I Hope Valley Wins the State 4-A Football Title, But the No. 1-Ranked Tigers May Not Even Be the Best Team In the Metro

I've been writing all season about how the Des Moines Register screws Valley High School of West Des Moines, the football team it has ranked as the best in class 4-A.

Because the Tigers have been shortchanged by the paper [like getting one paragraph after some victories], I've had to get information on their road games from the stories carried in newspapers in such cities as Newton and Mason City.

I suppose nothing the paper does on Valley is going to make me happy. I mean Dan McCool -- a reporter who is as good as the paper has -- covered the Tigers in last night's 24-17 victory over Waukee at Valley Stadium [pictured at the right], and did his usual stellar job.

However, the editors buried the story back on page 6.

Ridiculous.

I certainly disagreed with the headline, which said, No. 1 Valley rolls on with win over Waukee

Rolls on? You've got to be kidding me.

Valley's players were in the fight of their football lives against Waukee.

This easily could have been a game that Waukee won.

The Warriors had a pass intercepted in the end zone and coughed up the ball on fumbles in front of a huge crowd.

Had those things not happened, Valley would be 6-1, not 7-0.

I've seen most of the Tigers' home games, and I'm not sure they're the best team in the metro, let alone the state.

For all I know, Johnston -- which also is 7-0 -- is the best team in the state.

We'll all find out, of course. The playoffs are just around the corner.

I hope Valley wins the 4-A championship, but I'm not confident of that happening.

Gary Swenson is sthe winningest football coach ever at Valley. Lee Crawford passed the torch to him in a ceremony on the field before last night's game.

Swenson has done a sensational job at the school. Other guys who coached Valley either couldn't beat Dowling or lost the big one in the playoffs at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls.

Swenson has proved Valley can win the 4-A championship, and his team obviously will be among the favorites this year.

Whether Valley can win it all remains to be seen. Like I said, I'm not sure yet if the Tigers are even the best team in the area.

And I wouldn't bet you a bus token yet that Valley can beat City High of Iowa City if and when that matchup happens in the playoffs. City High has an outstanding football tradition on its side, and is very strong this season.

Stuff like that is what makes high school football in this state the major story it is. A newspaper that continues losing favor and circulation in the community and the state is a negative, but journalism critics keep telling me that young people don't read papers anyway -- so they don't expect anything except page 6 coverage on a morning when, unbelievably, mention is made of a struggling, below-average-at-best Iowa football team trying to stay in [pardon the expression] bowl contention and a a hockey team that rarely draws flies at Wells Fargo Arena is spread across the top of page 1.

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I don't know many football fans from Ottumwa or North Des Moines subscribe to the Register, but they didn't have much to read about their teams today.

In a roundup of high school games on page 6 of the sports section, it says:

Ottumwa 41, North 7

Ottumwa, Ia. -- Final statistics were not provided to the Register.

Great stuff, huh?

Well, here's the Ottumwa-North story from the Ottumwa Courier:

Bulldogs win to set up East showdown

By KELLY TERPSTRA, Courier sports writer

OTTUMWA — Ottumwa senior Kyle Ward had two words to describe the pace of his Bulldog’s homecoming football contest versus Des Moines North on Friday night.

“Very long,” said the starting Bulldog center.

It was a late night for all involved in a 41-7 victory for head coach Zach Wigle’s Bulldogs. The game did not get over until 10:30 p.m, well past the usual stoppage time for a prep football contest.

The win pushed Ottumwa to 4-3 overall and 3-0 in the CIML Metro.

“The game started late with the freshman game not getting over early and homecoming festivities. A lot of penalties were called and I guess they just didn’t want to go home,” said Wigle.

The victory sets up a showdown at Des Moines East next week, with the winner almost certainly assured a conference crown with just one game to go in the regular season.

“That’s the one we’ve been playing for,” said Wigle.

Ottumwa struck first on a 30-yard interception return for a touchdown by junior safety Nick Donlin. The pick-sick was Ottumwa’s fourth defensive score for a touchdown.

Ottumwa junior cornerback Michael Wetrich has the other three. Wetrich did not play as he was not able to get back in time after helping his Bulldog boys golf squad to a first-place standing after day one of the Class 4A State Tournament.

Ottumwa rushed for almost 300 yards and was led by senior tailback Adam Bowling’s 117 yards. Bowling scored Ottumwa’s final touchdown of the first half to make it 26-7 at the break.

After Donlin’s game-changing play, North hooked up on 80-yard screen pass for six points after Lance McGregory raced into the end zone on the right sideline.

That would be all the scoring North could muster, as the Bulldog defense came up with several key stops, none bigger than Ottumwa senior cornerback Alex Kelly’s breakup of a fourth-and-goal pass.

Ottumwa also forced a safety, those two points tacked on to the scoreboard to make it 28-7.

OHS junior quarterback Adam Goodvin completed only four passes on the night but three went for touchdowns. He hooked up with senior wideout and all-state candidate Clint Utter for two of the scores. Utter hauled in a nine-yard score on a fade route with 2:38 left in the first quarter to give OHS a 14-7 lead. Utter broke loose with 5:36 left in the third on a post route and took it the distance for a 50-yard convergence with the goal line.

Goodvin’s final touchdown pass went to junior wingback Ben Lott for 10 yards in the final quarter.

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I earlier mentioned one of the hockey teams in town -- the one with the embarrassing and ridiculous nickname of Iowa Chops.

They were all over page 1 [as well as page 3] of the paper this morning, whether they deserved it or not.

My question the other day was what happened to Lisa Colonna [pictured at the left], the reporter who covered the hockey teams -- all of them -- the pro basketball team in town, No-Name baseball team, the Drake football team and maybe even participated in the Sally Mason coverage in Iowa City and the Parkersburg tornado.

I wondered if Lisa was on vacation. I wondered if she'd found work in the mailroom at Wells Fargo. I wondered if she was waiting on tables at Village Inn.

Biz Buzz certainly shed no light on where Lisa was. But, hell, Biz Buzz didn't say anything about Jane Norman being dumped from the Register's Washington Bureau either. I guess Biz Buzz was too busy trying to find out everybody's birthday.

Biz Buzz also didn't say anything about Brandon Cleaver -- the guy who didn't know the University of Northern Iowa is in Cedar Falls, not Rapids -- was dumped from the sports department and was supposed to be a "zones" reporter.

Now Cleaver has left the paper and, I guess, the area.

Anyway, I missed Lisa's sports blogs. I missed her coverage of all two dozen Des Moines teams she covered.

It turns out Lisa, sadly, is no longer a sportswriter.

"I now cover Des Moines' south side for the Register," she writes in the online version of the paper. "You may remember me from the sports section, where my main beat was hockey. I'm a Des Moines native and have worked at the Register since May 2000."

So Lisa still has a blog. Man, I don't know what we'd do without that.

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Now I'm wondering what happened to Workbytes.

I haven't seen that lately either.

I'll see if Biz Buzz has something on it soon. If not, I'll find out and report back to you.