Given the choice, New Hampton/Turkey Valley obviously would take winning a state wrestling championship over claiming the Northeast Iowa Conference tournament title.

There are times, Nashua-Plainfield girls basketball coach Josh Smith concedes, that he wouldn’t mind playing in anything other than the Top of Iowa Conference East Division.

It isn’t that the last two months haven’t meant anything, but ask Nashua-Plainfield coach Al Frost about the Top of Iowa tournament on Saturday and the excitement rises in his voice.

The Nashua-Plainfield boys basketball team split a pair of games last week, falling 70-34 at home to Mason City Newman Catholic on Tuesday before bouncing back to take a 78-50 victory on the road at Central Springs on Friday.

Anyone that sees the way Emily Busta cuts through defenders and dives after a loose ball may forget the major surgery she had on her knee last year. 

With 3:32 left in the first quarter of Turkey Valley’s win over Clayton Ridge Tuesday, the Trojans owned a 12-4 lead, with 10 of those points by the hands of Keegan Balk.

It wasn’t just the way his “big guns” wrestled, it was the way kids like Shane Hillesheim, Justice Palmier and Dalton Asche fared that made Saturday a pretty satisfying day at the Hudson Invitational for Nashua-Plainfield wrestling coach Al Frost.

Maybe the most impressive part of the Nashua-Plainfield boys basketball team this year has been its ability to forget the past.

The game plan in some ways was simple — get the ball inside and limit turnovers — and it proved to be a pretty good one Friday night for the Nashua-Plainfield girls basketball team.

Turkey Valley isn’t as much of a pass-the-ball-until-you-find-the-open-girl team as they were a year ago. 

After Thursday’s 62-50 win over North Fayette Valley, Turkey Valley’s boys have met all of the opponents in the Upper Iowa Conference.
And defeated them all.

Before the season started, New Hampton boys basketball coach Chad Sweitzer made a pronouncement — Oelwein’s Northeast Iowa Conference losing skid that stretches back to 2012 will come to an end this year.

As far as New Hampton/Turkey Valley coach Nick Hemann was concerned Thursday night, it was mission accomplished.

Calling someone a beast isn’t generally a compliment, but that was Chris Sullivan’s intent when he gave the label to Ethan Leibold.

Denver had more champs, but New Hampton/Turkey Valley had more “scorers,” if you will.
And the lesson of the day on Saturday at the South Winneshiek Invitational was this: It takes an entire team to win a wrestling tournament.