Aplington-Parkersburg volunteer assistant football coach Milt Ulfers denied Friday afternoon the Des Moines Register report that the school has named co-coaches for its football team.

“No announcement has been made,” Ulfers said. “It’s just a rumor at this point.”
Football coach Ed Thomas was shot and killed Wednesday while supervising athletes in the school weight room.
Ulfers said, “I’m doing OK, I guess. Ed and I went back a long way.”

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids Softball Hall of Fame is returning to Ellis Park.
At least for the time being.
The CRSHOF will again hold its annual Hall of Fame Day with an induction ceremony and 16-inch slow pitch games throughout Sunday at the Ellis Park softball fields.
Games begin at 8:30 a.m. and will continue until noon, when the 2008 and 2009 classes will be inducted into the hall of fame. More games are scheduled in the after noon, beginning at 12:45 p.m. and concluding about 4 p.m. The event is …

Team Iowa went 0-3 in the championship bracket pool and will face Kansas for seventh place at the Greco-Roman Junior National Duals at Oklahoma City. Iowa lost to Florida (47-18), Minnesota #1 (41-20) and Arizona (43-21) before the placing match.
ARIZONA 43, IOWA 21
98 – Javier Guillen (Arizona) over Phillip Laux (Iowa) TF 6-0,6-0
105 – Chris Bostic (Arizona) over Conner Ryan (Iowa) Dec 0-1,3-0,4-0
112 – Max Mejia (Arizona) over Jacob Eischeid (Iowa) TF 7-0,6-0
119 – Christopher Ornelas (Arizona) over Jon Skarda (Iowa) Dec 7-0,5-0
125 – Quinn Klinefelter (Iowa) over Unknown (Unattached) …

Our list for Gazette Athlete of the Year nominees is growing gradually. We’re still missing some good ones. Please send athlete resumes to jeff.linder@gazcomm.com.

Nominations close July 4.

MALE
MIKE ANDRIES, Cedar Rapids Xavier
ZACH BOHANNON, Linn-Mar
SEAN BRANDHORST, Central City
ALEX BURKLE, North Linn
GAVIN CAVES, Alburnett
DREW CLARK, Marion
KEENAN DAVIS, Cedar Rapids Washington
SAM ELGIN, Center Point-Urbana
DEREK HUENECKE, Lisbon
COLE KRAMER, Cedar Rapids Jefferson
ABE KOS, Mid-Prairie
JASON McCORMICK, Cedar Rapids Jefferson
MATT MORRISON, Solon
ANDREW PORT, Springville
EYASU RUSSELL, Mount Vernon
SCOTT SCHEBLER, Cedar Rapids Prairie
JASON SHUPP, Cedar Rapids Kennedy
KYLE SLAYMAKER, Cedar Rapids Kennedy
DEREK ST. JOHN, Iowa City West
FEMALE
AMANDA BURGER, Cedar Rapids …

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Crestwood pitcher Grace Gast throws pitches that one may consider to be unorthodox for most softball hurlers.
Gast’s combination of off-speed pitches, though, worked effectively during Thursday’s Northeast Iowa Conference game with Charles City.
The Cadet hurler allowed seven scattered Comet hits and Crestwood came up with a run right when it needed it in the Cadets’ 2-1 win at Sportsmen’s Park.
Gast struck out just two, but only walked one.
"She throws a different pitch than what we’re used to and she moves the ball around well," said Charles City coach …

These results are courtesy of Tim McEowen, a former Cedar Rapids LaSalle and Kirkwood C.C. wrestler (which is a subject of a future series of blog posts). McEowen is a very active member in the wrestling community in the Cedar Rapids and Linn County area. Iowa has a chance to place as high as fifth with two matches to go:

Bill Quinby remembers his shock and sadness when he heard about the death of Nile Kinnick.
“We didn’t have TV then. I remember (former Gazette sports editor) Tait Cummins wrote a very warm summary after his death,” said Quinby, 77, a former NFL official from Cedar Rapids. “It was pretty sad then. And this is very, very sad now.”
Quinby was referring to Wednesday’s death of Ed Thomas, the Aplington-Parkersburg football coach who was shot to death at the school’s weight room. Mark Becker of Parkersburg has been arrested and charged with …

Austin Christensen has just hit a home run and is trotting around the bases. But he doesn’t have to reach his third-base coach to receive initial congratulations.
The Cedar Rapids Kennedy player is between second and third when the opposing shortstop, of all people, suddenly sticks out his hand. The Cougars are playing rival Cedar Rapids Washington, no less.
“Yeah, I remember that,” Christensen said. “It was the Metro tournament last year. I was rounding second base, and he gave me a high five.”
There’s an easy explanation. The guy high-fiving Christensen was …

A spectator made the observation early and accurately: “This doesn’t seem like Jeff/Linn-Mar.”
Class 4A third-ranked Cedar Rapids Jefferson struck for 22 hits and dominated rebuilding Linn-Mar, 4-0 and 11-1, in a Mississippi Valley Conference softball doubleheader last night at the Jefferson Softball Complex.
“The first game was kind of tense,” said Alex Jacobson, who had three of the J-Hawks’ 14 hits – including a home run – in the six-inning nightcap. “We knew we had to relax and wait for a good pitch to hit.”
For the last 15 years, this has …

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DES MOINES, Iowa – The Des Moines Menace welcomes the 2009 Iowa High School All-Stars to Valley Stadium on Saturday, June 27 for match-ups of the top talent of the East against the best of the West. <br…
Source: Iowa Sports Connection