Join us for a lively discussion with sports experts Jeff Blankman, KC Meiners, and John Ryan as they delve into exciting sports trivia and local events. Jake Buelt, the best-dressed guest in the room, takes center stage to share all about an upcoming junior golf tournament in Breda. Get the details on how young golf enthusiasts can participate and benefit from this community event.
John Ryan (Host) :
9.30. You're my witness. It's 9.30 exactly. Yeah. See? Yeah. Yeah. Right on time today. We either start a little early or we start a little late. No bonus time, no nothing. We're here at 9.30. It's KCIM Sports Rewind. Sports Director Jeff Blankman, Assistant Sports Director KC Meiners. I'm John Ryan, hanging out for the half hour and adding a little class to the joint today. Yes. Yeah. Best dressed guy in the room right now, Jake Buelt, is in the studio with us. How are you doing, Jake?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Oh, not too bad. The only reason I'm best dressed is because I have to go back to work after this.
John Ryan (Host) :
You've got a real job. We don't.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Otherwise, I'd be in t-shirts just like you guys. Us three are at work, though. That's true.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Maybe there's a thought to change your career there, huh? Yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
No doubt about it.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
You've got a good face for radio. That is one thing.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right. So we're going to start with a trivia question. I'm going to include Jake in on this one. We do a trivia question each and every week. So these guys' question. All-star game is tonight. Only all-star game worth watching is the baseball all-star game, correct?
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
I think so, man. Yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
From 1997 until this year, 26 games. How many times has the National League won the All-Star Game since 1997? Jake, I'm going to have you pull that mic up a little bit closer to get there.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
All right, right here, good.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, anybody got any quick guesses while we're at it?
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
I'm going to guess five. Five? No. I was going to go with that, but I'll say three. No, you're right in the middle. Okay. Four?
John Ryan (Host) :
Four. That stunned me when I heard that. Four times is all that the National League has won the All-Star Games since 1997.
KC Meiners (Host) :
I know there was one point where the AL won like ten in a row.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Right. I think we almost might be at that point right now because I know the... American League's had the home field advantage in the World Series for how many years in a row now?
John Ryan (Host) :
Did they change that? Have they changed that since then?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
It might be a better record now. I think they did change it a year or two ago.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
It's because the AL kept winning.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah. National League teams were not real happy with that one.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
If I remember correctly, didn't the NL dominate it for a long time, too? So it's like each league kind of goes on a run, it seems like.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, but for 26 years, only four wins?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Wow. I'm too young to remember before that, Blankman. Yeah, that's true.
John Ryan (Host) :
Are you 26? I'm 31, buddy. So there's your trivia question of the day. So let's talk about the reason that you're here, Jake. You've got a junior golf tournament coming up in Brita. Tell us the where, when, and what's about it.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yeah, so we're going to have our normal annual junior golf tournament up in Brita on July 29th. TEOF's going to be at 930 that day. It's open to any kid in the area. So, you know, whether it's in Carroll, Olderbolt, Kuhn. Manning, Lakeview, anywhere from there. Age groups, we're going to have ages 8 is going to be our lower end of it, and then we're going to go up through going into senior year of high school. So that's tough to say, 17 or 18, but if you're going to be going into senior year, you are eligible to play. The seniors that are going off to college, we've kind of gone away from them. I think the first year we had them just because of COVID. So ages 8 through senior year of high school, and that's going to be July 29th at 930 at the Breida Golf Course. If you need to get a contact, call up there, 712-673-4653. The last four digits are golf, if you forget that. So, yeah, no, it's a great event every year. I think last year we had around 40 to 50 kids. And we've kind of been holding steady at that. So we like to get that many again this year. And I appreciate you guys letting me come on and get the word out better.
