SavilleSEZ

I loved the Jeff Linder article on Mount Vernon four sport star Karly Cochrane.  Cochrane has been to state in four different sports and she has won state titles in track and volleyball.   Karly is playing in the state basketball tournament this week.

It’s extremely hard to star in four sports in high school  and don’t expect as many four sports athletes in the future.  Coaches are forcing players to specialize at an early age.  Skilled sports like basketball and soccer have turned into year long sports.  Club hoops and soccer have a fall season, a winter season, spring season, summer camps, and summer tournaments.  Parents and athletes feel pressured to join club teams, or they will fall behind and won’t be able to play on high school teams, or earn college scholarships. 

I think specializing in one sport is a big mistake for youth athletes. Playing several sports keeps athletes from being burned out.  Playing several sports will also improve different muscle groups, prevent injury, and increase athleticism.  Most importantly playing multiple sports will teach you how to compete.   Cochrane is one of the most competitive athletes I have ever seen, and I think playing several sports teaches you how to compete at the highest level.  

It is easier at small schools to play four sports and those schools need athletes to play several sports.  It is a lot harder to do at 4a schools, and I feel sorry for the athletes that are going to miss out on some good times.  I don’t want to age myself, but when I was in school you went from football, to basketball, to track, to baseball. Those were the good ole days and you looked forward to each sport.

Some major changes in the FCS football playoffs. The Championship game has been moved from Chattanooga to Frisco,Texas just outside of Dallas. They are expanding the field from 16 teams to 20 teams.

They are also moving all the games back, and the championship game this season will be played on January 7th.

Alburnett Sophomore wrestler Tyler Shulista’s dad Brett has transformed their machine shed at their house into a huge wrestling room where many of the Alburnett wrestlers train.  The wrestling room is nicer than 90 percent of the wrestling rooms in the state of Iowa.  The shed is heated and has it all, ropes,tires, weights, and a treadmill. The wrestling room is used by the high school, middle school and grade school wrestlers at Alburnett.  Over 30 wrestlers are in their local club.

All this dedication and hard work is paying off.  Shulista won the class 1a 112 pound title beating Kody Krens of Louisa-Muscatine 12-3 in the final. Tyler’s teammate Chris Halblom also added a state championship and Alburnett finished third place as a team. It was Alburnett’s first team trophy in school history and you can expect many more.

Look for the Pirates to bring home another trophy next year. With this amazing facility at the Shulista farm they are building something special in Alburnett. 

Checkout the Shulista wrestling room on the KCRG TV-9 Athlete of the week tonight at 10:00. You can also watch the story on kcrg.com.

Whether you like it or not, and most people like it, fighting is apart of hockey. So you better learn how to box to protect yourself. Every year the Roughridgers bring in former National Golden Gloves Champ Steve Eden to teach the players the sweet science of boxing.

A lot of the young players have never been in a fight before so they need to learn how to protect themselves on the ice. Eden who once sparred with Muhammad Ali, teaches the players how to slip a punch, and keep their balance on the ice to deliver some big blows of their own.

Jeff Costello is one of the veteran Roughriders and with the help of Eden has learned to like a little fist-a-cuffs once in a while. Costello said, he would rather spend five minutes in the penalty box instead of jail.

I will have a feature on the Roughriders boxing lessons on kcrg.com and Jeff Johnson will have a story in The Gazette.

The winningest college basketball coach of all-time will be in the stands at Tipton middle school tonight. Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt will be at the Linn-Mar-Bettendorf  regional game to scout the Lions 6′4 Junior center Kiah Stokes.  Bad weather cancelled Summitt’s trip to Cedar Rapids a couple of  weeks ago to watch Kiah play against Prairie.

Summitt won’t be the only D-1 coach at the game.  Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale, Purdue head coach Sheron Versyp, U-Conn assistant Shea Ralf, and Texas assistant LaKale Malone are also expected to be in the stands tonight in Tipton.

We will talk about this game and other regional finals on Prep Sports roundup tomorrow.  K.J Pilcher will also join us to recap the state wrestling tournament.  Checkout Prep Sports roundup on KCRG.com and KCRG Local 9.2 at 10:35pm, Wednesday night.

When you hustle your tail off and make effort plays all over the court,  you become a fan favorite. When you do that and have sideburns and tats,you get your own fan club. UNI 6′6 Junior Lucas O’rear  has his own fan Club,(Fear the Burns). You usually find the fan club in the front row of the student section with taped on sideburns and shirts that say “Fear the Burns”.

Watch my feature on Lucas tonight at 5:30 or 10:00. You can also watch the story on-line at KCRG.com.

Former Marion High star guard Amry Shelby is having immediate success as a freshman at Wayne State College in Nebraska (below is a release from the school).

Shelby had one of the best short range pull up jumpers I have ever seen from a high school player.

Amry Shelby of Wayne State College was named the Nebraska NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Player of the Week following his performance in NSIC home games over the weekend against #3 Minnesota State and Southwest Minnesota State. It’s the first time this season that Shelby has received the honor.

Shelby, a 5-11 freshman guard from Marion , Iowa , averaged 19.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in helping the Wildcats split a pair of NSIC home games. Shelby scored a game-high 17 points in Friday’s 68-52 loss to third-ranked Minnesota State and followed that with a career-high 22 points in the Wildcats’ 83-74 double overtime win over Southwest Minnesota State .

