Clarinda senior Cailyn Meyers signed Friday, Feb. 27, with Morningside Bowling. Meyers is seated with parents Bret and Alex Meyers.
Clarinda senior Cailyn Meyers signed Friday, Feb. 27, with Morningside Bowling. Meyers is seated with parents Bret and Alex Meyers.
Shenandoah junior Clay Foutch finished second Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the Class 1A Individual State Tournament in Waterloo.
It was a record-setting and historic day of bowling Tuesday, Feb. 24, for Shenandoah junior Clay Foutch at the Class 1A Individual State Tournament in Waterloo.
Foutch finished second in the 32-athlete field, losing in the state championship match 249-246.
“It means lot,” Foutch said. “It stinks that I lost the final but it’s a great accomplishment.”
He rolled six straight strikes to finish the championship match, but opponent Landon Costello of Maquoketa put a big run of strikes together in the middle of the game to hold on for the win.
“He had a great shot and had the whole roll to himself,” Shenandoah head coach Darin Pease said on Foutch, “with only two lefties in the field. That’s a pretty big advantage. He had to apply himself early with a couple misses but got more confident as the day went on. His bowling in the bracket was fantastic, and he got stronger as the day went on.”
Foutch’s 246 in the final was the best of his six games, rolled over the course of the day. A 220, which was his first game, was his lowest score.
“I had been there before and know what’s happening,” Foutch said. “I knew my shot and made sure I had confidence to what my coaches were telling me. They told me to keep my foot on the gas and not let up.”
Foutch’s opening 220 was followed by a 230, and then a 264 for a school record-setting 714 three-game series to advance to bracket play as the No. 5 seed. The 714 beat his own record, which he sent to qualify for the individual state tournament.
“I had a lot of ups and downs,” Foutch said on the emotions of the day. “A 220 to start isn’t bad but there are a lot of good bowlers here, so it was a little scary. A 230 gave me a little more confidence but I knew I had to go big in the third game and shot a 264 which made me very happy.”
Foutch then beat Clarke’s Bryce Giza 237-227 in the quarterfinal and Lucas Clark of Waterloo Columbus, who was the top seed after the three individual games, 224-218 in the semifinals.
“I had bowled against him before,” Foutch said on his match with Giza. “I had confidence to beat him but was a little scared. My second match was against the top seed. He had an open in the ninth frame, which gave me an opportunity, and I had to take it.”
The semifinal win moved Foutch into the state championship match where his late run wasn’t quite enough to overtake Costello.
“Nothing was wrong, nothing was bad,” Foutch said on the final. “But I missed a spare in the third frame.”
Pease said Foutch’s performance speaks volumes, not just about his junior’s bowling skills but what this team is capable of going forward.
“We just have to keep the hunger to get to Waterloo,” Pease said. “We have to practice together because getting there is not a given. As long as we keep working hard, we’ll be fine. Hopefully, this can get more kids interested in the game. Our numbers may fall off a bit next year, but a spark like this and having kids like Clay do well can be big.”
The junior completed his season with a pin count of 1,421 over six games, an average score of 237. He’ll return next year, looking for a fourth straight trip to individual state and to help a Mustang team that loses just two varsity regulars in Teagan Brunk and Owen Nokes return to the team state tournament.
Clarinda seniors Jalon Olson (left) and Kambry Gordon (right) pose for a picture with their season posters Sunday, Feb. 15, during their final wrestling banquet.
Clarinda seniors Jalon Olson (left) and Kambry Gordon (right) pose for a picture with their season posters Sunday, Feb. 15, during their final wrestling banquet.
Shenandoah head football coach Skip Eckhardt was inducted into the Iowa Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame Saturday, Feb. 28.
Shenandoah head football coach Skip Eckhardt was officially inducted into the Iowa Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame Saturday, Feb. 28, during the IFCA’s annual Awards Ceremony in Altoona.