John Ryan (Host) :
Oh, absolutely. Now, you've seen kind of a little uptick in some of the some of the kids interested in golf that are coming up now again.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, back when we were kids, you know, like my buddies, Kyler Tanner, Nate Malak, Nibsey and all of us, we took lessons from Coach Clark and Once Coach Clark got out of it, there's really not a lot of guys here that gave the individual lessons or did tournaments. So I kind of got back into it. I know Brian out at Carroll National is doing lessons again for juniors. So it's starting to get kids back into it, and those numbers are starting to come up, which is really good because the last few years there's been some low numbers. Back when I was in high school, I think we had about 30, 35 kids on the golf team. Wow. You know, about 10 of them are there to play golf. The other 20 were there to get some lessons from coach. So, hey, you know what? They're probably better golfers today because of it. So, yeah, we're just trying to get that back into the area. And, you know, with all the great court local courses around here, it's a great thing to have.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
How many years have you guys been holding the Junior National or the Junior Tournament?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
This will be our fifth year in it. It started off as the Fred Beckman Junior Golf Tournament after one of our members passed away. And then we switched it last year. So now we're just a breed of Junior Golf Tournament. But we want to keep those numbers up. So it's a fun day. The cost of it is $20. You get free burgers, free lunches. with the great help of sponsors like Arcadia Meats. And then, yeah, we usually have some little tea prizes or tea gifts for them and all that kind of stuff. Trophies Plus gives us some trophies. So, you know, it's a really good event, and we try to keep it low cost because the biggest thing, in my opinion, is kids need to learn how to do tournament golf. And along with that, I do know the Muni and Carroll National are having some tournaments coming up. So even if you don't think your kid might or might not be good enough to play, just let them try it and give it a shot, and they might find something that they love.
John Ryan (Host) :
Like you said, $20 is all it's going to cost them. They're getting the lunch and everything. They're getting the golf, so it's super low price. But what did tournament golf do for you growing up? I mean, you probably played in all these tournaments, everything you could.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yep, no, we did. So got to give a shout out to Jodi Ludwig on that one. She was a teacher, so she had summers off and she would pack Kyler, Tanner, Nate and I into a van and we'd go down to Des Moines, all over the place. And we play in these Iowa Junior PGA events, which I believe is the one that's coming to Carroll National here in a couple weeks, I think. But, yeah, and all that, I mean, just seeing different kids from different areas. You know, around here you might think you're a big fish in a small pond, but then you go to Des Moines and you realize that there's a lot better golfers than you out there, and that kind of motivates you a little bit. You know, you look at golfers right now on the high school team or from Kemper's team this year, I know for a fact, Maverick Schwabe and Braxton Bonami. I think Caden Schoen. I know those guys go and play junior tournaments, too. Sorry if I missed anybody. But I do know those kids go and play. And so, I mean, it's a great opportunity to get out there and just see different kids, see where you're at, and then that kind of motivates and drives you.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
I know you gave a phone number for people to call up to Breida. Is there a Facebook page or anything people can go and look at a pamphlet or anything?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yep, so it'll be the Breida Golf Club is the Facebook page name. So, yeah, you can go on there. We'll have a post up for it and everything. Yeah, so it'll be July 29th. We'll have that posted, and I can send it to you guys when we get it posted up there.
John Ryan (Host) :
Is there a maximum amount in each age group, or do you just want to see how many you can get?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
We want to see how many we can get. Our max would be 72, which would be eight kids on each hole. So we haven't gotten close to that. It would be great if we did. It might make things go a little slower, but a tournament like that would be awesome. Yeah. Yeah, so there's really no max, so we kind of split them out into different age groups. So usually it's 8 to 10 years old, I think like 11 to 13, and then we go 14 to 17. So there's three different age groups, boy and girl division. So if you want to get your daughter involved too, that would be great. I know they could use some numbers and everything. So, yeah, it's a good chance to get your kids out there. I know there's always basketball camps and football camps and baseball camps. So we're trying to get golf back into one of the normal routine sports.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, it's about perfect time before any of that other stuff gets going. Hopefully you guys get time for this one. But how about parents? Do they need to provide any supervision during the day for the younger kids at all?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
appreciate if you did bring someone up there we will have volunteers at the course that can drive around too but if you do have a younger child we would like you to come up and help follow around usually with eight to ten year olds we put them at like 200 yards or 150 on the hole depending how far out they are just so that you know they're not playing a super long hole And the other thing we do do with our tournament is we have a max score of nine on each hole to help to keep the tournament moving. And so, you know, the kids don't become discouraged if they do have a bad hole or two in there.
John Ryan (Host) :
So is there any kind of registration deadline that you want them signed up by?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Probably just the Sunday before. So that's a Monday. So if you could have it signed up, you know, by the 28th, that'll be the night that I'm putting scorecards and everything together.
