Fairfield News

What do you get when you cross the defending high school champs with last season?s junior high winners?Pekin head cross country coach Davis Eidahl hopes the answer is a third straight state championship by season?s end.The Panther high school girls brought the Class 1A title to Packwood the last two seasons, and the eighth-graders did the same, repeating as junior high cross country champions after winning as ...

Ashley Bartels took over the Pekin volleyball team two years ago with one goal in mind: to lead the Panthers to the top of the Southeast Iowa Superconference.The Panthers aren?t quite there yet, but they?re headed in the right direction after showing improved records in each of their two seasons under Bartels. The Panthers went 8-17 in her first year before flipping their record to 15-10 in 2011.?It?s been a ...

Consistency hasn?t always been easy to come by at Cardinal, but head football coach Adam Hadenfelt is beginning to provide a little of it in his second season at the helm.After becoming the third Comet head coach in four seasons in 2011, Hadenfelt is back for his second year and looks to finish what he started last fall.?We?ve been really focused on getting better all the time,? said Hadenfelt. ?We are young, ...

The Van Buren volleyball team comes loaded with potential in 2012.Few people are more aware of that fact than new head coach Matt Zeitler, who coaches many of the same girls in winter basketball season. He takes over the struggling volleyball program ? they finished 7-19 in 2011 ? in the hopes of tapping into their potential.?I hope, with a different direction, that they pick it up and get out what they need to ...

No area team was hit harder by the 2012 graduating class than Cardinal volleyball, which lost much of its varsity roster this offseason.Six Comets graduated, and another ? sophomore Jordan Smith ? transferred to Solon. Losing that many players from one year to the next might make some coaches a little down, but not so for third-year head coach Jerald Harter.?I never go into a season expecting that we?re not ...

Van Buren football hasn?t experienced much in the way of recent success, but no one is a bigger believer in the Warriors than their head coach.Rich Wiegand begins his second year at the helm, and after leading the Warriors to one win in 2011, isn?t holding back on his hope for the future.?I think the biggest thing is taking the next step. We came back from no varsity in 2010 to one win last season, and now our ...

A little intra-squad competition can go a long way.Just ask Cardinal cross country coach Michelle Albert, who has never so much as seen a full harrier squad at Cardinal.But all that should change this year. With eight girls currently out for the team, Albert has the largest group of girls she?s ever coached and for the first time will see competition for the seven varsity spots.?This is a big group for us ... ...

The Trojan Athletic Booster Club?s annual golf outing held Saturday at Walton Club was deemed a ?big success? by Jeff Courtright, Fairfield Community School District activities director.The event raised a little more than $3,000, all of which will go toward the Trojan athletic programs. A total of 27 foursomes ? 108 individuals ? played in the tournament.The team of Rob Higgins, Larry Bentler, Andy Kretz and ...

The Fairfield volleyball team is ranked No. 11 in the Class 4A preseason rankings released Monday by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.Sioux City Heelan, which finished runner-up to Waverly-Shell Rock last season in the Class 3A championship game, begins the season atop the Class 4A poll. Harlan is ranked second, and Solon, which ended Fairfield?s season last year, is No. 3.Fairfield opens the 2012 ...

WAYLAND ? The Van Buren volleyball team suffered through three losses Monday at the WACO Tournament in Wayland.The Warriors fell to host WACO by a final score of 20-22, 21-15, 12-15 in the season opener. They then lost 7-21, 7-21 at the hands of Iowa Valley and dropped a 12-21, 18-21 contest to Columbus Junction.?It was a disappointment for me because we?re better than Columbus Junction, and we?re way better ...

AMES (AP) ? Iowa State senior quarterback Steele Jantz will open the season as the Cyclones starter.Coach Paul Rhoads announced Tuesday that Jantz will start for Iowa State against Tulsa on Sept. 1, ending the competition between Jantz and sophomore Jared Barnett.Jantz started seven games for Iowa State in 2011, but he was pulled in favor of Barnett after a foot injury and increasing ineffectiveness.Barnett ...

IOWA CITY (AP) ? Iowa defensive lineman John Sawhill is leaving the Hawkeye football team because of an injury during preseason practice.Coach Kirk Ferentz says Thursday the senior from Jefferson joined the program earlier this summer after playing for Drake while he earned his bachelor?s degree.Ferentz says Sawhill had complications from a prior injury and decided to forgo his remaining year of eligibility to ...