By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

Believe it or not, Friday night is going to be week number one of the high school football season. The opening night features Algona at Spirit Lake, St. Edmond at Bishop Garrigan, North Union at Okoboji and Newell-Fonda at West Bend-Mallard.

Here’s a brief look ahead to those games and reflection back to the meetings last year between those schools.

Algona @ Spirit Lake

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—The final evening of exciting dirt track racing at the Kossuth County Speedway for the 2024 season took place on Thursday, Aug. 22 in a crazy season that saw Mother Nature the only feature winner on seven different Thursday nights at the track.

Tuesday, Aug. 27

VB—Algona @ Spencer

Swim—Spencer @ Algona

Thursday, Aug. 29

VB—Belmond-Klemme @ Bishop Garrigan

VB—West Bend-Mallard @ Sioux Central

XCC—AHS, BG, NU @ Spencer

XCC—West Bend-Mallard @ Southeast Valley

Swim—Algona @ Perry

Friday, Aug. 30

FB—Algona @ Spirit Lake

A nice group of 10 players return to highlight the 19th annual edition of the Kossuth County Advance’s All-Area Baseball team this year.

Tate Slagle and Aiden Ulrich of Algona, Justin Bauer and Drew Lappe of Bishop Garrigan along with North Union’s Talan Priester and Mitch Stevens of West Bend-Mallard are members of the first unit for the third time in their career.

RENEGADE

A Feature 1: 1. 29-Carter Cink[2]; 2. 5-Trayton Cink[3]; 3. 24-Thadd Kollasch[1]; 4. 14-Tony Cink[5]; 5. 20-Grant Haugland[4]; 6. 99-Kyle Sidles[6]; 7. 2-Dennis Kollasch[8]; 8. 18-Karson Sidles[7]; 9. 88-Cal Birkey[9]

Heat 1: 1. 24-Thadd Kollasch[4]; 2. 5-Trayton Cink[3]; 3. 14-Tony Cink[5]; 4. 18-Karson Sidles[2]; 5. 88-Cal Birkey[1]

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

Justin Fickbohm said he had been working on improving his golf game. All that hard work paid off for him on Sunday, Aug. 11 as the former Bishop Garrigan graduate won the Randy Buscher Memorial “Algona Am” for the second time.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

Algona junior Tate Slagle was named to the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association 2024 Elite All-State “Super Team” last week as a utility position.

A total of 16 players across the state regardless of the class they played in make up the squad. Tate finished in the top five in 11 different categories this season in Class 3A.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Tim Ward took home a nice check for $5,600 by winning the modified feature in the Gene Schattschneider Memorial Race sponsored by Site Services and Brett Clegg on Thursday, Aug. 8.

The night of exciting dirt track racing saw a total of 98 cars signed in at the track with the modifieds leading the way with 29 cars followed by the hobby stock class with 22 as there were 13 sport mods at the track and 11 stock cars.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

Bishop Garrigan senior second-baseman Justin Bauer was selected to the Class 1A first-team all-state squad last week by the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association.

Bauer led the 24-6 Top of Iowa Conference champion Golden Bears in at bats, runs scored, hits, triples and stolen bases this year.

Three days later on Tuesday, Aug. 6, Reutzel also placed second at the 20^th annual Outlaw Dirt Kart Nationals at the English Valley Speedway in Knoxville, Iowa. He started 12^th in the “A” feature after winning the “B” feature and he earned $660 for his runner-up finish. The race was 20 laps long with 20 drivers taking the green flag. The two-day event drew 47 cars in his class and 200 overall from 15 different states.

Bishop Garrigan senior baseball player Benji Trainer was selected to the 38th annual Academic All-State Team as a first team selection by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association.

A panel of coaches selected these senior players who demonstrate outstanding academic, moral, and athletic characteristics.

Trainer is one of only 23 high school seniors from all classes that recieved first team recognition.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

Two Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear softball players were named to one of the four Class 1A all-state squads by the Iowa Softball Coaches Association last week.

Senior Abbie Capesius was chosen to the first-team all-state squad as a shortstop while teammate junior third-baseman Hanna Merron was a member of the honorable mention squad. Capesius moves up from a second team selection in 2023.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

North Union senior second-baseman Beth Streuber was honored by the Iowa Softball Coaches Association with a spot on the Class 2A third team all-state squad.

Streuber was the only senior on the green-black-and-silver squad this summer, and had a .409 batting average with 38 hits in her 93 plate appearances, including 11 doubles and a team-high four home runs for a team-leading slugging average of .656.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

Algona junior catcher Aiden Ulrich was chosen to the Class 3A third-team all-state squad recently by the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association.

Ulrich had an outstanding junior campaign as he led the 26-8 Bulldogs in three offensive categories and games started on the hill.