John Ryan (Host) :
So Jack can get to bed at a certain time on Sunday night.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
And you know what? If it turns out that you're going on vacation or something and that didn't work out where you come up the 29th, we'll find a place to fit them in and get them into the tournament then.
John Ryan (Host) :
This is a phenomenal event. It really is for all the kids around the area. You said there's other ones coming up, but this is the only one I know about.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yeah, so I do know. And that's just... because I heard from someone else that their kids are playing in the Iowa Junior PEGA one. And I do know that the rec has theirs every summer, too, out at the Muni. So I just know that those are coming up, and I want to give them some shine, too, because it is really fun. I mean, I played in all of them around here when I grew up, and that might give them the confidence to want to go play somewhere else. And then from there, they're building their way up. Yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
Wouldn't it be great to get back to the times when Carroll County had, like, every number one golf team in the state and about every class around?
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, it was dominant back when Jake was around, and it was all the area teams. Yeah. Yeah.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
So, yeah, I know, I mean, I think it was Johnny Schwaller from down in Coon. He was always a good player. But, yeah, I mean, if you look at the tradition just here in Carroll alone between our teams, you know, the teams that had Dave Bloom, he was an individual winner. And then, I mean, you go to the other side of town with Carroll, and you have all the Pettit boys and the Pettit girls and those teams that they were on that were really good. So, yeah, I know we have a rich history here, and, you know, it's something we want to keep going around here.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, Justin Kraft up at Eastside County.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
He's doing TikTok videos on the golf channel and everything. Yeah, he's big time in it. I played against him in college up at Briarcliff. He was at Northwestern. But, yeah, he's on the golf channel now giving instructional videos and everything. Nice.
John Ryan (Host) :
Do you guys still do, like, the Ryder Cup between you and Carroll High? We do, yeah.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
So it's a sore subject right now because Carroll High beat us last year. But, yeah, that's coming up, too, and that's always a fun event with – carol and kemper alumni so i think that's coming up on august 10th okay so yeah there will be a lot of familiar faces if you guys want to pop out to the club that yeah yeah i won't be in the state but otherwise i certainly will but tell everybody out there i say hi i will yep for sure how's your game My game's doing pretty well right now. Which he's sandbagging. Yeah, well, it's on those deals where you play as much as you can now, and it wasn't what it used to be, but it's still on par, whatever you want to say. A lot of people will say or see me golf and be like, well, I thought you weren't playing very well. And it's like, well, it's not what it used to be.
John Ryan (Host) :
So once these kids go out and play, they might get the bug for it. I mean, you have a contact of kids that they can contact to get a few lessons in here and there, right?
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yep, correct. Yep. So I do junior lessons up there in Brita. And I actually just got a junior camp done with where we had 36 kids. So I had three different, you know, sessions with them and everything to divide it out. And even though if it's not me, like I said, Brian on the Carroll National. He's having lessons out there, I know. Or, you know, Deb Goody is a great resource around here. Or just any person like that.
John Ryan (Host) :
You'll get them into contact with him.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yeah, exactly. But, you know, yeah, I do them up there, and I try to have a flexible schedule. Accounting kind of lends to that. But, yeah, no, it's just about trying to get the most kids back into it so that we get the numbers out and we have those dynasties come back to town. Yeah, exactly.
John Ryan (Host) :
July 29th, Rita Golf Course, the Junior Golf Tournament. $20 is all it is. Call the golf course up there, 673-GOLF, or check it out on Facebook. Jake, thanks so much. Appreciate you coming in, man, and talking about this. We love covering events like this and getting more kids involved in a great sport.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Yep, nope, not a problem. And don't forget, I offered you a free golf lesson, too. All right, I'm going to take you up on that one. All right, well, thanks, guys.
John Ryan (Host) :
He's probably seen me swing a golf club before. All right, thanks, Jake.
Jake Buelt (Guest) :
Appreciate that so much.
