By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
State volleyball
The state volleyball tournament concluded last night, and I was able to catch some of the championship games thanks to Iowa PBS streaming them on YouTube. This is something Iowa PBS has been doing for many Iowa high school sports lately that I have greatly appreciated.
I’ve pounded the drum several times about how entertaining the sport of volleyball is. It’s one that deserves more recognition. Serves can come in at high speed, or they can come in like knuckleballs and buckle the defense. Manage to get either one of those in the air, and one of your teammates can show finesse in setting up a kill. Kills speak for themselves but can also be hit calmly or fiercely. Swing the arm and send it with pace or just tip it over and catch the defense off guard.
ACGC and Panorama fans are treated to two good programs right here in Guthrie County. One is currently a dominant force, and the other is on a steady rise. ACGC just set a record for its most wins in a season, and Panorama just had its best season since 2017.
Across Iowa, in general, state champions this year were Ankeny Christian for 1A, Beckman Catholic for 2A, Western Christian for 3A, Norwalk for 4A and Waukee Northwest for 5A. I heard on the broadcast that W-NW was nationally ranked inside the top 10 recently. They’ve won two in a row, lost the title game three years ago and won the state title a year before that. Talk about dominance.
Internet Invitational
Most of you reading this are probably not as terminally online as I am (hopefully). But, if you are, and you enjoy golf, you may have heard about the Internet Invitational. For the unaware, it is a YouTube golf tournament created by Bob Does Sports, Fore Play Golf and Barstool Sports. This is the second year of its existence, and it has created some hilarious moments — and some really solid golf.
It feels like YouTube was created exactly for a piece of content like this. The tournament brings together former golf pros, elite former college players, YouTube golfers, some plus-handicaps, some scratch, some truly terrible at golf, and then mixes in some general internet personalities. All of this is in one golf tournament with sets of rules and formats that can change on a dime.
I’ll warn you, the episodes are incredibly long. Episode 4 of this year’s tournament was just released with a four-hour-long run time. Earlier episodes hit more than five hours. On the surface, that sounds ridiculous, but when you compare it a regular golf tournament that is typically airing all day, it makes more sense.
Last year produced some truly great moments. Where else could you see Super Bowl winning Head Coach Jon Gruden give a pep talk to a bunch of internet celebrities. A hilarious moment between Trent and FP shows how loud they should cheer or not cheer. Before the tournament started, all the teams agreed not to use slope on their range finders, which led to some controversy when Malosi was accused of using it. The name “Maslopei” still shows up in his comments today.
Cody “Beef” Franke was one of the three winners of the first tournament, meaning he went home with $333,333 split between him and his two partners. During the tournament, he was asked what he would do with the money if he ended up winning. His answer was simple: “Pay off my parents’ house.” Sadly, between the filming and release of the episodes, Beef tragically passed away. Fore Play, and Beef’s parents, used his prize money to set up a scholarship fund for aspiring golfers. The trophy is now named after him.
Plenty of great moments have already happened in this year’s tournament, and I’m looking forward to the conclusion. The stakes have been upped with a field of 64 and a prize of $1.3 million for the winners.
Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.