Sports

The North Iowa Cedar League (NICL) has released their All-Conference teams for the NICL West, naming AGWSR junior Josie Kuper as the division’s Outstanding Player and Grundy Center’s Matt Lindeman as the Coach of the Year.
Kuper, a First Team Unanimous selection, averaged 15.1 ppg, 10.9 rpg, two blocks and two steals a game as she helped lead the Cougars to 5-3 record against NICL West opponents. The Cougars’ post was second in scoring in the NICL West with 347 points and second in total rebounds (250). Kuper was also named to the Class 1A North Central All-District team.

CONRAD - BCLUW took a gamble.
Comets girls basketball coach Joel Johnson knew AGWSR liked to feed the ball inside to junior post Josie Kuper, and also that the Cougars had struggled to shoot the three most of the season.
“They were shooting 15 percent as a team from three for the year,” Johnson said. “So the game plan was stopping Josie. We executed our game plan and you really don’t change that.”
Yet when it mattered most, the Cougars made nine of 16 from three to blast the Comets 67-33 on Tuesday last week in the Regional quarterfinals.

INDEPENDENCE - A 2023-24 season which began with optimism from coaches and wrestlers alike slowly fell off, culminating in BCLUW-SH falling short of sending a wrestler on to the State tournament this season. “We felt optimistic after the first couple weeks of practice and a good opening dual,” coach Jacob Groeneveld said. “Then we honestly did begin to fall off and never really were able to find our way back. This is a tough way to end the season.” The Storm saw two wrestlers, Manning Pfantz (190) and Sean May (285) reach the District semifinals on Saturday at Independence.

CONRAD - BCLUW’s Cael Keller started receiving invites to visit various colleges after his junior year of football, eventually leading up to his decision to sign with Upper Iowa University football on Wednesday.
“Right after my junior season, a few colleges started talking to me,” Keller said. “I got more offers after my senior season was over and went on more visits. But Upper Iowa really stood out to me.”