Upsets happen all the time in sports — especially this time of year. March Madness is so captivating and endearing because of its imperfections and unpredictability. The Iowa men’s basketball team jumped to the front of the 2026 highlight reel on Sunday, knocking off top seeded and ...

Success seems like a foregone conclusion for a lot of local athletes and programs these days, but only because they’ve made it look so seamless at such a steady pace for years now. In the last two weeks alone, we’ve witnessed Fort Dodge superstar Dreshaun Ross fulfill what always appeared ...

Curt Cignetti’s run to a national championship with the Indiana football team — now widely considered to be one of the greatest stories and coaching jobs in the history of sports — didn’t come without cursory criticism, given all of the changes to college athletics in recent ...

Record-breaking performances are always the perfect time to reflect on the past and take inventory of the present. The opportunity for both came on Tuesday night at Des Moines East, when LJ Maehl became Fort Dodge Senior High’s all-time 5-on-5 girls basketball scoring champion. Maehl ...

Ten years. I was walking in our neighborhood recently after a snowstorm, and happened to pass our family’s “secret” sledding hill — the one we first discovered when our son was little, and has been used much more frequently by others ever since. A mom, dad and three kids were there. ...

One of the most difficult conversations to navigate in today’s college landscape is defining the place — and role — of an athletic director. Everything has changed so rapidly. The competitive goals remain the same, but the roads to get there are filled with fundraising and budget ...