By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

The state baseball and softball tournaments conclude today, officially marking the end of summer high school sports. In its place come summer camps for these high-school-aged, or younger, athletes to hone their skills. A recent change in Iowa law now also allows eighth graders to participate in more high school sports.

Summer camps

As for the Panthers, they have already had a few summer camps wrap up. Activities Director Bruce Dahlhauser tells me that their track and field camp for grades 3-6 had 34 campers in early June. A boys basketball shooting clinic that wrapped up in late June for grades 3-8 had 21 participants, and a girls basketball youth camp in late June had a great turnout of 53 campers for grades 3-8.

Camps still to come this summer for Panorama are a volleyball youth camp for grades 3-6 from Aug. 7-9, and a boys basketball youth camp for grades 3-8 Aug. 10-13.

As for the Chargers, their girls basketball camp was also in the books, finishing up in early June with 58 campers. The boys basketball camp also wrapped in mid-July with roughly 30 campers. The wrestling program hosted 29 wrestlers in early July as well.

Eighth graders in high school sports

What at first seemed like a free-for-all to allow any eighth grader to sign up for a high school sport with the signing into law of House File 2591 now appears to be relatively minor. No pun intended.

Basically, school districts, nonpublic schools, or charter schools still need to adopt a policy allowing it. “The state opened the door, but local schools still hold the key.” Well put by WHO13.

This door being opened, though, does bring up a lot of questions. Dahlhauser responded to my inquiry on how the Panthers are planning to address this change. He says the door is open, and they are keeping it open, but not without a multi-step criteria and approval process that they will use on a case-by-case basis.

The criteria for consideration, summarized, is that the student-athlete must be physically capable of safely competing, must possess the skill level, and the head coach will evaluate if the student-athlete provides a meaningful benefit to the program while also considering his or her long-term athletic development. Also, eighth graders may be considered when necessary to establish or maintain a second-level of competition, like junior varsity. Consideration will be given on the impact of both the middle school and high school programs as it refers to roster size, competitive opportunities and overall development.

There is also a five-step approval process, involving a physical, head coach evaluation, meeting with parent/guardian, activities director review, and the superintendent having the final say.

Panorama’s process looks about as thorough as one could be. Meanwhile, I do still have some questions.

How many high school records could end up being shattered because athletes have another year of eligibility? There may not be many eighth graders dominating the gridiron or basketball court, but the question remains.

Will kids be incentivized to transfer schools more often with the chance of playing in high school a year earlier? We’ve already seen an increase in kids transferring to other schools to play in what they (or their parents) perceive to be better programs. Could the same happen for the sake of early playing time? The law seems to address this for high schoolers, changing the waiting period for a student transferring from 90 days to 140 days.

Time will tell if this a change for the better or for the worse or for not much change at all. It certainly has the potential to benefit both eighth graders who are in need of a better challenge and high school teams needing to fill out rosters.

How do you feel about the change? Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

The IHSAA baseball and IGHSAU softball tournaments have their participants set across all classes. Starting on July 20 and running through 24, baseball will be played at Carroll for 1A and 2A and in Cedar Rapids for 3A and 4A. A stream of the games can be watched HERE. As for softball, all games will be played in Fort Dodge, also from July 20-24. Championship games will be streamed on Iowa PBS.

When I was in high school, if you wanted to watch the state tournament, you either needed cable or show up and buy a ticket. Now, across all sports, streaming coverage has made watching the best young athletes easier. I’m not much of a baseball or softball watcher, but I’ll be sure to tune in this year. This is how the brackets have lined up across the two sports.

