Tipoff is this weekend

High school girls’ basketball season tips off Friday, officially.

Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks are the first to hit the basketball court for the area. The Hawk girls host Eddyvlle-Blakesburg-Fremont on Friday in a non-conference contest at Sully.

Newton High’s Cardinals host the 2019 Newton Girls Basketball Holiday Tournament on Saturday at the NHS upper gym. Leading off in the six-team event will be Prairie City-Monroe’s Mustangs take on Chariton at 11 a.m. followed by Carlisle playing Central Decatur at 12:45 p.m.

The Cardinals, under new head coach Eric Vander Velden, tipoff their 2019-20 season at 2:30 p.m. against Grand View Christian. Baxter’s Bolts play their first game at BCLUW on Monday then Colfax-Mingo’s Tigerhawk girls open up on Tuesday.

Though the area girls’ basketball season gets underway this weekend and Newton High’s boys open the swim season Tuesday, the Newton Daily News high school winter sports previews will appear in the Nov. 27 edition of the newspaper.

It is a 16-page sports section with previews on Newton’s basketball teams, bowling teams, wrestling team, boys’ swim team and the basketball teams and wrestling teams for Lynnville-Sully, Colfax-Mingo, Baxter and PCM.

After the Thanksgiving break, it’s all hands on deck as the five Jasper County high schools will have the boys’ teams and girls’ teams in action right through the Christmas break.

Newton have new head coaches for their basketball teams. Head coaches, both Vander Velden and Cardinal boys’ head coach Jason Carter, have been assistant coaches in both the girls’ and boys’ high school programs.

Carter was the NHS girls’ head coach a year ago after three years as an assistant coach for the boys’ program. Vander Velden has been coaching at the middle school and high school level for 12 years in Newton. He was an assistant coach for the NHS girls for three years then was the boys’ varsity assistant coach a year ago.

Carter and Vander Velden have new roles but are familiar faces to the players and fans. Both are out to help turn things around for both programs, using knowledge from and foundations laid by former Cardinal coaches.

There’s two high school wrestling ranking entities in Iowa — The Predicament and IAWrestling. On Monday, IAWrestling released its 2019-20 preseason rankings for the Iowa prep season and eight area wrestlers were among those ranked. Through the season, we at the Newton Daily News use The Predicament rankings but I wanted to recognize these early rankings.

Newton senior Gage Linahon, who placed third in Class 3A state tournament action as a junior, is ranked No. 1 in 3A 220. Senior Destin Schroder, who was a 3A district champion and Little Hawkeye Conference champion at 182 last year, is ranked in the No. 6 spot at 182.

In Class 2A, PCM’s junior Landon Fenton and senior Payton Drake were ranked No. 5 at 126 pounds and 138 pounds, respectively. Junior Colby Tool is ranked No. 4 at 145. Colfax-Mingo had three ranked in Class 1A with junior Noah Strohmeyer at No. 5 at 106, senior Cyden Fitch at at No. 8 at 138 and senior Trystin Ross at No. 8 at 160.

Turning to my two favorite football teams — the K-State Wildcats and the Kansas City Chiefs — I love them but I’d sure like to see more solid defense and more running the ball.

The Cats didn’t have a letdown game after beating Oklahoma with a 38-10 win over Kansas to win the Sunflower Showdown on Nov. 2. They let one get away on the road at Texas, 27-24, then out-gained a West Virginia team in Manhattan but lost 24-20 last Saturday.

Kansas City disappointed me with a 35-32 loss at Tennessee on Nov. 10. The Chiefs’ fans have wrapped up so much on Patrick Mahomes’ play at quarterback. When he’s healthy, that’s fine. Last year we had a better running game which allowed us to run time off the clock at critical times. Defensively, it’s a toss up which defense shows up this season just like last year.

On Monday night in Mexico, the Chiefs’ defense made some critical plays including a game-winning interception in the waning seconds. The Chiefs walked away with a 24-17 win.

K-State (6-4) and Kansas City (7-4) needed a more consistent running game to complement their passing game. Of course, I’ve never played football nor coached it so it’s just my opinion. Also, I believe coaches when they have told me over and over that defense wins championships. I love defense that can make the plays at critical times for the team.

But I’m old school and that’s fine with me.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets
at jsheets@newtondailynews.com