Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright believes he can still be the best pitcher in all of baseball, even at 36 years old and coming off an injury-riddled season that was the worst of his career. The right-hander will play a key role as St. Louis tries to end a skid of two straight seasons without making the playoffs.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals thought they would be rebuilding when their core group hit free agency. A soft market allowed them to retain several key players. Now, nobody is quite sure whether they will compete or collapse, which makes the upcoming season surprisingly interesting. The Royals open the season at home March 29 against the Chicago White Sox.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have signed defensive tackle Xavier Williams. The Arizona Cardinals declined to match the offer Kansas City made to the run-stopper. Williams grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Grandview, Missouri, before a standout career at Northern Iowa. He started twice and appeared in 23 games over the past two seasons in Arizona.

ATLANTA (AP) — The bracket-busting South Region looks more like the Kentucky Invitational, featuring the blue bloods from the Bluegrass State and those other guys. The Wildcats are joined in Atlanta by Nevada, Kansas State and Loyola, an upset-minded trio that made this the first regional in NCAA tournament history to oust all four top seeds on the first weekend. But Kentucky coach John Calipari is urging his young team not to “drink the poison” that they’ve got an easy road to the Final Four.

UNDATED (AP) — Kentucky should feel right at home in ‘Cat-lanta’ when it faces Kansas State in the semifinals of the South Regional. The team had a 26-6 record at the Georgia Dome, including a triumph in the 2012 South Regional on the way to its last national title. Kansas State is looking for extra motivation in the perception that it’s the worst team left in the NCAA field.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Missouri State is filling its men’s basketball coaching vacancy by hiring Dana Ford away from Tennessee State. Tennessee State athletic director Teresa Phillips has announced in a university release that Ford has accepted the Missouri State job. Ford went 57-65 in four seasons at Tennessee State but was 52-39 over the last three seasons. Ford takes over for the fired Paul Lusk.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke and Kentucky have been down this road before, winning championships with extraordinarily young rosters. They seem to be the masters of the one-and-done era. Both programs have a chance to do it again. After several potential one-and-done phenoms were bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the opening weekend, the Blue Devils and Wildcats are the teams still playing that have rosters stacked with high-profile freshmen. Marvin Bagley III leads Duke; Kevin Knox is the centerpiece at Kentucky.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones and the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, paid tribute to the Atlantic Middle School/High School Archery Team, for their efforts at State. Clint Roland, Archery Coach, said there are about 60 students from the Middle School and High School are enrolled in the Archery Program. About one-third of those students and some of their parents attended the Council meeting.

Some of the dozens of members of the Atlantic MS/HS Archery Team and Coach Roland, along w/City Council members.

Roland said 37 team members were sent to the State Tournament this year. The Tournament was comprised primarily of underclassmen and a handful of young seniors “So we’re not losing a lot, we’re gaining.” Roland said also the team “Has done tremendous things, they’ve done tremendous work with support from the school system, from the community and everybody around, and we’re a growing program. It keeps flying along.”

Roland said also, that the kids work hard for about six-months out of the year on their skills, and “It’s a long season, but they trudge forward.” He also thanked Atlantic Police Chief Dave Erickson for driving the school bus to their last tournament in southern Iowa during an ice storm, and keeping the students safe.

He said “It’s a great program, these kids do a great job. I’m proud to be a part of it.” Roland has been coaching the team for the past four-years. The team is also coached by Justin Williams and Dent Petty.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association has released the football schedules for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.  Take a look at all of the schedules here.

According to the state there are 311 schools scheduled to play varsity football in the next two seasons. 266 of those schools will play 11-player football and the rest 8-player.

Schools in classes 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, and A submit a non-district priority list of the opponents they would like to face outside of district play. 8-player schools have all 9 games scheduled for them. The IHSAA said that 183 schools received all 4 matchups on their priority lists, and 93.6 percent of schools received 3 or more of the matchups they requested.  No teams are scheduled to have three consecutive home or away games unless that was requested by the school. All programs will continue to have 9 home and 9 away games through the two-year cycle.

Here is a look at the key dates for the playing weeks the next two seasons.

2018: Week 0 is Thursday, August 16 and Friday, August 17; Week 1 is Thursday, August 23 and Friday, August 24; First Round playoff games are Friday, October 26; Finals is Thursday, November 15 and Friday, November 16.

2019: Week 0 is Thursday, August 22 and Friday, August 23; Week 1 is Thursday, August 29 and Friday, August 30; First Round playoff games are Friday, November 1; Finals is Thursday, November 21 and Friday, November 22.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association has released the schedules for football teams in the state for the next 2 year cycle. As previously released some class changes have occurred for some area teams and the playoff qualification process has also changed.

