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DeVries happy to be home in Iowa as Drake’s new head basketball coach

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Darian De Vries gers a Bulldog jersery from Drake’s athletic director Brian Hardin.

Aplington native Darian DeVries took over the Drake mens’ basketball program today in a ceremony in Des Moines.

Drake athletic director Brian Hardin introduced DeVries who has been at Creighton for 17 years as an assistant coach and spent 20 years on the staff there. He played college ball at the University of Northern Iowa.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be home, this has been a long-time dream of mine, to be not just a head coach, but to be somewhere where I feel at home around so many friends and family,” DeVries says.

Drake has not been to the NCAA basketball tournament since 2008, and DeVries referenced that season and seeing that team play in talking about what he hopes to accomplish for the Bulldogs.

“Ive seen in those flashes what this place is capable of. And we can get it to that level again — not just as a flash, not just on a single night — but on an every night basis. And it will take some time, it will take some time. At Creighton, I’ve been there 20 years and we are up to 17-thousand fans a nigh now. It wasn’t always like that,”Devries says.

Darian DeVries

De Vries has been in the running for the Drake job before and was passed over. He was asked why he stayed at Creighton instead of going somewhere else. “When other opportunities came around, that wasn’t where I wanted to be. When this one came around –several times,” he paused as the crowd laughed and he chuckled too. “This is what I wanted and I didn’t give up on that,” Devries says. “Because I see something here. I know what this job is, I know what this is about, I know what can work here and that is why I wanted to be here.”

De Vries will replace Niko Medved who left Drake for Colorado State after one season.

 

Iowa native’s move closer to home lands him in midst of Loyola’s dream season

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Austin Hansen

A Cedar Falls native has been along for the ride as the Loyola of Chicago basketball team has become the darling of America in the NCAA tournament.

Austin Hansen graduated from Cedar Falls High School in 2012 and then the University of Northern Iowa in 2016. He worked for one year at Tulane University in New Orleans before moving to Loyola to become the team’s director of video for athletics. “It’s been awesome — especially in my role since we don’t have football at Loyola, mens’ basketball is our biggest sport,” Hansen says.

Loyola won the Missouri Valley Conference to get a bid to the tournament and then went on a run that has them poised to play in this weekend’s final four. Hansen isn’t surprise the team has made it this far after following them from the start.

“I’ve actually been traveling with the team the whole season, which has been awesome because you just kind of got to see them emerge from the beginning,” Hansen says. “We knew we were going to be okay this year — I believe we were a preseason three in the Valley and then won a couple of those nonconference games and then all the way through he Florida win — which was huge beating Florida down there.”

It’s not only been a dream season for the team, but the job he took to get closer to his home in Cedar Falls has also become a dream position. “From my prospective it’s been amazing to be able to document the season from everything in the headlines to the national attention the school has been getting,” according to Hansen. “For example, we got back from the Elite Eight game and the entire skyline of the was lit up in Rambler colors. The spires on the Willis Tower, there was a building downtown where the windows spelled ‘Go Loyola’ in the windows.” He says that’s unusual because it is such a pro sports city and they haven’t had a lot to cheer about in the college tournament. “Obviously Northwestern had their huge drought ending season last year and to follow in their footsteps has been really special,” Hansen says.

Though he now works for Loyola, Hansen still follows the Purple and Gold, and says he has an overall love of the Missouri Valley Conference. “The schools are the perfect size where you really can get to know players, you can get to know individuals. It’s a Midwest league — so everybody is super nice all the time,” Hansen says. “But I still love the Panthers and love the Ramblers and it’s a fierce internal rivalry.” He says the hardest sporting event he had to watch was when Loyola played UNI in the MVC tournament as he knew one of his favorite teams had to lose. All the extra attention has kept him busy in San Antonio as he says they had 60 media outlets at their Final Four practice. And then there’s the added attention on the Ramblers top fan — 98-year-old Sister Jean Smith.

“That’s been fun too because we’ve almost as many requests for the team and the coach as we had for Sister Jean….she’s a spitfire,” Hansen says. Hansen says the team has overcome all obstacles to far this year and he expects them to come out with the same attitude when they take on Michigan this Saturday at 5:09 p.m. He’ll be there to chronicle either the win and move into the championship game — or to wrap up the phenomenal season and the school’s first trip to the Final Four since Loyola won the National Title in 1963.

(Radio Iowa’s Pat Curtis also contributed to this story./ Photo courtesy of Austin Hansen)

 

Oskaloosa man charged in stabbing death of William Penn basketball player

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Luke VanHemert.

An arrest was made today in connection with the stabbing death of a William Penn University basketball player nearly two weeks ago.