John Ryan (Host) :
Once again, Jake Belt joining us here this morning on KCIM Sports Rewind. So let's talk last night. Ought to have been softball. Man, you had a good one.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, I had a great one, probably one of the best softball games I've called in a number of years. I talked with Casey, you know, who had called their 15-inning game against I-35 earlier this year, and he got a chance to see both. You know, to me, he leaned the I-35 game because it was 15 innings. I leaned last night because of what was on the line, you know, as far as great games, but... Yeah, Audubon had a runner in scoring position in the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth inning. And the Yaqui girl from Maple Valley, Anthonota Charter O'Cute, their shortstop was... The best defensive shortstop I've seen all year. Yeah, she made so many plays to keep Audubon from being able to score. And then, you know, you come up with Anna Larson, a sophomore, and comes up in singles and takes second on an error and then moves down to third on a wild pitch with... Nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. And you got two pop-ups on the infield caught by Yaki at shortstop. And all of a sudden, you're down to the last dot. And you're thinking, oh, man, we're going extra innings. And then the freshman, Taryn Peterson, comes up. And she had been 0 for on the night. And... She hits a shot between third and short, and Yaki got to it. But Peterson runs fast enough to beat it out to first, and Larson scored on the play. I would say got her. I think she was safe by probably a step or so. The throw was a little bit late. But, I mean, it was a tough play. She was in the hole between third and short and had to backhand it and come up firing. But she made that play twice that night. Yeah. But, yeah, luckily Peterson was really fast and able to beat that. I don't think if... There might have been one other girl on the team that might have been able to run that out and beat it out. Otherwise, I think Yaki probably gets almost anybody else on the team out at first base and we go extra innings. And so the girl that had the hit, she was in Peterson. Just a freshman? Just a freshman. The girl that scored just a sophomore. And the girl that struck out 12 in a circle for him, just a freshman. No hitter?
KC Meiners (Host) :
Got to put the no hitter in there, too.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah. Actually was an air away from a perfect game. There was one girl that got on base last night. So you think about that. Almost throws a perfect game. One batter on base away from a perfect game in a regional final.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, and you're still looking at extra innings potentially. You're one hit away from all of that stuff. So what a phenomenal matchup. I know they don't know who they're going to play yet at State Softball Tournament. That is yet to be determined. So give me their odds going into this tournament.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Looks like they'll probably be the three seed. They were the four seed going in. They were ranked fifth, so they could have ended up as the five seed. But two and four got beat, so they should slide up to the three seed.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And there's a chance that two could lose tonight. They're still in Van Meter one, so they advance to Van Meter. More than likely going to be the one seed. So you're kind of looking at Auburn anywhere being from the three to five, I would assume.
John Ryan (Host) :
Right. So Van Meter, are they like head and shoulders? Yeah, it looks like it.
KC Meiners (Host) :
They hit over 400 as a team and have a really good pitcher.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, they've kind of handled everybody they've had to play this year. You know, you get there, anything can happen. I think Audubon's got a good chance to make some noise when they get up there.
John Ryan (Host) :
It was a really good game last night by the Audubon Wheelers. They have been the hottest team all year long. They have. I mean, no doubt about that. So they have earned their way, certainly. Coon Rapids Bear are going to try to earn their way tonight. Talk about that matchup with Rems and St. Mary's.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
I think it's going to be an interesting one. As long as you've got Colby Culbertson and Cal Hayden going on the hill, you're going to have a chance to beat anybody. I think the fact that Coon swept Woodbine and 10-runned them the first time they played them, and I know the second time over there was really tight and low scoring, but Woodbine should have beat St. Mary's on... Saturday night, then you would have had a Coon-Woodbine rematch for the third time this year. But St. Mary's scores three in the bottom half of the seventh inning, two of them on an error with two outs that would have ended the ballgame. So St. Mary's, who's ranked number two, escapes. But I think that makes them look vulnerable. The only thing that I've talked with Casey about it, talked with Jake about it when we got here, sometimes really good teams get a scare, and that scare kind of – changes the projection. You've got to hope that for Kuhn tonight that St. Mary's, that that wasn't their scare and then tonight they're not able to come back from it. But I think Kuhn's got a legitimate chance to go up there and win. I think Coach Waddles liked this matchup since the pairings were released.
John Ryan (Host) :
So that is tonight from Cherokee. Once again, a place you've called many, many ballgames from. 645 pregame, 7 o'clock on KKRL. That is our sister station. We're going to talk about the KCIM Sports Rewind All-Star Team and festivities. That's coming up next here on KCIM Sports Rewind.
