Newton High’s 1983 team coach talks state softball

In the stands witnessing Newton High softball history last Tuesday was the head coach of the only two Cardinal softball teams to play in a state tournament.

Lowell Zimmerman coached the Newton softball teams in the 1980s and watched as the 2018 NHS team broke a 30-plus year state tournament drought.

“This is tremendous,” Zimmerman said. “The 1983 girls’ state softball team and I congratulate this year’s Newton girls on a fine season. We are pulling for them and hope they do an excellent job at state.”

It has been 35 years since a Newton team has competed in an Iowa high school summer state softball tournament. Iowa discontinued having two state tournaments — fall and summer — in 1987. It has been 32 years since Newton has been to a state tournament.

On Tuesday, Newton High’s Cardinals leave for the 2018 Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament. There will be a send-off drive for the Cardinals starting at 9 a.m. from the locker room parking lot at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

The send-off route will turn down W 6th St. South going past the football stadium to S 8th Ave. West, where the team bus will turn left to go east. The route goes past Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. The bus turns left onto IA-14 then right to go onto I-80 east.

Zimmerman and assistant coach Leesa Stoffers coached the 1983 Cardinals to a fourth-place finish in the summer state tournament. Zimmerman also was the head coach of the NHS softball team which qualified for the 1986 fall state tournament.

Current Newton head coach Casey Price was an eighth-grader on the 1983 team and was the Newton senior pitcher of the 1986 team. Stephanie Grimes, Price’s sister, was a catcher on the 1983 team.

Dawn and Denise Russell and Tina Mulbrook were members of the 1983 Newton state team. Dawn (Russell) Lucas is the mother of current Newton senior player Audrey Lucas and Denise is Audrey Lucas’ aunt.

Tina Mulbrook is the aunt of current Cardinal pitcher Peyton Maher. Maher’s mother, Tricia (Mulbrook) Maher was a member of the 1986 team.

“We played a lot of small ball but that wasn’t always the way we won,” Zimmerman said. “In order to go to the (1983) state tournament, we had to beat Des Moines Lincoln. We had a runner on third base and I gave our second baseman, who was up to bat, the bunt signal twice, but she didn’t get the bunt down. On the next pitch, she doubled down the line to drive in the run and we won.”

The early state tournaments were not divided into classifications. Zimmerman said teams played every team no matter the size of the schools.

Newton had senior pitcher Nancy Sackett and senior Diane Black leading the team in 1983. Zimmerman, who was Newton’s head coach from 1983 to 1996, said Black was an all-state player who hit two home runs against Pleasant Valley during the season. Sackett won 106 games in her NHS career.

“I had a good time coaching the girls,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman taught middle school at Newton from 1970 until he retired in 1996. A Nebraska native, Zimmerman played on the first baseball team at Wayne State College in Wayne, Neb., after spending his freshman season at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

“I was a pitcher. Freshmen could participate in baseball back then but were not eligible for competition,” Zimmerman said.

He transferred to Wayne State College following his freshman year at Nebraska.

Zimmerman said he won’t be able to attend Newton’s state opening game on Tuesday because of another commitment. Anyone not able to go to Fort Dodge for the state tournament can listen to the Newton games on KCOB Radio.

Also, fans can see all Wednesday’s semifinal games on CISN-TV which will be live streaming those games. IPTV will be broadcasting and streaming all of Thursday & Friday’s state championship games.

Class 4A 10th-ranked Newton (24-7) plays 11th-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier (25-16) at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on Harlan Rogers Park Diamond No. 2 in Fort Dodge. On the same side of the state bracket are second-ranked and top-seeded ADM (33-7) and eighth-seeded Dallas Center-Grimes (18-22).

The winner of the Newton and Xavier game will play the winner of the ADM and DCG game in a 3:30 p.m. semifinal game on Wednesday on Diamond No. 2. The losing teams of the quarterfinal games on Tuesday will play a consolation game on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. on the Veterans’ Diamond.

Fourth-ranked Charles City (33-6) plays Des Moines Hoover in the opening round. Sixth-seeded Sergeant Bluff-Luton takes on third-seeded and fourth-ranked Independence (34-6) on Tuesday.

The winners of those two games play at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals. The losing teams play a consolation game at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The 4A championship game is at 5:45 p.m. Friday with the third-place game slated for 4:45 p.m. Friday.

Admission to the state tournament is $10 per person and parking is $5.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com