New Hampton/Turkey Valley isn’t used to going 2-4 at the Battle of the Waterloo, but coach Matt Paulus has no qualms about the way his team wrestled this past weekend at one of the best dual tournaments in Iowa.

The final score was ugly, yet last Tuesday’s girls basketball game between New Hampton and Waverly-Shell Rock told Chickasaw coach Chad Pemble something — namely that his players have plenty of heart.

The Border Battle wasn’t kind to New Hampton this past Saturday as both the Chickasaws’ boys and girls basketball teams dropped games to Minnesota schools.
Not that they didn’t go down without a fight.

For the first time of the 2019-2020 campaign, the Turkey Valley girls basketball team was forced to deal with adversity. 

After a 4-0 start to the year, the Turkey Valley boys basketball team hit a rough patch to end last week. This included a pair of losses against Upper Iowa Conference foe MFL MarMac and Houston, Minnesota.

He may have had 33 of the team’s 66 points, but all Drake Wemark cared about was getting the victory.

While both the girls and boys played a bit short-handed Tuesday against Central Elkader, the scoreboards didn’t show it. Both Trojan teams stayed unbeaten as the girls won 56-37, and the boys crushed the Warriors, 70-17.

All the New Hampton girls basketball team needed was a little home cooking.

New Hampton/Turkey Valley senior Evan Rosonke stood in the new cafeteria last Thursday night and tried to find a smile.

Last year, the Turkey Valley boys basketball team held their opponent to under 30 points in three different games. Just one week into this season, the Trojans seemed poised to shatter that mark, as they have already achieved this twice.

The sun did rise on Friday morning, but it didn’t brighten the mood for New Hampton boys basketball coach Ryan Rausch after his team dropped a 77-41 non-conference tilt to Mason City.

Having four games in one week can be both physically and mentally exhausting. However, you wouldn’t have guessed it from watching the Turkey Valley girls basketball team, as they were able to sweep all four games with ease last week.

It wasn’t the way coach Chad Pemble envisioned the season starting, and even though the New Hampton girls basketball team is 0-3, he was pleased with how the girls played against stingy competition.

Be warned, New Hampton sports fans: If you sit next to Carson Babcock at an event and have extra food, you might not have it for very long.

The last time Turkey Valley defeated New Hampton in girls basketball was in 2015. The Trojan boys basketball team hasn’t won against the Chickasaws since 2010.