When the COVID-19 global pandemic brought the school year to an abrupt halt in mid-March, Fort Dodge Senior High physical education instructor Blake Utley thought his half-marathon class was likely done as well. Utley challenged the group to stay the course for their own peace of mind, though. ...

EAGLE GROVE — In a tight 3-2 vote, the Eagle Grove Community School District’s school board voted during a special session on Tuesday to cancel the Eagles’ 2020 summer sports season. A motion not participate was confirmed by school board president Jon Rowen during the Zoom meeting, ...

If I ever felt the need to measure my level of involvement in the Fort Dodge community, I’d always look for Steve Springer. The more you saw Steve, the better off we all were. Because that meant something was being done for the greater good. Steve was ubiquitous. Did he have a stunt ...

EAGLE GROVE — Like all school districts in Iowa, Eagle Grove has been keeping a close eye on the area COVID-19 count as the high school baseball and softball season approaches. Recent concern over the growing number of positive cases in Wright County elicited a response from EGCSD officials ...

For the first time in school history, the Fort Dodge softball team will start the season ranked No. 1 in Class 5A. The Dodgers return all but two starters from a team that finished 35-7 overall and was a state qualifier. The Dodgers went 1-1 in the 5A bracket last season, losing to West Des ...

Everything just clicked for the St. Edmond baseball team in 2009. The recipe for success began in second grade and the group that had been playing together for their entire careers fulfilled their date with destiny. The Gaels staked their claim as the best team in the state, winning the ...

July 27, 2002 is a date the Eagle Grove community will forever remember. It may have never happened, though, without July 28, 2001. A long journey filled with hard work, commitment and sacrifice ended in glory for the Eagle baseball team nearly 18 years ago. They returned to the ...

Nick Bice waited patiently for definitive word on the baseball season. Now that Bice and his Fort Dodge teammates have been given the green light, the Dodgers are ready to make the most of every opportunity they have to take the field. Bice’s senior year of baseball officially starts with ...

It didn’t take Brian Ortmeier long to feel right at home on the Iowa Central Community College campus. Ortmeier was recently named the Tritons’ new head women’s basketball coach. His first official day on the job will be June 1. “I have such a tremendous respect for Iowa Central as ...

Martha (Stover) Mericle has been a head coach at a smaller school, at the lower levels, and in a different sport. All roads led back to the Fort Dodge volleyball position. And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old Mericle was approved as the Dodgers’ new leader. The 2007 FDSH graduate is following in ...

Bo Tjebben’s earliest memories of coaching date back to his teenage years at Butler Elementary Field, wearing the YMCA shirt of a local business sponsor. Tjebben may not have realized it at the time, but it was his first step toward what ultimately became a career destination. The ...

Golf has always been a part of Stacey (Bergman) Winter’s life and the journey that the game has taken her on, is a resume any athlete would want. Bergman, a 1996 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate, was a three-time state champion, and a collegiate golfer that ultimately reached the ...

Their bond was unbreakable, but the friendship that grew from playing dolls to riding bikes and building forts will last forever for Katherine (Trevino) Dearborn and Erin Kersten. The cousins, who are about a year apart in age, who could easily be mistaken as sisters, were inseparable growing ...

Rick Brown spent the better part of two years formally working on his recently-released book, “Golden Harvest.” Brown’s passion for — and commitment to — golf in the state of Iowa has been with him nearly all along, though. So in many ways, the son of legendary Messenger sports ...

Once the final ball hit the other side of the net at the state tennis tournament in 2013, all Aaron Chalstrom could do was smile. The 2013 St. Edmond graduate had been in the state finals all four years of his high school career and a title evaded him, until his senior campaign. “I ...

Alaina Porter’s hectic spring schedule transformed into an extended time of reflection almost overnight. The diligent Fort Dodge senior readily admits the culture shock that came with the COVID-19 global pandemic — and this two-month period of adjustment — hasn’t been easy. Porter has ...

When the 2013 tennis season rolled around the St. Edmond boys had a template for where they wanted to be, but the second time around they wanted to rewrite the final chapter. In 2012 the Gaels pulled off an upset in the state semifinals and played for a state championship, but came up empty. ...

Back in the 1970s, on the tennis hotbed street of 11th Ave. North, group of St. Edmond state champions were born. Brothers Mike and Steve Huss started playing the sport at a young age. Their neighbor was St. Edmond’s first state tennis champion. Mike Conlon. Living on a dead-end street a ...

One of the nation’s last live high school sporting events took place in Des Moines a little over two months ago. A total of 12 boys basketball programs — including Bishop Garrigan — played six contests to wrap up the state tournament on March 13 inside Wells Fargo Arena. On Wednesday, ...

Lane Pruisner had an immediate impact on the Iowa Central rugby program, and the freshman has been honored accordingly. Helping the Tritons to the Div. 1AA national championship in his rookie campaign, the Ankeny Centennial graduate played a pivotal role in the program’s success this past ...