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John Ryan (Host) :
We have got a brand-new episode of Must Know People that you absolutely have to tune in for. Owner of Carroll National Golf Course, NBA champion head coach, and current head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, of course, it's Nick Nurse. Nick sat down with us just before the Chamber event last Friday to talk all about his NBA career growing up in Carroll and a whole lot more. It's Must Know People, a new episode this Wednesday at 10 a.m. at carrollbroadcasting.com. Had a great conversation with Nick Nurse the other day. Man, check that out. It's dropping tomorrow at 10 o'clock at 1380kcim.com. So, Must Know People is the name of that one.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
I will say you caught me off guard because I was thinking I'd sell some pictures of you guys talking on Facebook. So, I mentioned yesterday that that was already dropped. And then I looked and I'm like, oh, no, it doesn't drop until tomorrow. So people are out there looking for it. That's on me. I apologize.
John Ryan (Host) :
Wanted to have a chance to do a little pre-promotion for it. So I've been playing a couple of clips here and there on my airship about that. But super nice guy. What an incredible accommodating guy. And we're going to catch up with him. I did ask him about that. I said, hey, during the season, can we call you sometime in time? He goes, absolutely. I tune into KCIM all the time. He wants to know if anybody out there listens to KCIM more than he does. Okay. So that's how often he tunes in to find out what's going on. All right, we're talking about the all-star festivities and the KCIM All Rewind team for baseball and softball. You tell me, where do you want to start on that?
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
We'll start with softball, and we'll start with honorable mention on softball. And I'll read those first couple of the girls, as I did try to put all the kids on the same team for you. Thankfully, yes. He learns after about 10 years. You know, for you guys. But we'll start with East Sac County. Honorable mention goes to Jen Ashinger and Miranda Gerdes. Are we, but we had Amber Regaler.
John Ryan (Host) :
From the Coon Rapids Beard Crusaders, it's Anna Hart, Aubrey Huffbauer, and Malia Klayberg. From the Kemper Knights, Melinda Schaefer. From Carol Analia Ayala and Avery Burke.
KC Meiners (Host) :
From South Central Calhoun, Olivia Toms and J.C. Gravey. And from I.K.M. Manning, Alexa McGinn. And then rounding out our honorable mention from Audubon, Gemini Goodwin.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, we're going to move on to second team here. And from the Kemper Knights, pitcher from the second team is Miley Schaefer.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
You bet. Our second team catcher, also from the Kemper Knights, Ellie Sybil.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Our first team, excuse me, our second base, I'll get it right eventually, our second team first baseman.
John Ryan (Host) :
That's a mouthful, man. It's really Clayford from the Green Rapids Bred Crusaders. Second baseman, second team from the Audubon Wheelers, Addie Hocker.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
You met, and then we've got Kaylee Derrickson from Kemper making our second team third base.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Shortstop for the second team is Cassidy Link of Glidden-Ralston.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, I'm just going to name the outfield here. From the Carroll Tigers, Chloe Jones. From the Kemper Knights, Allison Ostrander. And from East Sac County is Anna McCullough.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Our designated player, Elizabeth Lloyd from Glidden-Ralston. And then we had a utility there on the second team, and that was Ashlyn Tiggis from Glidden, Ralston.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, we're going to move on to the first team. How about the pitching duo from the Audubon Wheelers? Both of them, Riley Miller and Alexis Obermeyer.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
From the Carroll Daggers, our first team catcher is Parker Adams.
John Ryan (Host) :
Also from Carroll, our first team first baseman was Emma Coleman. From the Audubon Wheelers, our first team second baseman is Taryn Peterson.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
We'll move now to shortstop from the Kemper Knights, Casey Peter. Our first team third baseman from Glen Ralston was Tyler Jansen.
John Ryan (Host) :
The outfield from the Audubon Wheelers, Maddie Nielsen is one position. Kemper Knights, Charlotte Schwabe, and also from the Audubon Wheelers, Jordan Porsche.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Our designated player from East Sac County was Jamie Pierce.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And then we also had a utility again on the first team, and that was Jalen Subert from Glidden-Ralston.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
And John, before we dive into the coach of the year and the player of the year and the other finalists for that, some of the curls on the first team are in positions they really hadn't played. The thought process behind that was we really felt that everybody that voted, those were kids that deserved to be on the first team. So we had three kids that were catchers this year that we all felt kind of were first-team players, and we wanted to figure out a way to get them into the first team. So we slid some girls around a little bit to get the kids that we felt that were first-teamers onto the first team.
