Metro Sports Report

Atwater MVC football Athlete of the Year

Linn-Mar senior quarterback Mark Atwater is the Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division Athlete of the Year for the 2011 football season.

The conference announced its postseason teams Monday. They were chosen by vote of the conference coaches.

Atwater guided the Lions to an undefeated regular season, a Mississippi Division title and No. 2 ranking in the state. He completed nearly 64 percent of his passes for 1,715 yards and 25 touchdowns and also was Linn-Mar's second-leading rusher with 808 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Atwater was one of five Lions selected to the Mississippi Division first team offense and defense. Kennedy and Washington had four apiece.

Xavier had four first-team picks in the Valley Division, Prairie three and Jefferson one.

Sievertsen ranks among national FG leaders

CEDAR FALLS - Tyler Sievertsen spent two years at the University of Northern Iowa without attempting a field goal in an actual game, so Coach Mark Farley had a few questions about his new kicker when the season began.

"I didn't know what to expect from Tyler," Farley said this week. "He was new to our team and new under the pressure."

It's safe to say the kid from Cedar Rapids Kennedy is doing very well. Exceptionally well, in fact.

Sievertsen ranks among the top-5 kickers in the nation in FCS college football. That's the old NCAA I-AA division, now called the Football Championship Subdivision, and he's right there with the best kickers in the country.

Sievertsen has nailed 12-of-13 field goals and all 25 of his PATs. He leads the sixth-ranked Panthers in scoring with 61 points and is 37-for-38 all told.

"It feels good," Sievertsen acknowledged Monday, standing near one of the goal posts in the UNI-Dome. "There are still things to work on, like my kickoffs.

The tough lessons of sports

There are some people in our society who believe that sports has little or no purpose in our daily lives.

I contend, and have for many years, that those people are wrong.

Sports is a great teacher. All the life lessons you need can be experienced in a single sports season. Sometimes even during a single week. There are the highs of winning, and the lows of losing. But beyond that there are smaller lessons to be learned. Teamwork, camaraderie and learning along side others come to mind.

Another life lesson in sports is dealing with disappointment. Sometimes utter disappointment. I was reminded of that on Monday night after the Linn-Mar vs. Washington 4A playoff game at Linn-Mar. Washington won the game with a touchdown with nine seconds remaining to upset the previously unbeaten Lions, 28-26. In an instant, all of the great feelings, the ultimate highs experienced for the last several months was replaced by despair, and defeat.

A life lesson taught by sports. A powerful, bitter lesson taught.

Lions' Evans Metro's top male runner

Linn-Mar sophomore Josh Evans, who finished second in last weekend's Class 4A state cross country meet, is the Metro Male Athlete of the Year.

Evans beat all Iowa competitors he ran against until the state meet, where he ran the fifth fastest time in state meet history.

All seven members of the all-Metro team are unanimous selections. The Metro cross country coaches voted on the team.

Linn-Mar, Prairie and Washington has two members apiece and Marion's Lukas Mees fills out the team.

Prairie senior Jacob Aune finished fourth at the state Class 4A meet. Hawks sophomore Mitch Pritts also was on the first team.

Other members of the first team are Linn-Mar junior Chase Grabau, Washington senior Robert Hogg and Washington junior Etienne Nzoyisaba.

Coach of the Year is Will Harte and his Washington staff. The Warriors finished fourth at the state meet.