Prep volleyball previews

As the prep season gears up, Josh wrote preview stories for both Fort Atkinson's volleyball teams for the Daily Union.

Read the girls' preview here.

Check out the boys' preview here.

Verona's great softball season comes to a close

Anthony was at Goodman Field covering Verona softball. Kendra Bowe was too much for the Wildcats offense, and they fell 7-0 after finishing a great season. Check out Anthony's story here.

Verona softball

Video and interviews from the game

Blackhawk baseball defies odds to reach State, fall to LaFollette

Josh has been busy covering the Fort Atkinson High School baseball team's incredible run to the WIAA Division 1 State Tournament.
Check out stories he wrote for the Daily Union about their run to the tourney and their quarterfinal match up.

State matchup with Madison LaFollete

State run

WIAA falls short on state golf plans

The WIAA state golf championships were Monday and Tuesday, and the great play from Middleton’s Mike Schilling, who won the Division 1 individual title, wasn’t the only story.

The story had to do with the weather and the lack of a plan in case the storms washed away the golf balls. It was 9 P.M., and the rains had subsided to a drizzle. However, it was also pitch black outside.

In the Professional Golf Association, the first sign of storms or dusk stops a tournament for the day. High school sports are much different, but why should the players have to suffer?

The players and the coaches and the parents do not control the weather, but they should have the call to postpone a tournament until the next day. However, when no back up plan is in place, there isn’t a choice for anyone, even the WIAA.

The results trickled in around 9:30 P.M. The light was gone at 8:30 P.M. Therefore, the last four teams playing had no real chance to make a move. The last few players had no chance to hope for a great finish. No one birdied the final three holes at the end of the tournament. Middleton ended six strokes back, after being 15 strokes back when the light was around.

What does this all mean? It means the WIAA needs to have a back up plan, or they need to tweak their current system. When the rain slowed the players down, it made it impossible to finish before the light hid itself in the night sky.

So, what should they do? For one, the golf course was booked up the next day. They wouldn’t be able to continue if they stopped the play, so they bring out the headlights and hope for the best. But why shouldn’t they reserve the morning the next day for these extreme cases?

It is extremely difficult to postpone a large state tournament, and the rain wasn’t bad enough to call anything. However, the rain slowed the action down, and it hurt the players at the end. The WIAA should automatically postpone at night. They should either break up the tournament to three days – Division 2 & 3 early on day one with Division 1 teeing off at noon, Division 2 & 3 final round on day two and Division 1 final round on day three – or have the morning reserved the next morning in case of these extreme cases.

If the weather is great, then the WIAA officials don’t need to worry. However in cases when the night jeopardizes the tournament’s success level, another plan should be utilized. We just saw what the night could do. What if strong storms ripped through all day? Then what? The day one leaders are winners? The lack of planning should be a concern to coaches, parents and especially players.

Pirate relay team reloaded for 2010

The 2009 Waterloo girls’ 3200-meter relay team had many accomplishments. They qualified for the state meet, finished ninth in the Division 3 race and set the school record of 10:05.01 in the process.

Distance coach Eric Keen doesn’t see the success ending there, however. Every member of the record setting relay team returns to the team this season, and Keen sees the potential to achieve much more.

“They’re going to be in control of their own destiny. What they want to achieve is up to them. The sky is the limit. They don’t even know their full potential yet,” he continued. “It’s very exciting and I really look forward to working with them for the next two, three years and just see what they are capable of doing.”

The distance coach has the girls doing strength work to build a solid base of training. As the season wears on, he will begin sprinkling in speed workouts to help the girls’ peak at the end of the season. So far, the girls have shown promise, but injuries have popped up among the Pirates.

“Everyone is looking faster,” Keen said. “The unfortunate thing is Haley (Madderon) went down with a pretty bad knee injury, basically the second week of practice. She’s a huge question mark. She might try to run a little bit.”

Madderon wasn’t always on the relay team, however. The 2009 team of Tiffanni Stout, Laura Crave, Cassie Forman and Jasmine MacLaughlin qualified for the state meet with a third place finish at the sectional. Keen and the other Waterloo coaches decided to make a line-up change for the state championships in La Crosse.

“Tiffanni also qualified in the pole vault,” Keen explained. “We thought we would utilize her strictly in the pole vault and give one of the younger runners, Haley Madderon, a chance to run.”

The strategy proved successful. Every girl on the team ran a personal best time, and set the school record.

“They got into a fast race and ran what they were capable of,” Keen said. “None of them had the state experience. They had all had a taste of a big race … but nothing of the state caliber.”

After their performance at the state track meet, head coach Shane Seefeld said the relay team had its sights set on breaking the 10-minute barrier. According to Keen, the feat is a very real possibility.

“We ran 10:21 in sectionals to qualify; we ran 10:05 [at state]. Just to drop 16 seconds in one race, shows me that they were capable of running near or sub-10 minutes all year,” Keen said. “Now that they’ve run that time, I don’t think there is anything holding them back from breaking that 10-minute mark.”

Stout is the team’s only senior. Crave (sophomore), Madderon (sophomore), MacLaughlin (junior) and Forman (junior) will be back next year, which allows the team to have future success.

However, with Madderon’s knee issues, which may require surgery, and MacLaughlin recovering from her own surgery, the injuries could slow their progress. Keen does likes what he sees overall, despite of the setbacks, and he said the team is “in a lot better shape than they think.”

“I just want to see them be competitive,” Keen said. “Your main focus is to get to state every year. It’s not something that’s an automatic or a given. Hopefully, we can make it back to state and go from there. It’s always nice to get on the podium. That’s definitely something we’ll try to build upon."