John Ryan (Host) :
So first team is first team, no matter what position they have in the play. So let's talk about, first of all, the coaches. Also mentioned for Coach of the Year, Aaron Bowman from the Kemper Knights. But, boy, you've got to give it up to the Audubon Wheelers, Andy Schwery, for the Coach of the Year in softball.
KC Meiners (Host) :
I mean, what a season they had. I mean, I know back when, was it football season, that we found out that Audubon and Exi were going to combine, and I think both of our eyes were about to pop out of our heads, and we're like, that could be a very scary team, and it is with them getting the state softball tournament.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, we knew that there was the potential to be really, really good because both of them had dominant pitchers coming back, and both of them had really good lineups coming back. And I know in a conversation with Coach Schwery, Before the year, she said that her toughest thing was going to be having that conversation with girls that had started last year that may not be starting this year. Because you had more than nine girls coming back that had starting experience from the year before. And that's never a fun conversation. She was able to get the kids to buy in and accept roles this year and did a tremendous job. At one point, they were three and three on the year. Part of that was that their track team had so much success that you had a lot of kids that were gone for state track and weren't able to make all the practices early. It was really about gelling the kids together a little bit and understanding the roles and all that kind of stuff. Once they got on a roll, they won 20 in a row, and they beat Trainor for the first time in a long time, and then they ended up sweeping them and stuff. So what a tremendous year, and she has done just a great job. I think she played for Joy Gross, and I think she's got the potential to go down as... as one of those type of coaches some days that has the kind of success that Joe had.
John Ryan (Host) :
Tremendous stuff. Now, is that 20 still active, that win streak? No.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
They got beat by Martins Dell St. Mary's, who was ranked number one in Class 1A on the road late in the regular season. I think they've won. Four straight now, four or five in a row since then.
John Ryan (Host) :
So basically 24 out of 25. Yes. Outstanding stuff. Let's get to the player of the year. I'm going to name a couple here that were in contention before we get to the actual player of the year and kind of talk about this a little bit. From the Audubon Wheelers, Maddie Nielsen. From the Carroll Tigers, Parker Adams. From East Sac County, Jamie Pierce. And from the Kemper Knights, Casey Peter. Talk about that group.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
They were really good. They all do everything well. You've got two of our catchers in that group, and then with Parker Adams and Jamie Pierce, both of them swing the bat incredibly well. At one point of the year, I think Jamie had 13 hits, and all 13 of them were extra base hits.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And Parker, the same thing. I think at one point of the year had maybe 16 singles and also had like 18 doubles.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
She finished the year with 14, but really, really close to that. Yeah, and stuff. And then Maddie Nielsen, what can't she do on a softball diamond?
KC Meiners (Host) :
Arguably the most dangerous hitter in that Audubon lineup.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, and then Casey Peter played this year. There was a chance she wasn't going to be able to play after the first couple of games because she had some health issues and was looking at maybe having to have surgery, which would have ended our season. But our defending rewind player of the year still went out and had a very, very good season, a great season, actually, for the Kemper Knights.
John Ryan (Host) :
But we have a new player of the year, and that is, of course, the star of last night's game as well, Riley Miller of the Audubon Wheelers.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, it's tough to beat her in the circle, which you have 25 strikeouts.
KC Meiners (Host) :
So I did a 15-inning game, she had 23 strikeouts.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
23 strikeouts that night. Had 12 last night. Average is pretty much about 10 to 12 a game. Doesn't give up much hits. And I think the most interesting thing for me is her walk to strikeout ratio. It's 9 to 1. She strikes out 9 batters to every 1 batter she walks.
KC Meiners (Host) :
She's got almost 200 more strikeouts than she does walks on the season. Yeah.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
And then she's also a great hitter. Finished the year right around 300.
KC Meiners (Host) :
I think it was close to 330.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, right around 330 or so going into last night's game. So does everything for them and does it very, very well.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, let's turn it over to baseball now. Let's hit up on the honorable mention.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
We'll start with the Carroll Tigers, Carter Asick and Jackson Gross. From Arweva, Wyatt Regaller.