For the season, Shelby is averaging 13.0 points per game to lead the Wildcats in scoring. In NSIC play, Shelby is tied for 11th in the league averaging 14.8 points per game. He also ranks eighth in field goal percentage, making 55.9 percent of his shots (57 of 102) in league play and he is tied for 10th in assists at 3.27 per game.

Wayne State has won seven of its last 10 games to improve to 9-9 overall and 6-5 in the NSIC, good for sixth place. The Wildcats will be on the road this weekend, visiting St. Cloud State Friday night and Concordia-St. Paul Saturday night.

Congrats Amry!

Experience counts. That is why Iowa State head football coach Paul Rhoads is bringing Bobby Elliott, a coaching and recruiting veteran of more than 30 years, back to Iowa State as secondary coach and recruiting coordinator.  It is the third stint at Iowa State for Elliott, who also worked under former Cyclone coaches Donnie Duncan (1981-82) and Dan McCarney (2000-01).

“I am thrilled that we were able to make this happen,” Rhoads said. “He possesses everything I was looking for in a coach. Bobby is a great teacher on the field, builds strong relationships with his players and is a tenacious recruiter with extensive experience recruiting in California.”

Elliott was most recently assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at San Diego State (2006-2008). He coached the Aztec inside and outside linebackers, including current Jacksonville Jaguar Russell Allen. In Elliott’s first year at San Diego State, the Aztecs were second in the Mountain West Conference in pass defense and second in redzone defense. Elliott worked in the SDSU athletics department in 2009.

“Our family is excited to be coming back to Iowa State and working for Paul Rhoads,” Elliott said. “All of our family is in the state of Iowa, where the instate rivalries make it unique in college football. I can’t wait to get started.”

Elliott has served as a defensive coordinator for 11 seasons, including one year at Ball State, three years at Iowa, four years at Kansas State and three years at San Diego State. Elliott had a four-year run at Kansas State in which the Wildcats posted two 11-win seasons, claimed the school’s lone Big 12 championship and played in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl.

Elliott, universally respected as a coach, mentor and teacher in Iowa and across the country, rejoined the Cyclone coaching staff in March 2000 as associate head coach, secondary coach and special teams coordinator. That move paid handsome returns as Iowa State won 16-of-24 contests with a pair of bowl game appearances during Elliott’s second stay in Ames. His special teams and record-setting pass defense made a profound impact on Iowa State’s winning ways.

Elliott came back to Iowa State after serving as special assistant to Iowa athletics director Bob Bowlsby in 1999. A former academic All-American as an Iowa defensive back, Elliott was named assistant head coach under Hayden Fry at Iowa during the summer of 1998. He was the Hawkeyes’ defensive coordinator from 1996-1998, capping a 12-year stint as an assistant coach at Iowa.

Elliott joined the Iowa staff in 1987 and coached the defensive secondary for eight seasons. He also served as an executive director of the University of Iowa Alumni Association for one year, not coaching during the 1995 football season.

The 1997 Hawkeye defense ranked among the best in the Big Ten and the nation. On the national level, Iowa ranked fourth in scoring defense and pass efficiency defense, seventh in total defense and 11th in rushing defense.

The son of former Iowa athletics director Bump Elliott lettered three times as an Iowa defensive back in the early 1970s.  

The UNI Panthers playing without starcenter Jordan Eglseder beat Creighton Wednesday night at home 70-52 to win the MVC title outright.  Eglseder is suspended for three games after his OWI arrest early Sunday morning. 

UNI has so much depth, they can beat you with a lot of different players, and a number of different ways.  With Eglseder on the bench, the Panthers beat the Blue Jays from the outside last night.  Ali Ferokhmanesh hit five three pointers and the Panthers knocked down 13 as a team.

This a team that could make a nice run in the Valley tourney and upset somebody in the Big Dance.  The Panthers have to finish the season strong to get a middle seed in the NCAA tournament.  If they run the table and win the Conference tourney, the Panthers could get a five or a six seed.  Drake was a five seed when they made the NCAA tournament two years ago with 4 losses.  Northern Iowa is a veteran team that has been tournament tested and they no what to expect in March.  Guard play tends to win games in the NCAA tournament and UNI has a rock steady point guard in Kwadzo Ahelegbe. The Panthers also have plenty of players who can shoot the three ball.  Ferokhmanesh, Moran, Dunham, Sonnen, and Koch can all get hot from behind the arc.

The Panthers will host Old Dominion in the Bracket Buster game this Friday night at the McLoud Center. UNI will close out the regular season against Evansville on the road and Illinois State at home.  Eglseder will be back for the Illinois State game.

Cedar Rapids City Council member Chuck Swore wants name the stretch of pavement between Kingston Stadium and Veterans Memorial Stadium Kurt Warner Way.  Nobody deserves this more than Kurt, who in my mind is the perfect role model. 

This 850 foot stretch between the two stadiums is a perfect place, because it will be frequently traveled by young athletes who aspire to be Kurt Warner someday.  Kurt Warner Way will represent the hard work and determination it took to go from Hyvee to MVP.  Hopefully it will be well marked, so that generations to come can relive one of the most amazing stories in NFL history.

Three years ago, Swore was the driving force behind naming a street by Elmcrest Country Club after Cedar Rapids native and 2007 Masters Champ Zach Johnson. 

Thanks, Chuck