 of the 19 events, finished 1-2 in five events and scored 95 more points than runner-up Creston. I expected the Rams to win the meet, but not even I predicted that level of dominance.
The dominance continued into every meet I covered them in. They cruised to a large school title at the Lady Tiger Relays in Red Oak, posted their fifth Hawkeye Ten Title in six years and made a statement at their state qualifying meet by automatically qualifying in 14 events. The state meet obviously ended up being their most competitive meet, winning the title by only half a point, but the road to get there was paved with dominance.
#7 Shen tennis competes with the big dogs and takes third
I knew nothing about tennis prior to May 2019. I still don't know much, but I know some and the fine folks of Shenandoah are responsible for almost all the tennis knowledge I acquired. The Shenandoah tennis team has been a contender for quite some time. The Fillies posted a third-place finish in 2017 and had reached state three of the last four years prior to 2019. Shenandoah's path to the Final Four was not easy. They first had to beat Hawkeye Ten foe Glenwood for the second time in a season. The Fillies did so 5-2. Then they made the trek to Osceola where they defeated Pella 5-1 to advance to the state quarterfinals.
In the state quarterfinals, the Fillies made the two-and-a-half-hour trek to Norwalk and shutout Pella Christian for another Final Four berth. The Fillies were joined in the Final Four by Waterloo Columbus, Cedar Rapids Xavier, and Dubuque Wahlert. Three cities with an average population of 84, 123 opposed to Shenandoah's population of 5,150. The Fillies fell in the semifinal to eventual champion Xavier, but responded with a 5-0 win over Wahlert to claim third. The Fillies return three members from the 2019 lineup and tennis a really big deal in Shenandoah, so I would not be surprised to see them do it again in 2020.
#6 Gabe Pauley battles through woes, doubles down with another dramatic state title
Pauley's quest to repeat got off to a rough start with a loss to a state-ranked wrestler from Nebrask in ultimate-tie breaker because of what I felt (and still feel) was a missed stall call on his opponent. Pauley then buckled up and took down everyone else in his way until a meeting with eventual 2A champion Kyler Fisher from Southeast Valley, where Pauley lost the match in overtime due to a second stall call. Two weeks later, Pauley lost his district finals match in a bizarre manner. He was attempting to throw Southeast Warren's Colby Page, but lost the match by a fall and was not the district champion.
During the state tournament, Pauley made a remark about "kicking the crap out of whoever was next". Some people, like myself, loved Pauley's comments and thought they exemplified the type of mindset he has (which is a winning mindset btw), many, however, took his remarks as brash and rooted against him, but do you think Gabe Pauley cared? Heck no, he didn't. He took down everyone in his way to set up a state title match with Thomas Even (Don Bosco).
A fellow media member said before the match that they were picking Even to win. I told him it was not wise to pick against Pauley and I was right, but it took some dramatics. Late in the match, Pauley was issued what I thought was a bad stall call that tied the match and sent it to sudden victory. Pauley promptly responded with a takedown on Even to capture his second consecutive state championship. Pauley's second state title certainly did not come as easy as the first, but maybe that made it that much sweeter. Either way, it was a pleasure to cover.
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