(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Hawkeye women improved to 4-0 with an 87-67 win over Southern, Wednesday. The Hawkeyes connected on 33 of 38 free throws and there were 46 fouls called in the game.

That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. Caitlin Clark had a triple double with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Ryan Nembhard dropped in 22 points and Ryan Hawkins finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead Creighton past Nebraska 77-69 on Tuesday night. The Bluejays led by 4 at halftime and outscored the Huskers by the same margin in the second half to grab the win at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.

The Bluejays improved to 4-0 on the season and will now prepare for a home game on Friday against Brown University.

Nebraska dropped to 1-3 on the year.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa outscored North Carolina Central 29-12, Tuesday, to finish the game in an 86-69 win in Iowa City. Sophomore Keegan Murray led the Hawkeyes with 27 points and 21 rebounds.

Murray says Aaron Ulis and Tony Perkins were keys off the bench as they combined for 24 points.

Murray says the Hawkeyes picked it up on the defensive end in the second half.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State used a late 7-0 run to hold off Alabama State 68-60 and improve to 3-0, Tuesday. Izaiah Brockington led the Cyclones with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

Brockington was nine of 17 from the field and has emerged as a leader on the team.

The Cyclones won despite making only one of 20 from three point range as they improve to 3-0. Cyclone coach T.J. Otzelberger.

The CAM Cougars will play for the 2021 8-Player football championship on Thursday morning at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. The 12-0 Cougars will square off against the 12-0 Easton Valley River Hawks. CAM earned their way to the title game with a 66-29 win over Audubon in the semifinals last Wednesday at the dome. Easton Valley knocked off defending champion Remsen, St. Mary’s 42-36 in the semis to reach the championship game.

The River Hawks have been able to achieve some pretty good balance on offense and CAM Head Coach Barry Bower says the first thing that jumps out at you about Easton Valley is the production Conor Gruver has had at the quarterback spot.

Gruver has thrown for 2,871 yards, 51 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions on the season. He’s backed up in the backfield by Charlie Simpson who has piled up 1,273 yards and 29 scores on the ground. Hayden Felkey and Carson Fuegen are two big threats in the pass game. Felkey has piled up 974 yards and 18 touchdowns from the tight end spot and Fuegen has hauled in 68 passes for 880 yards and 15 scores. Easton Valley Head Coach Tony Johnson said they have a group that works well together and is unselfish.

Coach Bower said with so many skill players for each team the line of scrimmage may be the most important battle.

CAM will counter with a powerful run game. Lane Spieker has continued to pile up impressive yardage each game and now holds the all-time rushing mark for a season in Iowa high school football. He’s up to 3,240 yards on the ground with 69 rushing scores. Coach Johnson said slowing down the run will be a challenge.

Coach Bower is soaking up the experience for the Cougars.

We’ll have coverage of the championship game on KJAN. Chris Parks and Matt Mullenix will have the call from the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls with pregame at 8:30 a.m. and kickoff at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. You can tune in on AM 1220, FM 101.1, and online at KJAN.com

DES MOINES, IOWA — The Drake University women’s basketball team settled in defensively after a rocky start, but had to come from too far back and lost to South Dakota 61-46 at the Knapp Center on Monday night.

Drake (1-1) shot just 19.2 percent (5-for-26) in the first half and finished at 25.9 percent for the game after shooting a little better over the final two quarters.

Megan Meyer and Maggie Bair led Drake with 10 points each, while Grace Berg had 8 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Bair added 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks and Meyer had a team-best 3 assists.

Drake trailed 40-19 at halftime and fell behind by 24 midway through the third quarter. The Bulldogs then found some rhythm offensively and ran off 11 straight points — a run that included 4 points from Meyer and a 3 from Katie Dinnebier — to cut the lead to 52-39 with 8:27 left.

But the rally died there and South Dakota did just enough to pull away and win comfortably, holding the Bulldogs to just one more basket after Dinnebier’s 3.

Center Hannah Sjerven, who went 2-for-10 in the loss to South Carolina, made 9 of 14 shots and led the Coyotes with 25 points and 12 rebounds. South Dakota shot 44.9 percent for the game.

Drake faces another challenging game later this week. No. 14 Iowa State visits the Knapp for a 6 p.m. tipoff on Thursday.

(Radio Iowa) – By a unanimous vote, the Mason City School Board Monday night approved beginning the process of retiring “Mohawks” as the district’s mascot and nickname. The issue of the school’s nickname is tied into logo and branding discussions that the school district has been having for the last year. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe recently called for the district to end the use of the name and associated imagery. Board member Katie Koehler hopes the community can turn its passion on the issue into finding the best new name possible for the students.  “They are so much more than a label,” Koehler says. “They leave here and they represent us, not as a label, but as an amazing human soul that goes out and does the best they can for the community that raised them and the communities they encounter.”

Board member Peterson Jean-Pierre says it wasn’t hard to make a decision to move forward and find other things that can represent the community as a whole without offending anyone or anything. “No one is taking away your pride and your compassion,” Jean-Pierre says. “The change of a name does not take away the years that you spent as a Mohawk. We’re not asking you to take your jerseys, or your shirts, or your paraphernalia or whatnot that has that logo on it and saying trash it. Love it, you love it, we love it, but if someone is asking you to hear them, and understand them and respect them, it’s our duty to do that.”

