Winter, Fisk and the Chiefs

Knocking on wood didn’t help. Following a first semester of no weather postponements in high school winter sports, winter weather has hit Iowa. A week ago a whole weekend — Friday and Saturday — of area high school basketball, wrestling and bowling was wiped out.

Schools scramble to reschedule games but now another impending winter storm had basketball games moved from Friday to Thursday. Newton, Prairie City-Monroe and Baxter switched nights for basketball. Lynnville-Sully couldn’t because it had already slated Thursday as the make-up night from last Friday.

At the time of this writing, no word on the status for the Lynnville-Sully basketball game on Friday nor on the area activities slated for Saturday has been received by the Newton Daily News. We’re in a wait-and-see mode just like schools state wide.

Winter, spring and summer high school sports are at the mercy of weather. Fall not so much. Weather has an effect on travel in the winter and competition venues in the spring and summer since most sports are outdoor events.

We recently discovered former Lynnville-Sully High standout Carson Fisk is a starter for the Central College women’s basketball team. The 5-foot-10 -inch freshman guard has made 14 starts in the 15 Dutch women’s games, averaging close to 10 points a game.

In Wednesday’s first American Rivers win of the season — 59-46 over the University of Dubuque — Risk had 10 points and seven rebounds. Central is 1-5 in conference play and 9-6 overall. Colfax-Mingo graduate Payton Rhone, a 5-4 freshman guard, is also on the Dutch roster.

Fisk, who was a multi-sport athlete for Lynnville-Sully, has 147 points through 15 games for Central. She is shooting 47 percent from the floor overall (60-of-128) and 31 percent from 3-point range (9-of-29). Fisk has downed 18-of-34 (53 percent) free throw attempts.

Fisk has 51 rebounds, 33 assists and 20 steals. The Dutch women are scheduled to play Nebraska Wesleyan at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

“TOUCHDOWN KAN-SAS CITY” times seven. Fellow 1979 Kansas State grad Mitch Holthus had fun calling the Kansas City Chiefs AFC Divisional game on Sunday. Well, at least after the 10:54 mark of the second quarter.

In his pregame preview on the Chiefs’ radio network, Holthus said the Chiefs and Houston Texans were playing in Neverland at Arrowhead Stadium. Never had Kansas City won back-to-back divisional-round games. Never had Kansas City hosted back-to-back AFC title games — a win would do that for the Chiefs after Baltimore lost on Saturday.

Holthus ticked off several other nevers for both Kansas City and Houston. The Voice of the Kansas City Chiefs was correct it was Neverland.

Down 24-0 with 10:54 left in the second quarter, the Chiefs rolled. The Chiefs had the ball a mere 4 minutes, 50 seconds in the second quarter. They needed just 16 plays to score four TDs. They led 28-24 at halftime.

The Chiefs eventually reeled off 41 consecutive points before cruising the rest of the way to a 51-31 victory over Houston that propelled Kansas City back to the AFC championship game for the second consecutive season. In doing so, the Chiefs (13-4) became the first team in NFL history to win a playoff game by at least 20 points after trailing by at least 20.

They matched the fourth-biggest comeback in playoff history while winning a postseason game in back-to-back seasons for the first time.

“It was a great mindset game. Our players had their minds set on a battle and we settled down and quit shooting ourselves in the foot,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “Down 24-0, if you don’t have a good locker room, things go the wrong way for you.”

So, last Sunday’s win was a testament to the character of my favorite NFL team. I’ve been a Chiefs fan before it was cool to be a Chiefs fan. I watched both Super Bowl I and Super Bowl IV — a loss and a win for Kansas City. I stayed true through the all the ups, downs, ups and downs and ups.

I won’t deny it — Tennessee frightens me a bit. Mainly because of running back Derrek Henry who rushed for 188 yards and two touchdowns in the Titans’ 35-32 win over Kansas City on Nov. 10 in Tennessee. Ryan Tannehill threw for 181 yards against the Chiefs.

But I am loving our defensive surge right now, and of course, the Kansas City offense is tremendous. Let’s Go Chiefs.

Oh by the way, there was a college football national championship game on Monday. Heisman trophy winner Joe Burrow led the LSU Tigers to a 42-25 win over defending champion Clemson. A great game that I didn’t watch but listened to on ESPN radio while working.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at jsheets@newtondailynews.com