Baseball

1A:

• No. 1 Coon Rapids Bayard vs. No. 8 Moravia
• No. 4 Remsen St. Marys vs. No. 5 North Linn
• No. 3 Newman Catholic vs. No. 6 Ankeny Christian
• No. 2 South Winneshiek vs. No. 7 Burlington Notre Dame

2A:

• No. 1 Pleasantville vs. No. 8 Ridge View
• No. 4 Cascade vs. No. 5 Beckman Catholic
• No. 3 West Lyon vs. No. 6 Unity Christian
• No. 2 Roland-Story vs. No. 7 Durant

3A:

• No. 1 Wahlert Catholic vs. No. 8 Knoxville
• No. 4 North Polk vs. No. 5 Western Dubuque
• No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 6 MOC-Floyd Valley
• No. 2 Carlise vs. No. 7 Assumption

4A:

• No. 1 Sioux City East vs. No. 8 Iowa City Liberty
• No. 4 Johnston vs. No. 5 Pleasant Valley
• No. 3 Waukee vs. No. 6 Valley
• No. 2 Indianola vs. No. 7 Southeast Polk

Softball

1A:

• No. 1 Exira-EHK-Audubon vs. No. 8 Edgewood-Colesburg
• No. 4 West Monona vs. No. 5 Southeast Warren
• No. 3 St. Edmond vs. No. 6 Remsen St. Mary’s
• No. 2 Clarksville vs. No. 7 North Butler

2A:

• No. 1 Grand View Christian vs. No. 8 Cardinal
• No. 4 Regina Catholic vs. No. 5 Hinton
• No. 3 Wapsie Valley vs. No. 6 Logan-Magnolia
• No. 2 Durant vs. No. 7 Ridge View

3A:

• No. 1 Williamsburg vs. No. 8 West Liberty
• No. 4 Mount Vernon vs. No. 5 PCM
• No. 3 Albia vs. No. 6 Van Meter
• No. 2 Wahlert Catholic vs. West Delaware

4A:

• No. 1 ADM vs. No. 8 Burlington
• No. 4 Western Dubuque vs. No. 5 Winterset
• No. 3 Fort Dodge vs. No. 6 Clear Creek Amana
• No. 2 Carlisle vs. No. 7 North Polk

5A:

• No. 1 Waukee Northwest vs. No. 8 Pleasant Valley
• No. 4 Dallas Center-Grimes vs. No. 5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy
• No. 3 Valley vs. No. 6 Southeast Polk
• No. 2 Ankeny Centennial vs. No. 7 Dowling Catholic

Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

I relive the same discourse about the U.S. men’s soccer team every four years. The country unites around the team, gets excited, sets unrealistic expectations for a team they do not follow regularly, and gets irrationally upset when they lose. I’m here, along with a growing contingent of U.S. men’s soccer supporters, to say what the problem is.

In the aftermath of the USA’s embarrassing 4-1 loss to Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 game, the same tired excuse came rattling out. If our best athletes started playing soccer instead of other sports, then we would be the dominant force in world soccer. Simply put, this is not true.

What is true is that across the NBA and NFL is where you can find some of the world’s greatest athletes. Speed, strength, agility and balance are all found in our country’s most popular sports. But, those games lend themselves to the most athletic. There is skill and nuance to them, sure, but nowhere near as much as soccer. It’s why someone like Dennis Rodman could go from never playing basketball until he was 21 to becoming a hall-of-famer. Patrick Mahomes, currently the best QB in the NFL, didn’t start playing football until his junior year of high school. That would have made him roughly 16 at the time.

The best soccer players in the world have already been playing soccer, daily, for a decade by the age of 16. Take Spain’s Lamine Yamal, who broke into FC Barcelona’s starting lineup at 16 years old. Currently, he is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds soaking wet and is one of the best players in the world. Those are the same measurements of France’s Ousmane Dembélé, who won soccer’s greatest individual award last season, the Ballon d’Or. Lionel Messi, the greatest player in the history of the sport, is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 148 pounds. None of them would sniff professional basketball, football or baseball. But they did grow up playing soccer.

The main reason we start so far behind is not because we don’t have the athletes to do so; it’s the youth soccer system in the U.S. Clubs in the states operate in a completely different fashion than they do in the rest of the world. Here, it’s too expensive. Landon Donovan, one of the America’s best talents quoted a 2016 study, saying “Only 2% of kids playing organized soccer in America come from households that made less than $50,000.” He added, “The majority of those kids came from families earning between $100,000 and $150,000 (a year).”