John Ryan (Host) :
From the Audubon Wheelers, Aaron Olson. And from the Kemper Knights, Ethan Lowe. So there you go. There's your honorable mention team. Let's move on to the second team now. And I'll start with the pitcher. Once again, the pitchers. There's four of them here on the second team. From the Kemper Knights, it's Tristan Jansen. From the Coon Rapids Bear Crusaders, Max Sherbrin. Also from the IKM Manning Wheelers, Bryce Sommerfeld.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
And from the Kemper Knights, Mason Neerhold. And let's move on now to first base from the South Central Calhoun Titans, Cooper Natras.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Only an eighth grader, Cooper, is at second base for the second team. Also from South Central Calhoun, it's Caden Dorman. From the Coon Rapids Baird, third baseman Tyler Moore. At shortstop from East Sac County, Carter Ludwig. The catcher from South Central Calhoun on the second team is Brock Natras.
John Ryan (Host) :
The outfield second team from the Carroll Tigers, Tate Schleissman. From the Coon Rapids Baird Crusaders, it's Parker Hayes.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
And from the Ottoman Wheelers, Brody Schultes. Our designated hitter, Braden Burns from the East Sac County Raiders. And I'll be posting a rewind shirt picture that I got sent to me last night of him coming up later on this morning.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And then at utility on the second team was Lane Sands of I.K. Manning, a late add by Jeff Flankman to the second team.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, he had such a good year and then played so brilliantly against Xyroquin Kimbleton in the opening round. I was like, he's got to slide up. So he was the guy that we discussed about being on second team. We just went ahead and slid him up, or I should say I went ahead and slid him up.
John Ryan (Host) :
Made the executive call there. All right, let's talk about the all-rewind baseball team. First team, the pitchers on this team include, from the Coon Rapids Baird Crusaders, Cal Hayden. From South Central Calhoun, Andrew Anderson. From Coon Rapids Baird, Colby Culbertson. And from the Carroll Tigers, Stone Sibanola.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Our first team, first baseman, Mark Lynch from Glidden-Ralston.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Our second team, I'm going to do it again. Our first team is second baseman, Benicio Lujano of Kemper.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Third baseman on the first team is Chase Regaler of the Carroll Tigers. Our shortstop, Charlie Natras of South Central Calhoun. The catcher on the first team, Jay Starman of IKM Manning.
John Ryan (Host) :
The outfield first team in baseball, Carter Putney from the Kemper Knights, Jonathan Bergmeier from Glidden-Ralston, and Ross Kusel from IKM Manning.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
All right. And our designated hitter. Designated hitter, Ryan North from Carroll. I realized that I forgot to add one thing on baseball, so I'll have to make sure I edit because our post is going to go out automatically at about 10 after 10. I'll have to make sure I edit that because there's one group I forgot to type up on the list. And everybody's probably noticing now what it is.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, we're missing the player of the year, but I'm sure you'll fill us in on that. But let's hit the coach of the year in contention, Jeremy Nielsen from Ikea Manning, Randy Snyder, of course, from the Kemper Knights. But the coach of the year is John Waddell, Coon Rapids Baird. It's been an interesting year, an un-Crusader-like year.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, started off a little bit slower, came into the year ranked number one, and I think that, you know, Put some pressure on them and got to them a little bit. And then, you know, they had success in golf and had success in track and stuff like everybody else. And it took this team a little bit of time, but, you know, they won the Rolling Valley Conference and, you know, went undefeated.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And it cruised in the Rolling Valley besides the two games against Woodbine.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, and only one of them was tight. Yeah, and stuff so... They continue to go out and play really tough non-conference schedules, which made them better, which is going to give them a shot because they're going to see the type of pitching or have seen the type of pitching that they'll see tonight from St. Mary's. But John just does a tremendous job every single year, and this is just another one of those years because about the midpoint of the season, this team kind of found its groove and has been playing good baseball ever since.
John Ryan (Host) :
So let's talk Player of the Year. Since we don't know, you're going to have to fill us in. Well, Casey does know.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
He was in on the vote. Cal Hayden. It's tough not to go with Cal as the Player of the Year. He's just been... Really, really good. Again, I'm amazed. I've had other people come up to me that are amazed that teams just don't walk him, even with the bases loaded. Because his doubles and the triples he hits, it doesn't even matter.