Iowa DCI Special Agent Mike Motsinger, at a news conference this afternoon in Oskaloosa, announced 23-year-old Luke VanHemert is in the Mahaska County Jail charged with second-degree murder.

“VanHemert was taken into custody, without incident, at approximately 10 this morning at his place of employment in Pella,” Motsinger said. The stabbing happened on the night of March 1 and claimed the life of 22-year-old Marquis Todd, a native of Woodbridge, Illinois.

VanHemert, who is white, is from Oskaloosa. Todd is black. “The investigation, up to this point, has not revealed anything relating to race,” Motsinger said. “This all happened in relation to a minor traffic incident.” VanHemert was in a car involved in that traffic incident and, according to Motsinger, the car returned to the scene two more times.

“On the third occasion, they got involved with the other party, which resulted in a physical altercation, which obviously then led to the stab wounds,” Motsinger said. “Unfortunately, the result was a young man’s life was taken.” Motsinger credited “misinformation” spread online as one reason it took a while to develop enough information to arrest VanHemert.

“We had a lot of people saying on social media that they were there, that they were present when the incident happened. Investigators have to sort through all of that and that’s why it’s taken several weeks – to sort through all the information that’s been coming in, to determine what is actual fact versus what misinformation has been spread out in the community,” Motsinger said.

Todd was a starter on the William Penn basketball team. The fight and stabbing on March 1 happened off-campus.

 

NAIA basketball tourney underway in Sioux City

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While fans of the state’s four major college basketball programs aren’t going to get to cheer them on in the NCAA Tournament — residents of one western Iowa city have plenty of tournament action to watch in their own back yard.

The opening round of the NAIA women’s Division Two National Basketball Tournament got underway Wednesday in Sioux City. Thirty-two teams and hundreds of fans and families of the players are filling almost every hotel room in the city. City council member Rhonda Capron says they take a lot of pride in hosting the tournament.

“It’s just huge, we love doing this every year because it’s a camaraderie of people who come from out of town from in town. I’ve been a sponsor for many, many years,” Capron says. “We enjoy our teams, we embrace them like they are our owns kids so the parents know that they are being taken care of — and we have a great reputation — that’s what it’s all about.” Local businesses adopt and sponsor each participating team

“We take them out to eat, we would take them to different places in town to just show off our city. We always make sure that when we take them some place that it was an in-town business,” Capron says. The hometown favorite Morningside Mustangs take to the court in their opening game around 7 p.m. at the Tyson Events Center.

(Photo and story by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)

 

Coe College dedicates new athletic facility

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Coe College’s new athletic facility.

Coe College in Cedar Rapids is showing off its new gym and athletic facility today.

The $21 million project, launched in 2015 and funded primarily by donations, was the largest capital project in Coe College history.

Coe President Dave McInally told KCRG-TV it’s already paying off. “It’s helped us increase our enrollment and bring more people to our community,” McInally said.

Dave McInally

The project includes 200,000 square feet of new and renovated athletic facilities, including a 1,600 seat arena and a new wrestling room, the largest of its kind out of all NCAA Division-III schools. McInally call it an investment for the college that goes far beyond the campus.

“It’s a time of growth for Coe, it’s a time of growth for Cedar Rapids,” McInally said. “So we feel as if this building is an investment not only in our campus but in the whole community and we want to be a part of that progress.” Coe College welcomed 446 new full-time students this fall, the largest incoming class in its history. Total enrollment at the college this fall is 1,348.

Coe College Secretary Rod Pritchard told KCRG-TV the new facilities were needed to keep attracting students. “It makes us highly competitive, we’ve become the fastest growing college in the state. We think this will help attract a lot of new Kohawks to Coe College, whether they’re student athletes or just students who like to use the fitness facilities,” Pritchard said.

A dedication ceremony is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today and the facilities will be open to the public Saturday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. This is homecoming weekend at Coe.

 

Hawkeyes already benefiting from preparation for trip to Europe

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Ahmad Wagner goes up for a shot.

The Iowa Hawkeye basketball team is preparing to travel to Europe for a 12-day trip.

Coach Fran McCaffery spoke with reporters about the trip and says they were allowed 10 practices to prepare.

“It was great to be able to get everybody together because we were able to use the other time available for skill development. So, then we had practices and then we had skill development sessions,” according to McCaffery. “And I think that was incredibly beneficial, because even though we have a lot of guys back we still have a lot of young guys. So, I think that’s important.”

McCaffrey says they have had to spend some time working on the rules of the European game, which he says are dramatically different in some cases.

“What we consider goal tending they don’t. What’s a travel over there is not a travel here — and we run, so we are susceptible to more travels — can you get your mind to understand that,” he says.

