It was a little more than a year ago — in December, 2022, that I was invited to join the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Who, me? A semi-retired sportswriter? I asked my colleague and friend, Chuck Offenburger, if I could write about anything I wanted on the Substack platform.
“Absolutely,” he told me.
That meant an unusual combination in 2023. Sports of all kinds, yes, but also food, travel, fashion, history and fun. Here’s a look back at some highlights.
Caitlin Clark has become Iowa’s best college women’s basketball player. (Photo courtesy UI Athletics.)
The top sports topic: The Iowa and Caitlin Clark love story. I mentioned that she’s likely the best Hawkeye ever in a December 2022 column. I revisited Iowa women’s basketball in April, during the team’s historic NCAA runner-up season. She even made an appearance in an Iowa State Fair column in August, when she was part of a state university butter trinity, along with Iowa State’s Jack Trice and Northern Iowa’s Kurt Warner.
Clark is having another spectacular season for the Hawkeyes. She’s even got a cereal named for her.
Here are a few updates from a few other sports topics:
*The Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin had his life saved by sideline medical crews (January 8). Update: He’s returned to the team and has been cleared to play, though he’s had very limited action.
*Quarterback Max Duggan, a Council Bluffs Lewis Central graduate, after an honor-filled career at TCU, was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers. I wrote about him and the Council Bluffs community January 13. He did not play in an NFL game in 2023, bouncing from the practice squad and back to the active roster, but signed a 2024 contract with the team earlier this month. The Chargers went 5-12 this year.
*Prep vouchers impact high school sports (January 28). Nearly 19,000 private school students were approved for state aid (a maximum of about $7,600 annually). The law supporting aid to families was signed a year ago. The long-term impact on high school sports is still to be determined.
Private schools had a strong fall season, when it comes to winning state championships.
Algona Garrigan won the state eight-player football title. Sioux City Heelan took second in Class 3A.
Western Christian of Hull won the 3A state volleyball title and Ankeny Christian repeated as the 1A champ.
West Des Moines Dowling Catholic took the 4A boys’ cross country team title and Des Moines Christian swept the boys’ and girls’ 2A crowns. Dowling also took second in girls’ swimming.
A dozen private schools won at least one team championship during the 2022-23 school year.
*Waukee’s Omaha Biliew and Waterloo West’s Sahara Williams were high school basketball All-Americans last season. Now they’re college freshmen. Biliew has played in 12 games for Iowa State, though sparingly, as he adjusts to the college game. Williams has started every game at Oklahoma and is averaging more than 10 points.
George Trice, a cousin of Jack, bears his tattoo at the Parks Library at Iowa State. (Photo by John Naughton.)
*The centennial of the passing of Iowa State football player Jack Trice was marked in October. I weighed in on the legacy and impact of Trice in October. George Trice runs a foundation to honor his cousin, who died as a result of injuries from a game in 1923.
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