Archive - 2021

PELLA– Early season high school track meets in Iowa are inside. The track is shorter. The curves are tighter. But they offer an early peek at the season ahead. With a couple indoor meets now behind them, some bright spots are beginning to glow for Solon’s girls.
“I feel good about every distance. We may not yet have the four solid runners we will need for the relays in every distance,” underscored head girls coach Brent Sands, after a March 20 Central College-sponsored indoor meet in Pella. “Still, we should be really good in the 400-800-meter range.”

SOLON– Business is picking up for the Solon Recreation Department.
Recreation Director Tom Harder reported strong numbers for spring soccer and a full slate of expanded programs for summer during a Solon City Council meeting March 17.
“Our numbers are basically right where they were pre-COVID, which is great,” Harder said after the meeting.
Soccer registration closed with over 250 kids signed up for 33 teams across pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, he said. Practice begins soon with games in early April.

DES MOINES– The Iowa Print Sports Writers Association (IPSWA) announced the 2021 boys’ basketball all-state teams on Tuesday, March 16, with Clear Creek Amana (CCA) senior Christian Withrow named to the Class 3A Second Team.
Withrow led the Clippers’ scoring with 440 points this season, topping the 1,000-point mark. The IPSWA recognition follows being named the WaMaC West Player of the Year and a unanimous selection to the WaMaC West First Team. In addition, the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association picked Withrow for the 2021 Class 3A Substate 6 All-Substate Team.

TIFFIN– Twenty-one months. That’s how long it will have been since the Clear Creek Amana (CCA) High School varsity soccer girls played their last game when they take the field on Tuesday, April 6.
The 2020 season was wiped out before it even started due to the cancellation of the remainder of the school year, and all spring sports, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Head Coach Matt Harding in his ninth year (and eighth season, as there was no season last year) remembers all too well how it felt when Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proclamation was made.

IOWA CITY– For the fifth consecutive year, the countywide tax levy for Johnson County will decrease. The levy, assessed to property owners, will be $6.30143 per $1,000 of taxable value according to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget, beginning on July 1, and is down from the current rate of $6.34581. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors conducted a public hearing on the proposed budget Tuesday, March 16, and is scheduled for a final discussion and vote Thursday, March 25, at 9 a.m.