The natural tendency is to take all of this for granted — feeling, after a while, like it’s always been this way. The winning. The records. Advancing to state like it’s a birthright. Contending for championships. For five consecutive seasons, the Fort Dodge softball program has made ...

The list of Iowa’s career 100-game high school softball winners appears lengthy at first blush. The names appear annually in the state tournament program. Full-page spread, small type, sharing space as a seven-decade trip down memory lane for our state’s all-time great pitchers. Fort ...

Sports are my passion, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m also a big fan of musicals. To clarify, I’m no aficionado — mostly just an admirer from afar. This dates back to witnessing my first Fort Dodge Senior High performance, a rousing rendition of “Oklahoma!” in the ...

A referee in Fort Madison was knocked unconscious by an angry fan at the community’s middle school during a 3-on-3 basketball tournament last Saturday. A softball umpire for a 12-and-under youth event was punched in the face by an unruly parent in Mississippi. Another ump was attacked by a ...

We’re coming up on the 80th anniversary of the iconic Chicago Cubs-Chicago White Sox exhibition game, which first brought baseball to Dodger Stadium in Fort Dodge on April 9, 1942. Seated in the press area that day was a young Fort Dodge broadcaster named Gene Elston, who started working for ...

Reflecting on such an incredible five-year experience in college athletics is no easy task, and right now, it’s something everyone has been encouraging me to do. “Sit down and write about your experience,” I’ve heard from my family, coaches and former teammates. Well, how are you ...