File photos The fall sports season officially began with the start of practices last Monday, and this week moves the calendar one step closer to official action with scrimmages beginning for MacKenzie Bruning (Above) and the rest of the Tiger volleyball team sharpening their skills against the Sioux Central Rebels in Sioux Rapids Tuesday, and Gage Garnatz (No.3 Below) and the Tiger football team scrimmaging against the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Hawks at Dale Norton Field Friday night. Official competition for fall sports will begin Thursday, Aug. 29, with the Spencer Cross-Country Invitational and early bird tournament play for Spencer’s volleyball girls.

The new football season is underway for the Buena Vista Beavers with head coach Grant Mollring returning for his third season. Last year was a difficult one for the Beavers as they won their first game and then bowed in the final nine. Mollring has four wins in his first two seasons on the sideline but hopes that his junior class can lead the way to a better year for BVU...

The youth Tiger football camps for students entering third through eighth grade completed its four-day run on Thursday of last week. Over 80 athletes participated in the gridiron-based training which focused on individual fundamental instruction by position, team concepts, specialty techniques (kicking, punting, long snapping) and physical and mental preparation while providing a great hard start for the upcoming season. ...

The Iowa Lakes athletic department announced Monday the hiring of new head volleyball coach, Mike Turnbull pending board approval. Coach Turnbull brings more than 26 years of coaching experience to Iowa Lakes, having most recently coached at Hibbing Community College in Hibbing, Minnesota. ...

MODIFIEDS SPORTMODS STOCK CARS HOBBY STOCKS SPORT COMPACTS MODIFIEDS SPORT MODS STOCK CARS HOBBY STOCKS SPORT COMPACTS...

Spencer’s cross-country camp was held last week for Spencer Middle School and Spencer High School runners. Participants worked on proper running form, learned about optimal nutrition for performance, participated in team-building activities and completed various running workouts. ...

Hometown pro hosts volleyball camp at SHS Six-foot-two Spencer graduate Krista DeGeest needs just a few steps to cover the 30 feet to the back line from the middle of a volleyball net, but the sport has needed just a few years to move her thousands of miles...

Hailing from Pickstown, South Dakota, which he describes as, “Just a tiny, rural town of 150 people and a nine-hole golf course,” University of Sioux Falls soon-to-be senior JJ Cooney came from seemingly nowhere to win the 97th Northwest Amateur Tournament Sunday at Spencer Golf and Country Club at 17-under par after finishing his first round on Friday just 1-under...

Thursday’s near perfect weather conditions made for some low scores during the opening day of the 97th Northwest Amateur Tournament at Spencer Golf and Country Club. With 252 of the 384 registered players completing their first round of 18 holes, a total of 30 walked to the clubhouse with scorecards in the red with an additional 11 golfers firing an even par 71, including last year’s runner-up and 1992 champions Jon Brown, of Adel...

Northwest Am begins today at SGCC After last year’s Northwest Amateur took a mighty blow from Mother Nature that forced the tournament to be shortened to just 45 holes from the usual 72, the championship trophy went to the second international player in a row in Jackson Kalz, of Adelaide, Australia...

Adel’s Jon Brown, pictured watching his tee shot during the weather-shortened final round of last year’s Northwest Amateur Tournament at Spencer Golf and Country Club, will return this Thursday through Saturday for the 97th edition of the local golf tradition. ...

FORT DODGE — No. 6-seeded Alta-Aurelia peaked at the right time, knocking off a pair of higher seeds to earn a spot in the 2A championship game at the state softball tournament in Fort Dodge Thursday, but they didn’t have quite enough magic to take out No. 1-seeded North Linn and its dominant pitching. They fell 3-0...

Sgt. Brett Peppler, with the U.S. Marine Corps office in Sioux City, joined Spencer High School wrestling coach Adam Gress to coordinate an offseason workout of Gress’s wrestlers — from elementary through high school. The grueling session resulted in a group of tired young men covered with a combination of sweat, grass, mud and black marks from the large tire they were required to flip...

WAVERLY — Jonathon Lansink, of Sioux Rapids, was named a 2018-19 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete. Lansink was one of 15 Wartburg College tennis players to earn this honor. The men's and women's teams also earned All-Academic Team honors...

SERGEANT BLUFF — Postseason play for the Spencer Tigers against the Sergeant Bluff-Luton Warriors has gone in one direction the entire 2018-19 schedule, and Monday’s district final was no different as the purple and gold suffered another season-ending defeat — this time by a score of 13-3 in five innings...

FIRST TEAM --- SECOND TEAM --- FINAL STANDINGS...

Spencer’s Kylee Versluis, pictured smiling after belting a home run this season, was named to the All-Lakes Conference First Team as an outfielder this season. Tiger pitcher Emily English earned first team honors. Ashlyn Nissen and Riley Palmer were placed on the second team as an infielder and outfielder respectively. Catcher Josie Heisinger and second baseman Jada Piercy were deemed honorable mentions on the Tiger team which finished second in the conference.

SERGEANT BLUFF — Spencer earned a district title date with Sergeant Bluff-Luton Monday night after powering past MOC-Floyd Valley 13-7 Friday with 18 hits highlighted by a 4-for-4, five RBI performance from Connor Tigges. The winner of Monday’s district championship will face either Storm Lake or Bishop Heelan in substate play Thursday at the highest remaining seed’s home field. SB-L picked up its district semifinal win by drubbing Denison-Schleswig 11-0 in six innings...