Eckhardt has been a football coach for 45 years across Iowa, mainly at the high school level. He called receiving the induction the “pinnacle” of his coaching career, saying there are a lot of great coaches who won’t ever earn a hall of fame distinction.
“It’s from your peers and they picked you,” Eckhardt said. “It’s like the Heisman Trophy. It’s like the Hall of Fame for anything. It’s a big thing.”
He added that while he’s had plenty of success on the football field, coaching for him has always been about making kids better, on and off the football field.
Eckhardt’s first head coaching job was at Schleswig, a job he started at age 24 and coached them to five conference championships and a state title in 1984, his third season leading the Hawks.
He also spent time at South Page where he said he had a few 7-2 or 8-1 teams that didn’t make the playoffs. He added that he had a lot of good teams over the course of his career that didn’t make the playoffs, back in a time when earning a playoff berth was quite a bit more difficult than it is now.
Eckhardt has also spent time at Crestwood, North Tama, Davenport Central, North Scott, Davenport North and AGWSR as a head coach. He started at Crestwood as an assistant coach in 1981 and has had multiple stints there. One of those included him taking over a program that was mired in a 40+ game losing streak, which ended in his third game there. I his third year there, they made the playoffs for the first time in program history.
Eckhardt, who has coached the last two seasons at Shenandoah, has prided himself over the years on taking over a struggling program and helping them thrive.
“Everybody says it’s about hard work,” Eckhardt said. “It’s about sticking with the basics, getting in the weight room and getting the kids prepared.”
He said it means a lot to him to still be called coach by players that he may have coached decades earlier and hadn’t seen in several years. He’s worked with major college football players and even coached a couple guys who went on play in the NFL during a brief stint as an assistant at Northern Iowa, which is where he played his college football.
He said one big thing he’s always made sure to do is “take care of the middle guys.”
“We always applaud the great players and work hard on the lesser players,” Eckhardt said. “But we forget about the dudes that are going to win a lot of games with you. It’s a lot like offensive linemen today. We look at the guy running or the guy throwing, but what happens when you don’t block.”
Eckhardt said all the success stories are great and said some of the losses over the years hurt, but said he’s stuck with it all these years because of the kids.
“I don’t know why I have stayed with it,” Eckhardt said. “The Good Lord wanted me to do this. How many people have a coach who has given shoes to kids or held them in their house after a bad situation at home. You just do it because you’re a decent person.”
He said going to various clinics has been a highlight and the opportunity to meet and hang out with quite a few other coaches. He said coaches are always sharing stuff with each other and when it comes down to it, the game really hasn’t changed a whole lot.
“It doesn’t matter how pretty the weight room is, “Eckhardt said, “you have to pump the weights and jump the rope. Nothing has changed. What’s the difference between an RPO and play action pass in the old days. Nothing. It’s a fake run and throw. Nobody invents anything anymore.”
Eckhardt said the game has been good to him and he knows nothing different during the autumn months than being on the football field.
“It’s a good game and I have stayed in it because it’s been good to me,” Eckhardt said. “You put your time in, and a lot of my life has been in it.”
Eckhardt admits he’s more tired than he used to be and doesn’t know how much longer he’ll coach. He feels both of his Shenandoah teams so far have been quite close to showing off a much better record, saying just this last season they should have beaten Mount Ayr and Tri-Center and who knows what the West Marshall playoff game looks like without early turnovers.
He adds that his goals at Shenandoah haven’t changed. He wants to win a playoff game, something Shenandoah hasn’t done since 1987, and claim a district championship.
Joining Eckhardt in the 2026 Hall of Fame class are Chuck Henry, who had long-term success at Sigourney and Washington, Alan Pierce, who coached high school football for more than 30 years, including leading Laurens-Marathon to the 1989 state championship and Doug Winkowitsch, current head coach at ADM, who has more than 200 wins in 30+ seasons, mostly at West Delaware.
