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.

The Chickasaws were open for business on Saturday night — and business was good — as the New Hampton boys basketball team employed a workman-like effort, and some solid fundamental basketball, to open up a big second-quarter lead and sustain that

For a time in the second quarter Saturday night, it looked as if the 1A Turkey Valley girls could stay with the 3A Chickasaws.

Right off the bat, Waukon had some advantages over New Hampton Friday.
Even though the Chickasaws played to a first-quarter 13-13 tie against the Indians, Waukon used those advantages to pull away for a 48-32 win.

Keagan John stood outside the locker room Thursday night and let out a sigh of relief.

New Hampton/Turkey Valley got exactly what it wanted — plenty of tough matches  — this past weekend in Independence.