What a talented group of young ladies.
The 22nd edition of the Kossuth County Advance Girls All-Area Basketball Team features 10 players on the two teams, and four of those players earned all-state honors this season. Only two are seniors.
Read the entire story in the March 14 Advance.

Both T.J. Schnurr and sophomore Angelo Winkel of Bishop Garrigan were selected all-state in a vote by the Iowa Print Writers Association in Des Moines the past weekend.
Schnurr, a senior, was chosen as a first-team all-state pick on Saturday, while the 6-foot, 9-inch sophomore Winkel was picked up as a third-team all-state choice.
Read the entire story in the March14 Advance.

DES MOINES—Sometimes when it rains, it pours. Montezuma poured in 17-of-28 shot attempts in the first half, including raining in 9-of-12 shots behind the three-point line, to hand the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears a 78-65 loss.
The Class 1A opening round state tournament contest was played at the Wells Fargo Arena on Monday, March 4. The Braves’ big first half led to a 47-29 advantage at intermission and the Golden Bears could never recover from that deficit.

Bishop Garrigan ran into a hot-shooting Montezuma squad in the first round of the Class 1A Boys State Basketball Tournament Monday in Des Moines. The Golden Bears lost by a score of 80-63. See this week's Kossuth County Advance for a full report from Greg Grabianowski. 

So close, but yet so far.
Algona had top-ranked Clear Lake on the ropes in the fourth quarter with leads as high as six points and five with under two minutes to play, but the Lions rallied late to squeeze out a 53-49 victory.
Get all the details in the Feb. 28 Kossuth County Advance.

For the past couple of seasons, the Garner gym has not been a friendly venue for the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear boys basketball team.
On Thursday, Feb. 21, for the first 14 minutes of the Class 1A district final against St. Edmond, things were going that way again. But trailing 37-34 with 6:48 left in the third quarter, the black-and-gold went on a 10-0 run and finished the game by outscoring the Gaels 37-16 the rest of the way for a 71-53 victory.

Longtime area coaching legend Monte Pearson passed away on Feb. 22, just one day after his 80th birthday and ironically, three years to the day of the death of his longtime friend and mentor who he coached under in Gene Meister.
The funeral for Coach P, as he is known to everyone, will be on Saturday, March 2, at St. Cecelia's Church, and the visitation is 4-7 p.m., Friday.
Read all of Grab's tribute in the Feb. 28 Kossuth County Advance.

A pair of all-state football players in town are drawing the attention of Division 1 coaches heading into their senior season on the gridiron next fall.
Both Wyatt Wegener of Algona and Cade Winkel of Bishop Garrigan recently visited the University of Iowa.
Get all the details in the Feb. 28 Advance.

Four area girls basketball players were recently named to the all-district squads by the Iowa Girls Basketball Coaches Association, and one area coach was named as the district coach of the year.
Get all the details in the Feb. 28 Kossuth County Advance.

The Algona Wahoos swim team competed in the sectional meet at Spencer on Saturday, Feb. 10, against clubs from LeMars, Forest City, Spencer and Bedell to end their regular season. Several swimmers qualified for the state swim in Marshalltown March 2-3.
Get all the details in the Feb. 28 Advance.

Carson Devine went 1-2 and fell one win short of placing in the top eight wrestlers at 160 pounds at the Class 2A state wrestling tournament held at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines last week.
The 10th-rated Algona senior had a tough draw as he drew fifth-ranked Baylor Crigger (45-2) of Camanche in his opening match on Thursday and lost by an 11-2 decision.
Read all about it in the Feb. 21 Kossuth County Advance.

Sixth-ranked Clarksville used a strong second half to pull away from a one-point halftime lead to hand Bishop Garrigan a 54-35 Class 1A regional semifinal defeat to the black-and-gold on Friday Feb. 15.
The maroon-and-white outscored the Golden Bears 35-17 in the second half to reach the regional finals in Denver against the Bearcats of North Butler with an overall record of 19-2 while Bishop Garrigan ended the year with a season mark of 16-7.

No. 1 Clear Lake wrapped an undefeated regular season and a North Central Conference boys basketball championship with a 70-57 league victory over the Algona Bulldogs.
Both squads shot the ball well from the floor as the red-and-black was successful on 19 of 38 overall field goals for 50 percent while the home team connected on 22 of 40 attempts from the field for 55 percent.
Read all about it in the Feb. 21 Kossuth County Advance.

Emmetsburg defeated the North Union Warriors 47-42 in the quarterfinal round of the Class 2A regional girls basketball tournament.
The E-Hawks advanced on in the tournament with an overall season record of 15-7 while the green-black-and-silver bowed out with a season mark of 13-7.
Read all about it in the Feb. 21 Kossuth County Advance.
 

Estherville used a huge run in the final 12 minutes of the game to post a stunning 67-54 Class 3A regional semifinal victory over the fourth-ranked Algona Bulldog girls basketball squad.
The Midgettes trailed 41-31 with 4:25 to go in the third quarter but outscored the home team 36-13 from that point on to rally to advance to the regional final to take on Sioux Center.