For the Atlantic Trojans they will be competing in Class 2A for the next 2-year cycle. Here is a look at the Atlantic Schedules:

Atlantic 2018 Schedule:
BYE
08/24 @Saydel
08/31 Creston
09/07 Clarinda
09/14 @Harlan
09/21 Kuemper Catholic, Carroll
09/28 OA-BCIG
10/05 @Greene County
10/12 @Shenandoah
10/19 Red Oak

Atlantic 2019 Schedule:
BYE
08/30 Saydel
09/06 @Creston
09/13 @Clarinda
09/20 Harlan
09/27 @Kuemper Catholic, Carroll
10/04 @OA-BCIG
10/11 Greene County
10/18 Shenandoah
10/25 @Red Oak

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have signed defensive tackle Xavier Williams, a restricted free agent from the Arizona Cardinals, who declined to match the offer Kansas City made to the run-stopper. The Chiefs announced the signing in a statement Wednesday.

The 6-foot-2, 309-pound Williams grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Grandview, Missouri, before a standout career at Northern Iowa. He started twice and appeared in 23 games over the past two seasons in Arizona, making 28 tackles and earning a reputation as someone who can plug up the run. The Chiefs had been searching for a nose tackle after Bennie Logan became a free agent.

The Glenwood girls track team competed at the Nebraska Wesleyan Indoor meet on Tuesday and came away with a third place team finish. The Rams scored 58 points to finish third behind Aurora (72 points) and Elkhorn (69).

The Ram were led by Emma Hughes with a win in the 1600M Run and Danielle Hardcastle who took the High Jump title. Glenwood also took the 4x800M Relay crown.

Sydney Biermann finished 3rd in the Shot Put and the 4x400M Relay team was also 3rd for the Rams.

A number of area teams competed in day two of the Dan Lennon Invitational at the University of South Dakota on Tuesday. Here’s a rundown of some of the top competitors on each side.

In Girls competition East Mills’ Janette Schraft won the 800M Run with a time of 2:18.30. In the Shot Put Logan-Magnolia’s Katie Diggins took gold with a toss of 11.57m. Her teammate Delaney Ettleman was second with a toss of 11.16m.  Harlan won the 4x200m Relay with a time of 1:54.78. That team consisted of Sidney Craig, Alyssa Sotelo, Ashley Hall, and Chloe Hansen.

Logan-Magnolia’s Taylor Sporrer took second in the 3200M Run with a time of 12:16.92.

Sporrer also took 2nd in the 1600M Run with a time of 5:49.33. Harlan’s Greichaly Kaster was third in that race with a 5:51.39.

In Boys action Nick Foss was a champion in the 60M Dash with a time of 7.15. He also took gold in the Long Jump with a best effort of 6.63m. Harlan also won the 4x400M Relay with Eli Boldan, Jacob Bruck, Jon Monson, and Mason Griffith running 3:40.97.

Harlan also took 2nd in the Sprint Medley with a time of 3:53.35. That team was Jon Monson, Jacob Bruck, Deren Schmitz, and Jon Owens. Caleb Brouse was 2nd for the Cyclones in the shot put with a throw of 13.94.

Harlan’s Erik Dawson-Anderson was 3rd in the 400M Run with a 55.96.

Sidney’s Zachary Benedict took 2nd in the High Jump clearing 1.90m.

There will be plenty of competition at linebacker when the Iowa Hawkeyes open spring drills on Wednesday. Josey Jewell, Bo Bower and Ben Niemann are gone from last years team that finished 8-5 and won the Pinstripe Bowl. That trio accounted for 306 tackles in 2017.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz who says the first chore is to find the three best linebackers then figure out where to put them on the field.

Iowa lost junior center James Daniels and junior corner Josh Jackson to the NFL Draft. That will leave next year’s team with an unusually small senior class.

Iowa’s spring game is April 20th.

Loras College baseball coach Carl Tebon has known Iowa coach Rick Heller since they coached against each other in the Iowa Conference when Heller was at Upper Iowa. They will go at it again on today (Wednesday) when the Hawkeyes host the Duhawks in Iowa City.

It is the second straight year they have met. Iowa beat Loras 8-1 in their season opener last season and Tebon says the chance to play the Hawkeyes again is an opportunity his players enjoy.

Tebon says the success Iowa has enjoyed makes it ever more of a challenge.

Loras is 10-3 on the season.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field.

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