I love mysteries — short stories, books and movies.
Newton High School has a mystery dealing with the history of Cardinal girls’ basketball. For whatever reason there are no definitive school records for Newton girls’ basketball. I found that out when I came to the Newton Daily News five years ago and asked for them.
Current Cardinal girls’ head coach Brandon Sharp said he only had records since he had been coaching at Newton. No other school records were to be found. Newton girls’ basketball began in 1992.
Enter Tom Weeks, who is all about Newton High athletic history — especially football and boys’ basketball. Weeks has taken on the project to search for the missing records. He said Quikstats has yielded records for NHS girls from 2007 to the present season.
“But what I need is the history and stats from 1992 through 2006 seasons,” Weeks said.
With this situation one of my favorite mystery stories came to mind, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” Why? It’s about something hidden in plain sight.
Weeks thinks, and I concur, a lot of the information he needs is right here in plain sight, so to speak. Former Newton High players may have year-end stats booklets from their seasons as a Cardinal or parents might have them stowed away for their grown children.
Weeks is asking any former NHS girls’ basketball player with information from 1992 to 2006 send it or bring it to the school to help him compile records for the girls’ basketball program. He said if they have stat booklets to share, to put their name and address on the books, bring them to the school for him and he will return them when he is done.
Contact Tom Weeks at weekst@newton.k12.ia.us or the NHS athletic director Scott Garvis at garviss@newton.k12.ia.us.
Newton basketball has a run of home games to finish out the season — four are special nights at the NHS gym. On Feb. 2 is the Cardinals’ annual Conquering Cancer on the Court night as the Newton teams take on the Pella squads.
The Newton girls’ Senior Night is Feb. 8 and the boys’ Senior Night is Feb. 15. On Feb. 12 is the NHS Legacy Night.
A lot of news came out the past several days from the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.
We now know where the co-ed state bowling tournament will be held in February. The two state organizations have been searching for a new site after Des Moines’ Plaza Lanes burned in December. The tournaments for Class 1A, 2A and 3A girls and boys will be held in Waterloo this season.
We also know where Newton High’s bowling teams go for qualifying for the 2A state tournaments.
The IHSAA announced all about football for the next two years with the playoff criteria, staying with 16 playoff qualifiers and the use of an RPI system. And of course, the new high school football districts. The playoff decisions by the IHSAA were not without questioning and disappointments by coaches and schools.
Basketball postseason pairings for Class 1A, 2A, 3A girls came out on Thursday while the 4A and 5A girls’ pairings come out next week. The substate groupings for 3A and 4A boys come out Friday.
It’s been a busy week as the winter athletic seasons power their way to the end.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets
at jsheets@newtondailynews.com