The Atlantic Girls Basketball team is coming off one of their most successful seasons in recent history with a 13-9 record and a first round postseason win in 2015-16.  It’s up to an inexperienced group of players to try and carry on the program improvement this season.  The Trojan lost 4 of their top 5 scorers from last season to graduation including Erin Olsen who averaged 16 points per game and Tiffany Williams who averaged 10.  Atlantic Head Coach Kelly Juhl knows it’s going to take a balanced team effort to replace the scoring lost from last year’s squad.

The Trojans will have six seniors on the roster but most of those players haven’t experienced extensive time on the floor or been counted on for leadership yet.  Despite that Coach Juhl expects constant improvement from his team throughout the season and says those Seniors have been around the program since he took over so he expects them to step up.

Coach Juhl said they haven’t set a goal for the season as far as wins and losses are concerned, they just want to work hard toward improvement and let the chips fall as they may.

The Trojans open up the 2016-2017 campaign on Monday night at the Atlantic High School Gym against Carroll.  Tipoff for the Varsity contest is set for 7:30pm.  The Trojans will follow that up with a trip to Denison on Tuesday night for another 7:30pm tip.  We’ll have coverage of those contests for you on KJAN.  Chris Parks will have the call with coverage starting at 7:15pm each night.

Listen to the full pre-season interview with Coach Juhl below.

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

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CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Nick Finney passed for two touchdowns and ran for another and Pella beat Webster City 28-18 Thursday night to win its third consecutive Class 3A state championship. Donovan Holterhaus caught both scoring passes and finished with a championship-game record 10 receptions for 181 yards.

Pella (13-0) notched its 41st consecutive victory and became the fourth 3A team to win three straight titles. Robert Frederiksen rushed for 182 yards and a touchdown out of Webster City’s old-school single-wing offense. But the Lynx (11-2) couldn’t quite match Pella’s versatility — or keep the ball away from Holterhaus.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Myles Powell scored 26 points off the bench, Desi Rodriguez had 25 and Seton Hall beat Iowa 91-83 on Thursday night. Khadeen Carrington added 20 points for the Pirates (3-0), who shot 51 percent from the floor with eight 3s and outscored the Hawkeyes 50-24 in the paint.

Powell buried a 3 and followed by a layup to put Seton Hall up 82-74 with 3:15 to go — and then drilled another long 3 to make it a 10-point game a minute later. Rodriguez followed with a 3 that sent the fans to the exits.

Iowa made a few late 3s to make it close before falling for the first time in 2016-17. Senior Peter Jok had 30 points and 11 rebounds, and freshman Tyler Cook scored a career-high 24 points for the Hawkeyes (2-1).

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The 2016 All-Iowa Conference Football Team as voted by the league’s nine head coaches:

8-MAN DISTRICT 7 ALL DISTRICT FOOTBALL

FIRST TEAM                                                                              SECOND TEAM

NAME                              SCHOOL             GR                        NAME                            SCHOOL             GR
Connor Alley                  Fremont-Mills    10                         Nate Hardisty               Fremont-Mills    12
Blake Hurley                   Fremont-Mills    11                         Dalian Melgoza            Fremont-Mills    12
Carter Jennings             Fremont-Mills    12                         Cole Bruns                    Exira -EHK           12
Sam Phillips                    Fremont-Mills    12                        Cole Burmeister           Exira -EHK          10
Jaeger Powers                Fremont-Mills    10                        Dalton Vanderwal       Exira -EHK          11
Parker Powers                Fremont-Mills    12                        Trevor Wolford            Sidney                  12
Mason Vanatta               Fremont-Mills    10                       Marcus Daugherty       CAM                      12
Seth Bradford                 Exira -EHK    12                             Mitchell Williamson    CAM                      9
Drew Buckholdt             Exira -EHK    12                             Chris Darnold               East Mills              9
Noah Pettepier               Exira -EHK    12                             Kameron Wederquist  East Mills             12
Connor Westergaard    Exira -EHK    12                              Cayontae Guzzle           Clarinda Academy    12
Bryson Duncan              Sidney    11                                        Trevor Wilson              Clarinda Academy    12
Bryce Moran                  Sidney    12                                        Cody Davis                    Essex                     12
Sergio Rodriguez           Sidney    11                                        Shane Franks                Essex                     11
Cameron Whitehead    Sidney    11                                        Clay Kuhlman              Woodbine             10
Austin Chester               CAM    12                                           Wyatt Pryor                  Woodbine              9
Thomas Hensley            CAM    11
Preston Murphy            CAM    10
Josh Drake                    East Mills    12
Matt Glockel                 East Mills    12
Luke Stortenbecker     East Mills    12
Zumaujae Allen            Clarinda Academy    11
Izzy Ingram                  Clarinda Academy    11
Luke Dalley                   Essex    10
Joey Wolf                       Woodbine    11

The Atlantic/CAM Wrestling team will host their 2016 Hall of Fame Banquet on Friday, November 18th at the Atlantic High School and two former coaches are set to be honored.

Former Anita and CAM Head Wrestling Coach Rex Mehrhoff will be inducted along with former Atlantic Assistant Coach and Little Trojan Coach Kipp Harris.

Mehrhoff was named Head Wrestling Coach at Anita in 1985 just a year after starting as an Assistant with the program and teacher in the district.  He stayed on as coach with the merger of the CAM school district in 1989.  Coach Mehrhoff coached all the way up to a recent retirement from the Atlantic/CAM staff after the programs combined.  During his career he helped 17 wrestlers make appearances at the state tournament and earned 13 medals.  His 1992 squad finished third overall as a team. His teams also made three regional dual appearances.

Harris was a Trojan wrestler himself before moving on to a collegiate career and then coaching. He was a sixth place medal winner his senior season in Atlantic and went on to wrestle and play football at Waldorf College.  He was hired as an Assistant Wrestling Coach in 1990 and coached from then until 2009.  He helped coach 45 state qualifiers and 15 place winners during his tenure.  He also helped the Little Trojan Wrestling Program and organized their first ever home tournament. Harris is now one of the owners of Brocker-Karns and Karns Insurance.

The induction banquet at the Atlantic High School begins at 6:00pm and tickets will be on sale at the door.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Jeremy Morgan scored 20 points and Spencer Haldeman came off the bench to add 17 points as Northern Iowa stunned Arizona State, 82-63, during Thursday’s opening round of the Tire Pros Invitational. The Sun Devils had averaged 92 points in their first two games, facing their best defensive opponent proved to be problematic.

NIU gave ASU few uncontested shots while benefiting from several open perimeter shots on the other end. Spencer and Haldeman combined to covert nine 3-pointers during the game, while Bennett Koch had his way in the paint with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Klint Carlson came on late to finish with 19 points.

For the game, NIU (2-0) shot 51 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range compared to 42 percent from the field and 36 percent on 3-pointers by the Sun Devils (2-1). Torian Graham and Tra Holder led ASU with 19 and 13 points, respectively.