PETERSON — Errors can make or a break a game, and the Sioux Central Rebels found that out Saturday night as Newell-Fonda took full advantage of a pair of big miscues from Sioux Central in the 1A District 3 championship to rally for a 6-4 victory. The Mustangs got on base in the top of the first on a Bryce Coppock bunt but were unable to do anything with it. ...

Storm Laker a part of groundbreaking baseball league remembered 75 years later through hit movie, Hall of Fame exhibit Storm Lake has had a few athletes make the pros in the long history of the national pastime. But I’ll bet you didn’t know it has one player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame...

PETERSON — Sioux Central will be playing in the district final for a second straight season Saturday night after shutting out Fort Dodge St. Edmond 7-0 Tuesday in the semifinals. Saturday’s final will pit the Rebels against Newell-Fonda for the second time this season. Sioux Central took the first encounter 11-9 on June 20...

While it wasn’t quite as commanding as Spencer’s first 16-1 win over Algona this season, the Tigers finished out the regular season at Andy McGaffin Field Tuesday with a 6-1 victory over the Bulldogs. Spencer won the battle in the hit column just 5-4, but Algona committed five errors to the Tigers’ one, accounting for half of Spencer’s runs...

SERGEANT BLUFF — When 3A district play begins this Friday night for the Spencer Tigers, bracket top seed Sergeant Bluff-Luton will be hosting the action, making the Warriors the favorite to be awaiting the winner of Spencer’s first round matchup with MOC-Floyd Valley in the district final. If the Tigers face SB-L in the postseason, they’ll need to improve from their performance against the Warriors Monday night which ended in a 9-1 Spencer defeat...

PETERSON — One year after reaching the 1A substate final, Sioux Central’s baseball postseason began in strong fashion Saturday night with the Rebels thumping Storm Lake St. Mary’s 10-1. The victory advances Sioux Central to Tuesday’s 1A district semifinals in Peterson against Fort Dodge St. Edmond. The Gaels knocked off Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire 5-3 Saturday...

Humboldt racked up seven more hits than the Tigers and held a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the seventh Friday night, but Spencer managed to extend the game by a frame with four runs in the seventh before getting the walk-off run on a wild pitch in the eighth to win 7-6...

DENISON — Spencer and Denison-Schleswig first squared off on the softball diamond during the opener of the Spencer Invitational this summer. That encounter saw the Tigers grind out a 2-0 win in a game with just six total hits. The purple and gold offense stayed similarly quiet Thursday night in the first round of regional play, but the Monarchs hit safely 13 times and drew six walks to eliminate Spencer 10-0 in six innings...

ALTA — Alta-Aurelia sent four pitchers to the mound Thursday against the Spencer Tigers with all but one giving up at least one run during a 9-4 nonconference, road victory for the purple and gold. Spencer had it working early with Marcus Klemme doubling in Gage Garnatz for a 1-0 lead. ...

Sioux Central second baseman Maggie McGuire, pictured reeling in a popup earlier this season, and the rest of the Rebels saw their softball season come to a close Wednesday night by way of a 10-0, regional quarterfinal loss to North Union in Swea City. The Warriors scored four times in the first, once in the second, four times in the fifth and once in the sixth to end the game an inning early. Sioux Central finishes the season with a record of 10-18. North Union advances to play No. 8-ranked Central Springs in the regional semifinal on Friday.

PETERSON — Sioux Central picked up just two hits across eight innings, but the second one came off the bat of Jacob Hargens in clutch time as the eighth grader’s two-out single to right brought home two Rebels for a 6-5 walk-off win in the bottom of the eighth against Spencer...

The weather was perfect for the 49 athletes who are “hooked on trap shooting” and came out for the annual Bully Bullhead Weekend Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire Bulls Eyes fundraiser shoot at the Grange Gun Range in Ruthven Sunday. There was one perfect score of 50, and five other athletes recorded 25 straights. Event winners were: adult men — 1. Brian Lauritsen (50) 2. Jason Enerson (49) by reverse run. 3. Toad Loder (49) by reverse run; adult women — 1. Patricia Helmich (35) 2. Meara Hansen (26); youth men — 1. Drake Jones (48) 2. Matt Berkland (44) 3. Jacob Grau-West (43); youth ladies — 1. Sarah Sundene (49) 2. Mackenzie Magnan (48) 3. Lacey Olson (46).

ORANGE CITY — Friday’s nonconference matchup between Spencer and MOC-Floyd Valley gave each team their second look at their upcoming first-round district opponent. The Dutch won the first meeting this season 12-4 way back on May 24, and the Tigers took Friday’s battle 10-1 with the help of 15 strikeouts from Marcus Klemme on the mound and three RBIs at the plate...

Tiger baseball faced two very different calibers of competition Tuesday and Wednesday, blasting through Western Christian 15-3 the first night on the road and falling to Sioux City East 14-3 Wednesday at home. The games move Spencer’s record to 13-8 overall this season, and the Tigers finish Lakes Conference play with a mark of 7-5...

On senior night at Tiger Field, Spencer’s softball girls clinched their first .500 season since 2008, beating a 19-9 Sioux City North squad by a score of 4-1 to close the regular season with a record of 13-12. Spencer begins postseason play Thursday, July 11 in Denison against Denison-Schleswig. The Tigers beat the Monarchs 2-0 during the Spencer Invitational this season...