KC Meiners (Host) :
He's not going to strike out that much, but if it comes, it's going to come hard.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Everything he hits is on a frozen rope.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Yeah.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, and his slugging percentage, not going to get it completely right, but it was over 700, you know, on base percentage up into the, you know, up in the 600 range.
KC Meiners (Host) :
Hit right around 500.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, hit right around 500. He's just, and then he's not just great at the plate, he's an outstanding first baseman. Yeah.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And under a two ERA on the mound this year. I was tied first on the team. Probably not now because Colby's pitched three playoff games. But going into the postseason was tied with 80 strikeouts on the team and only walked like 20. So it's just a tremendous pitcher as well.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
And what year is he? He's just a sophomore. He's the two-time defending. This is his second rewind player of the year. He was the runner-up as an eighth grader. Won it as a freshman and now won it again as a sophomore. And I know mom and dad always say quit saying so many nice things because they want to keep him grounded and stuff. But he's a grounded kid. I don't think they have to worry about that.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, terrific, terrific player. Looking forward to that game tonight, of course, with Rems and St. Mary's. But talk about the All-Star festivities. Where, when, what's going on?
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
You bet. And I'll just route a couple of names here real quick. Colby Colbertson, Jay Starman, if you think of anybody else. Andrew Anderson was another kid that we had talked about. as our Rewind Player of the Year. But the event coming up this Saturday, so it'll be out at the Carroll High School softball field. If anybody's unaware of where that's at, if you know where the baseball stadium's at, Merchants Park, and if you haven't an idea where our aquatic center's at, it's jammed right into the middle of those two. So it'll be – it's right by DMACC, too. So it's just to the east side of DMACC. So gates will open up about 10, 15. We're going to have the Home Run Derby at 10, right after that. So about 10, 30, we hope. to start the Home Run Derby. So this year we've got it where we're going to be able to use the batting cage. We're going to let kids go in and kind of get some warm-up swings in the batting cage before it's their time.
KC Meiners (Host) :
And what we'll do is we'll probably announce the kids in order, but then also kind of announce who's up, who's waiting, who's on deck, kind of. so that kids know, you know, I've got three hitters until I can go up so you can go, you know, get some more swings and stuff like that because we are taking that time down a little bit.
Jeff Blankman (Host) :
Yeah, we dropped the time from one minute last year to 30 seconds this year to hit as many home runs as you can. So we'll explain that real quick. So a home run, of course, counts as a home run. If you hit more home runs than anybody else, you're going to be the champion of either the baseball one or the softball one. But we're also going to have a tiebreaker system set up. So we're going to have the flags, the station flags out in the field. So if you hit, depending on which one you hit it past, you're going to collect points off of that. And we'll use those total points as any tiebreaker. Our softball champion will then hit against our baseball champion for a hit up. We are using high school softballs. And I've kind of told the story, the only thing we'll have to wait and see is I'm assuming if Kuhn wins tonight that the Kuhn boys will not participate because they do not want to mess up any swings. But we've had several kids that hit them, especially Cal Hayden. He launched about seven of them out on the Merchant's Park a few years ago. We had some softball girls and some baseball boys, right-handers. Have hit them up into the yard across the street behind the left field fence. If you want to come out and watch, a lot of fun. That's pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. So come on out for that. Again, this is free and open to the public. Then we're going to have our senior all-star game. The seniors will play five innings, no more than nine batters for each half an inning. It'll be a slow-pitch softball game, and we'll have the girls and boys mixed. I do apologize to the Audubon girls, but I'm so glad that they're there. But I had had the conversation with Coach ahead of time and a few of them now that they qualified. We're not going to have them participate in the events coming up on Saturday because, one, we don't want anybody getting injured. And number two, like I said, I don't want them to get a home run swing on Saturday and then have to go play at a state tournament and mess up the swing at all. We're going to do something special for them. We'll add the Coon baseball team on to that. So, you know, if they qualify for state as well.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right. So there you have it. It's once again coming up this Saturday, July 20th at Carroll High School field there, just right by the Aquatic Center by Merchants Park. So come on out. 10-15 is when the gates will open for that. And that is KCIM Sports Rewind for this morning.
