Local News

7 Metro girls picked for all-star games

Seven girls basketball players from the Metro area have been selected to play in the IGCA All-Star series that will be held at Kirkwood Community College on April 2 and April 3.

Amanda Ollinger of Linn-Mar, Lela Sellers of Kennedy, Olivia Usher of Prairie, Joniqua Clark of Washington, Anne Visser of Washington, Sydney Hayden of Kennedy and McKenna Andersen of Xavier have been picked for the event.

Corby Laube of Marion will coach the 4A/5A Grey Team.

3 Metro coaches saluted by IHSBCA

Three high school baseball coaches from the Metro area were honored at the annual IHSBCA banquet in West Des Moines Saturday.

Steve Fish of Marion High School was saluted for joining the 600 Win Club during the 2015 season.

Chad Lechner of Linn-Mar was honored for joining the 300 Win Club last season.

Bret Hoyer of Kennedy was named the Class 4A Northeast District Co-Coach of the Year with Charlie Stumpff of Iowa City West.

Herkelman's death was top story for 2015

The saddest story of 2015 was also the top story of 2015 for the Metro Sports Report website.

Bill "Herk" Herkelman, the beloved assistant baseball coach and former math teacher at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, died unexpectedly on Friday, July 24, just a day after the Cougars won the Class 4A substate title and earned a trip to the state tournament.

Kennedy captured the substate title on Thursday night and the next morning, Herk was gone.

The story about his unexpected death drew 8,309 hits to the MSR website, making it our most-read story in 2015, but that's not the only reason we've selected his passing as our No. 1 story. Herk touched an untold number of lives during his career as a beloved and respected teacher at Kennedy from 1967 through his retirement as a teacher in 2012, and he helped shape the lives of countless baseball players during his 36 years as a head coach and assistant coach for the Cougars.

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3 projects worth $49 million on the way

The next two years are scheduled to bring a phenomenal spurt of new sports facilities to the Metro area with massive projects planned at Coe College, Mount Mercy University and Prospect Meadows Ball Fields.

Coe has earmarked $20 million for its "Make Your Move" campaign to build a new performance arena on campus, along with a fitness center, new wrestling room and a bridge across College Drive to connect the new facilities to the Clark Racquet Center.

Mount Mercy plans to spend $15 million on its "Home Field Advantage" project to build a new stadium for soccer and track, a new baseball field and a new softball field on land next to campus.

Prospect Meadows has a price-tag of $14 million for a 17-field complex of eight regulation baseball fields, eight softball fields and one Miracle Field on land at the junction of Highway 13 and County Home Road just north of Marion.

All three projects are scheduled to break ground this year. Coe and Mount Mercy plan to get started this spring, while Prospect Meadows hopes to get started sometime in 2016 if the next phase of its fundraising falls into place.

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