Seven people, four for keeping Mohawks and three supporting the name change, spoke to the board prior to the vote. Jan Groff is a retired teacher and coach and graduate of Mason City High School. She says she never saw or read anything disrespectful about the Mohawk and that the name was held in high esteem, pride and respect.  “I’m afraid that the decision will be made in this current atmosphere of what I want to call hypersensitivity,” Groff says. “I would hate in a few years to look back and wonder what we were thinking, dropping or changing the Mohawk after nearly 100 years. That is five generations of Mohawks, and quite the legacy and tradition that we have at our high school here in Mason City.”

Cristy Tass says the Mohawk name has not been used in any disrespect by the school district.  “Mason City has promoted the Mohawk name with values that inspire respect and have used logo images that are not caricatures, but portraits that resemble historic paintings for 97 years,” Tass says. “Not now, nor in our history, have we ever portrayed a negative stereotype of the Mason City Mohawks. Quite the opposite. For 97 years, we have worn this logo with ultimate pride in our school.”

The board approved administrators to start the transition from the use of the Mohawk name and mascot, including Native American images, symbols and likenesses to a new mascot immediately and for the administration to present at the board’s January 17th meeting a timeline to complete the transition from the Mohawk name and a plan to adopt a new mascot before July 1st. The district will immediately stop using Mohawks to introduce athletic teams, and the name will be removed from electronic communications such as the district’s website and other documents that can easily be edited.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Hawkeye men return to action tonight (Tuesday night) by hosting North Carolina Central. The Hawkeyes are 2-0 and coach Fran McCaffery likes the way the younger players have developed.

Iowa beat the Eagles by 30 a year ago but McCaffery says it is an experienced team despite losing a number of players off that team.

The Hawkeyes have two weeks before a difficult stretch of the schedule begins.

(Radio Iowa) – The 14th ranked Iowa State women outscored South Dakota State 21-9 in the second quarter, Monday, and rolled to a 75-56 win in Ames. Lexi Donarski led the Cyclones with 22 points as ISU took control after a sluggish opening quarter.

Asley Joens added 17 as the Cyclones avenged last season’s loss to the Jackrabbits.

ST. LOUIS, MO. – November 15, 2021 – The St. Louis Cardinals today announced their coaching staff for the upcoming 2022 season with two new coaches joining their Major League staff and newly-named manager Oli Marmol.

New to the team’s coaching staff for 2022 are Bench Coach, and former Cardinals outfielder/infielder Jared “Skip” Schumaker, and Assistant Hitting Coach Turner Ward.

Schumaker, 41, served as the San Diego Padres Associate Manager the past two seasons (2020-21) and was the team’s First Base Coach from 2018-19.  Prior to joining San Diego’s Major League coaching staff, Schumaker served as an assistant to baseball operations and player development for the Padres from 2016-17 after concluding his 11-year major league playing career.

Drafted by the Cardinals in 2001 (5th round) out of the University of California-Santa Barbara, Schumaker debuted with the Cardinals in 2005 and was a member of both the 2006 and 2011 World Series Championship teams during his eight seasons (2005-12) in St. Louis.

Schumaker’s playing career concluded in 2015 after stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2013) and Cincinnati (2014-15).   Schumaker compiled a career batting mark of .278 in 1,149 games played, posting .300-plus seasons in both 2008 (.302) and 2009 (.303).  Schumaker transitioned from the outfield to playing second base on a regular basis in 2009, and totaled 487 career games played at the keystone along with his 561 career games in the outfield.

Ward, 56, played 12 seasons in the majors from 1990-2001 before transitioning into coaching.  He spent eight years coaching in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, serving as Hitting Coach at Class AA Mobile (2008-10), Manager at Mobile (2011-12), Assistant Hitting coach for Arizona (2013) and Hitting Coach for Arizona (2014-15).  The Alabama native was the Hitting Coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2016-18, which included consecutive trips to the World Series in 2017 and 2018.   Ward then joined the Cincinnati Reds as hitting coach in 2019.  He also managed in the minors in 2006 with the Gulf Coast League Pirates and in 2007 with the State College Spikes of the New York-Penn League (A).

Ward’s Mobile teams won consecutive Southern League championships in 2011 and 2012, and he was named Southern League Manager of the Year in 2011 as Mobile was voted Minor League Team of the Year by Baseball America.

Drafted by the Yankees in 1986 as an outfielder out of the University of South Alabama, the switch-hitting Ward played for the Indians (1990-91), Blue Jays (1991-1993), Brewers (1994-96), Pirates (1997-99), Diamondbacks (1999-2000) and Phillies (2001).

Those returning to the team’s Major League coaching staff include Pitching Coach Mike Maddux (5th season with Cardinals), Bullpen Coach Bryan Eversgerd (5th season), Hitting Coach Jeff Albert (3rd season), First Base Coach Stubby Clapp (4th season), Third Base Coach Ron “Pop” Warner (4th season) and Coach Willie McGee (5th season).

Also returning for 2022 are Pitching Strategist Dusty Blake (2nd season), Run Production Coach Patrick Elkins (3rd season), Bullpen Catcher/Catching Instructor Jamie Pogue and Bullpen Catcher Kleininger Teran.