By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
While I hate to admit that the autumn season will be soon be upon us and summer is about to end, I am excited that fall sports will start soon.
Yes, football, volleyball, and cross country are upon us. Football is an incredible game for many reasons and is one of the most popular sports in the country. A kick-return touchdown. A deep ball with the laces spinning under spotlight. A running back breaking through the line with nothing but green grass in front of him. I love it.
Volleyball does not get the credit it deserves for how entertaining it truly is. I attended several Iowa State University volleyball games over the years and thoroughly enjoyed each experience. It is nearly nonstop action from start to finish with dives, leaps, inch-perfect saves and blocks. One of the stats are called kills, for crying out loud.
Cross country, while maybe not as entertaining as the others, requires feats of endurance and stamina few can match, and that’s saying something.
Those are all plenty of reasons to get excited, but our local high school programs have reasons to be enthusiastic, too. I interviewed each of the head coaches of Panorama and ACGC’s football, volleyball and cross country teams for our Fall Sports Guide, due to publish soon. Listening back to their interviews and putting together the articles has me ready for every kickoff, serve and start.
For Panorama, Head Coach Charlie Lake enters his second year in charge of the football program. While last year was likely not the start he envisioned record-wise, he has plenty of talented players returning and has received plenty of support from his upperclassmen to ensure the younger players buy in.
Mollie Lint has improved her record as Panorama volleyball’s coach each year. Panorama was one victory away from a winning record last season. While Lint lost a great deal of fire power and defense from last season, she has been showing the ability to improve her team’s success for three seasons now. Will she be able to do so again this year with a young squad? Time will tell.
Greg Thompson has cultivated two excellent cross country programs across boys and girls. Running might not be your thing, but it sure is Thompson’s. The girls squad placed ninth at the state meet a year ago and returns six out of its seven runners. The boys were spearheaded by All-State talent Noah Poldberg but saw improvement from new athletes, too. Several athletes return, along with a few new faces, for Thompson for 2025.
At ACGC, Head Football Coach Cody Matthewson has been building a powerhouse program. It would take an entire column to list the number of All-District, All-Conference and All-State players he has developed since being in charge. While the Chargers have not been able to make it to the UNI Dome quite yet, with Matthewson at the helm, the sky is the limit for the black and gold.
Caley Vaughan takes over as the head coach of ACGC’s volleyball team. She has been an assistant and is now replacing Barb South, who saw success at the program. Vaughan tells me she still speaks regularly with South — a good mentor to have. ACGC has won 20-plus games in three of the last four seasons, and, like the football team, has narrowly missed out on chances at state. Could Vaughan get them over the hump? I’m excited to find out.
Rick Blake is going into his second season as the head coach of ACGC’s cross country teams. If year one was any indication of how good they can be under his leadership, the rest of the state better watch out. The boys won the state qualifying meet last year but lost several runners heading into this season. It will be intriguing to see if he and the Charger boys can replicate that success. For the girls, they won several meets last season as well, including the state qualifier, and performed solidly at state. They, too, lost a great group of runners. Whether or not they will be able to replicate that success is in the air, but, from what Blake tells me, he and his team are ready for the challenge.
All in all, each of these programs give sports fans plenty of reason to make it to games and meets this season to support the players and schools. I am excited to see how they all pan out.
Reach out with comments, complaints or story ideas to cyote@dmcityview.com.