There’s also a big difference in the type of ball they will use. He says some of the guys really like it and some don’t. “That’s all we’ve played with for two months, so they are getting used to it.” McCaffery says.  He says they will face some good teams, but he’s not concerned about the wins and losses.

“We’re just going to try to really, truthfully focus on what do we have to do to get better,” McCaffery says. “Obviously we are going to try to win. But if you win or lose, nobody will even remember it. It’s not as critical as getting quality playing time for our young guys trying some different things on the court. Just work on our motion game, work on our press.”

McCaffery says the experience gained on this trip will pay dividends this winter. “You know my experience has been in the past has been that the teams that have this opportunity have always jelled and played well the following year. “They’ve just come together,” McCaffery says. “So that’s probably as important a component of this opportunity as any other. Maybe more.”

Iowa will play a total of four exhibition games in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. They leave for Europe on Sunday.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Ray at Hawkeyesports.com

Drake athletic director leaving at end of the week

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Sandy Haftield-Club (file photo)

Drake University announced today that Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb will be leaving the university this Friday.

She has is taking a new job as senior partner with the Pictor Group, an intercollegiate athletics consulting firm. Hatfield Clubb was the first female athletic director for a combined athletic department in Iowa.

Prior to joining Drake in 2006, Hatfield Clubb had risen to the role of senior associate director of athletics at Arizona State University, a program she had joined in 1990 as management intern.

“I am proud to have been a Bulldog for the last 11 years and sincerely thank the many student-athletes, coaches, staff, fans, donors, and everyone who has helped grow Drake Athletics,” said Hatfield Clubb. “We have built a strong foundation together, and I’ll be cheering the Bulldogs on as their success continues. The city of Des Moines has been an extraordinary place to raise our children, and I will be forever grateful to this community.”

Associate Athletics Director Megan Franklin will serve as Drake’s interim athletic director and a national search to fill the permanent athletic director role will begin this fall.

Book on 1956 Maynard state basketball champions could become a movie

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The 1956 Maynard basketball team.

A book that highlights the story of a championship Iowa girls six-on-six high school basketball team could become a Hollywood movie.

Brian Borland self-published the book, “Maynard 8 Miles,” in 2014 — just a few years after learning his mother was the star of Maynard’s 1956 title-winning team.

“I didn’t even find out about this until 2006 when there was the 50th year reunion of the Maynard team,” Borland said. “I overheard my mom and dad talking in the living room about, ‘hey, do you want to go to Des Moines? They’re celebrating the 50 year reunion of Maynard winning the state championship.'”

Borland’s mother, Carolyn Nicholson, scored 25 points as Maynard defeated Garrison 62-51 in the championship game. “I started doing research…and then, the story just got better and better,” Borland said. “This is unbelievable.”

After high school, Nicholson married Glenn Borland – who grew up in Oelwein, 8 miles from Maynard. Glenn turned down a scholarship to play basketball at Iowa and become a star player for the Wisconsin Badgers. The couple raised three kids in Madison, where Glenn had a 30-plus year career as a teacher and coach.

Brian Borland said he wanted to write the book as a tribute to his parents and always felt it would make a good movie. Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the screen plays for “Rudy” and “Hoosiers,” has agreed to write a film based on Borland’s book. “I’ve always had this vision, I just didn’t anticipate I’d be sitting in front of Angelo Pizzo and he’d be interested in doing it,” Borland said. “So, it all kind of came together. It is pretty exciting.”

The 53-year-old Borland still lives in Madison. His father died last year and his mother died in 2009. Borland hopes to both premiere and film the movie in Iowa. “We’re just getting this thing kicked-off and so we’ll have to see how this plays out, but if I had my choice, we would do it in Iowa,” Borland said.

Former University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan is joining Borland as a co-producer of the project. Ryan has been a longtime supporter of girls basketball and took special interest in the history of the unique six-on-six game in Iowa. The final six-player championship game in Iowa was played in 1993.

Borland expects the story presented in his book will be “altered” for the movie, but the presentation of the way the game was played in 1956 won’t change. “My focus has always been – lets bring some national attention to this Iowa girls six-on-six game because I think it’s unbelievable. I can’t find any high school girls sporting event, in that time frame, that’s more successful than the Iowa girls state tournament,” Borland said.

Around 15,000 people were in attendance for the 1956 Iowa girls championship game.

Team photo courtesy of Brian Borland.

 

Organizers excited NCAA basketball tourney coming back to Des Moines

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Greg Edwards

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is returning to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines in 2019.

The president of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, Greg Edwards, got emotional a couple of times Tuesday as he talked with reporters following the announcement by the NCAA.