To note, the median household income in the U.S. in 2014 was $83,730.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to current men’s national team starter Chris Richards. His mom worked at a law firm, and his father owned a moving company. When the economy crashed in 2009, even his family, one that would normally be considered “well-off,” struggled to pay for fees, hotel stays and travel costs. They even roomed with another family to make it work. Clint Dempsey, who is arguably our most talented player ever, had to be discovered by pure luck while playing at Furman College, which was an opportunity he had to fight tooth and nail for just to play at this small South Carolina university. His family had to drive three hours to Dallas just so he could play on a club team. If you are a parent, would you do one of those two things, or just send your child off to the local middle school and high school teams?

Teams across the pond make money through developing talent and profiting from eventual transfer fees for their stars. That money is reinvested into the team and allows the sport to be cheaper for those entering it. It is the other way around in the U.S., where teams charge big fees upfront to make their money. The difference in models is explained well here.

Until the U.S. gets serious about making the sport affordable at the youth level, too many of this country’s admittedly incredible athletes will get pushed into other sports. Even with baseball and basketball growing with international followings, other countries are catching up because they make it more affordable at the youth level. The NBA hasn’t had an American-born MVP since 2018. The U.S. just lost the World Baseball Classic to Venezuela, and Japan back in 2023. This country has proven to do a lot of great things. Becoming great at soccer could be one of them. The solution is clear. Make it more affordable, and watch America rise up in the rankings.

Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

Bobby Bonilla Day

Those of you who know what Bobby Bonilla Day is already know what I am writing about. Those who don’t are in for a treat.

Bobby Bonilla, former MLB player from 1986 to 2001, had a solid career. He hit .279, made six All-Star teams, had more than 2,000 hits and more than 1,000 RBIs. But, what he’s most known for is not his baseball ability.

Bonilla was traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the New York Mets in the 1999 season. The Mets wanted to release Bonilla at the end of the year. But, Bonilla was still owed quite a bit of money. Bonilla negotiated a settlement with the Mets where they would pay him out $1.19 million on July 1 every year from 2011 through 2035. July 1 is now known as Bobby Bonilla Day around the sports media landscape. ESPN has a great breakdown of the negotiations as to why the Mets didn’t just fork over the cash initially. It partially involves Bernie Maddoff. I learned while researching this that Bonilla has a similar agreement with the Orioles, which pay him $500,000 every year from 2004 to 2028.

Lebron on the move

Lebron James is, in my opinion, the greatest basketball player of all time. He has done things in the NBA that will never be replicated and set records that may never be broken. He is setting yet another precedent.

Lebron informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he would not be staying with the team and that they should proceed through the offseason without him in mind. The Lakers got to work quickly and signed several players with money that would have likely gone to Lebron. Lebron and his agent stated that his next team would be chosen however Lebron sees fit, and that he would accept a minimum contract to make it happen.

Rumors have since swirled. Lebron’s agent said they listened to pitches from more than a dozen teams. Will he join the Golden State Warriors to play alongside longtime friends and future Hall of Famers Steph Curry and Draymond Green? Will he return to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for one last journey on a roster loaded with talent? Or, will he return to the Miami Heat, where he won his first championship, and the team that just made a blockbuster deal for one of the league’s top stars, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Or, could he go elsewhere? Aging stars tend to go where they please at the end of their careers, but none of them has been as talented as Lebron is at this age. At 41, Lebron can turn any team into a contender, and any contender into a championship favorite.

World Cup madness

The World Cup knock rounds have been underway, and fans have been treated to some instant classics. Morocco upset the Netherlands in a penalty shootout. Germany lost in an even bigger upset against Paraguay, also in penalties. This upset was made even crazier by the fact that the Germans are known as being excellent penalty takers, having not lost in a shootout since 1976. Belgium completed an unthinkable comeback win against Senegal. They were down 2-0 until the 86 minute mark when Romelu Lukaku scored, followed by another Belgian goal just three minutes later that send it into extra time, where they would eventually win in the 120+5 minute.

To quick fire results, England required heroics from captain Harry Kane to narrowly beat DR Congo late in the game. Norway barely snuck past the Ivory Coast thanks to a late goal from their star, Erling Haaland. Brazil barely beat Japan, also thanks to a last-minute winner from Gabriel Martinelli. Of the 16 games in the round of 32, so far, eight have been decided by one goal. The United States nearly made it nine, if not for this beautiful Mark Tillman free kick against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday night.

Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

A former soccer teammate of mine sent in an alumni chat that our high school coach had decided to move out of Des Moines, back to his hometown. This got me thinking about the impact he had on me as coach and as a teacher while at Lincoln High School.

When I was a freshman at Lincoln, the soccer team’s junior varsity coach was Jack Simons. I showed up to an open gym, where he played alongside us students. I vividly remember him asking what class I was in. When I said I was a freshman, he said “Geez, you’re big for a freshman.” Bear in mind, I was probably around 5 foot 8 inches at the time. But, soccer players are noticeably short, so I stood out. A connection was formed right then and there. I played under him on JV my freshman year. Going into my sophomore year, he took over the varsity gig, and I managed to make the varsity roster. So, I spent all four years of my high school soccer career under him. Each of them were seasons I won’t soon forget.

Simons was like no other coach I had before. He, at times, was the most intense, demanding and ruthless coach I ever had. He was also the funniest, most caring and compassionate one. If you were playing well, he was quick to praise and encourage you. If you were playing poorly, he was quick to criticize, but also correct.

A few moments stand out. My sophomore year, we were playing Johnston in the substate final. We had a solid season, ranked for a good portion of the year with solid players at all positions. Johnston, however, was the No. 1 team in state and had a player on the U18 U.S. national team. We all knew we had a slim to none chance. The bus ride there, Simons cranked the music, had us laughing, being joyous, and ready to take on the Dragons. We lost. Handily. But, he made sure we were proud of what we were able to accomplish that season. Conference champions, ranked, and one game away from a trip to state.

My junior year, I was picked to start against Southeast Polk. A few minutes into the game, I scored the best goal of my life. And, to my luck, it was caught on camera. What the video doesn’t show is that, overall, I was playing poorly and was subbed out roughly five minutes after I scored and didn’t return to the game. It didn’t matter that I scored what ended up being the game winner. I wasn’t doing enough, so I got pulled and chewed out. Lesson learned.

We met Johnston again in the substate final my junior year. The Dragons were, once again, one of the best teams in the state. And, once again, we lost. This time not as badly, but it was frustrating to be so close two years in a row. Another year as conference champs. Another year spending nearly all of it ranked. No problem. We go again next season.

Our first game of my senior season? Johnston. Ranked No. 1. And, despite us being ranked in the top 10 at the end of the season and falling one game short of state, we were unranked. Plus, Johnston did not even put us in a locker room for the game. We changed underneath the bleachers, feeling quite disrespected. The rallying speech Simons gave us was one I’ll never forget. And, finally, we got over the hump, beating Johnston on penalties. We had quite the time in that storage room they put us in after the game. It is a memory I will never forget, due in large part to Simons’ speech and his coaching.

That season, yet again, we made it to the substate final, only to find No. 2 Valley standing in our path. And, yet again, we lost. Conference champs again, ranked all season long, and fell just short. It is quite a bit of bad luck to have either eventual state champions or finalists in your substate bracket three years in a row. I believe we had 10 seniors on that team. In the locker room after the game, Simons was the most dejected I had seen. But, we all gathered in a circle, refusing to let ourselves feel down, and pulled Simons into our circle. Each player made a comment on the season. Some joked. Some were serious. Either way, we all spread a little love to one another and moved onto our next chapters.

I spent a lot of time with Simons those four years with him as my coach and also as a creative writing teacher. I’m not sure he’ll ever know the true extent of influence he had on me. My soccer memories are ones I cherish most from high school. His class showed me the more enjoyable, whimsical side of writing. It undoubtedly influenced my decision to pursue writing in any fashion as a career.

At a school like Lincoln, it is difficult to get people to care. Students often have plenty of challenges in their lives that are simply more important than high school sports. Simons, through his personality, coaching style and love for soccer, made us care. An alumni game played recently saw 50 or so former players descend onto Lincoln’s new turf. I would challenge any of Lincoln’s other sports to get half as many people together. Simons passed the program off to Joe Sithonnorath about four years ago, but his impact on Lincoln soccer and the community is one that won’t be soon forgotten.

Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.