Edwards says winning the bid to host the tourney is as big a deal for the organizing committee as it is for the teams who play their way in.

“Every day we have successes, but it may be a meeting for 75 people or a smaller event, and this has always been the granddaddy of them all — hosting the NCAA basketball tournament. I prepared myself and said ‘I’m not going to get emotional,’ but I am just so happy,” Edwards says. Des Moines hosted the first two rounds in 2016, but Edwards says they knew they weren’t guaranteed to get another bid.

“So when we sat down and began strategizing with this round, we knew the NCAA was very pleased with some of the things we did and we had several follow up meetings with them since 2016. But, we continue to really create that bond between ourselves and the NCAA staff, which I think is very important. and we do have a very strong bond with a lot of the basketball teammembers from the NCAA,” Edwards explains.

Fans watch teams practice prior to the NCAA Tournament in 2016.

Edwards says the tickets sold out quickly for the rounds in Des Moines, and he says the turnout for the free day to watch practice made an impression. “That was a huge thing for the NCAA. They said they’d never seen any practice rounds so full,” according to Edwards. “They sold more merchandise out of the Wells Fargo Arena that day than they’d ever sold in any other arena. So, that was pretty cool.”

He says the announcement now sets things into motion for 2019 “We’ll start really immediately hosting our local organizing committee meetings talking about everything from logistics to airport to transportation and on and on,”Edwards says. “We’ll have everything double crossed off by the time 2019 rolls around.”

Arena Manager Chris Connolly was also excited about the winning bid. “Really a great feeling, just proud. You know, we felt like we finally broke through in 2016,” Connolly says, “we were a first-time host, we felt like by all accounts we did a great job as a host and we felt like we had a great chance to get it back. And then to be rewarded with it coming back as soon as 2019 — just a great feeling.” The arena has hosted a lot of events, but Connolly says hosting in 2016 was something really new and they learned from it.

“I think the biggest thing is truly having over 17-thousand people in the building for the event — that’s one or our largest crowds we’ve ever had in Wells Fargo Arena. That first day of the tournament you are talking 10 to 11 hours where we have part-time employees in servicing the guests. It’s a long, long day,” Connolly says. “So I feel like we’ve learned a lot of things — how service the guest, how to maybe do a better job in the concessions and food and beverage and the hospitality piece. I think until you’ve been through it, it’s really hard to understand exactly what you are dealing with.” Des Moines’ first tourney included big names teams like Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana, which put even more of a spotlight on the venue.

“It was unreal. I mean it would be hard to imagine you’d get that kind of a matchup in the first and second round. You have Kentucky and Indiana who played each other in the second round who don’t play annually any more, so we had tons of folks coming from Kentucky and Indiana for the second-round game on a Saturday. So, I think for sure Des Moines had a lot more pressure than some of the other places in the first and second round,” Connolly says. Connolly says the timing of the tournament works well in the sports schedule.

He says the NCAA Tournament is after the boys and girls state tournaments, and the Wild hockey team and Energy basketball team understand that it is a good thing for Des Moines and don’t mind having the time blocked out. The Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates the 2016 tournament had a five million dollar impact on the area.

Southwest Iowan selected for world championship wheelchair basketball team

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Brent Reiger

A southwest Iowa native who plays on the wheelchair basketball team at the University of Nebraska at Omaha has been selected for the U.S. Men’s World Championships Team.

Brent Regier, of Woodbine, is a junior at UNO and he’ll travel with the team to Argentina for a qualifier later this month.

“It’s really exciting to be a part of this team and only have been playing the sport for a few years,” Regier says. “It’s really cool to be able to participate at such a high level so quickly with a bunch of other players from across the country who share the same passion for the sport.” Regier and one of his UNO teammates — Jeromie Meyer of Henderson, Nebraska — were just notified a few days ago they’d made the 12-member national team.

“We had a training camp this past week in Colorado Springs where they invited in about 30 other guys from across the country who they thought might be a good fit for the team,” Regier says. “They narrowed it down to 12 of us that are able to travel this last Saturday we found out.” Regier says he’s ready for this latest challenge.

“I won’t have to prepare too hard,” Regier says. “Coach Mike had us in good shape and taught us the fundamentals and everything we needed to know going in. The biggest part there was just pushing hard the whole time and really being committed to the cause.”

The team will travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina for the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Continental Qualifier running from January 22nd to the 29th. The top two teams will go on to the world championships, scheduled for June in Toronto, Canada. Team USA has reached the championship game in three of the last five world championships, winning the title in 2005 and 2009.

(Thanks to Karla James, Omaha)