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Sad news for us old gray Panthers that St. Mary’s will throw in the towel and participate on the public school teams in any sport, Tornadoes now. Our Uncle John Murray was the coach back in the day, when the Black & White fell in the substate tournament by a whisker to Emmetsburg Catholic (long gone).
They had some great days in the Panther Pit and at Memorial Field.
Jim Mech. Stacey Lavin. Eric Wordekemper. Now, Coach Ben McCollum patrols the sidelines waving his arms at Carver Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. Great ones, and more. If only we had the Kennedy Brothers and Dean Porter, good Catholic boys who went to the public school to play on a bigger stage.
We got to see the boys win state baseball and basketball tournaments. Those teams were not filled with superstars but smart, disciplined players who understood the game.
Rivals included Cherokee Immaculate Conception, Fonda Our Lady of Good Counsel, Bancroft St. John’s, Breda St. Bernard’s and Granville Spalding, all closed now. St. Mary’s played the toughest small-school baseball schedule in the state. The past couple years, the boys could not muster nine. Memorial Field has gone fallow, its future uncertain. This year, three Storm Lake St. Mary’s girls suited up for Remsen St. Mary’s in softball (and went to State).
Fans would pack that cracker box gym. It got crazy in there when Alta came over. If it hadn’t been for Alta the Panthers would have won State sooner. And then there was Unity Christian, and after that Newell-Fonda. But St. Mary’s made it to Des Moines eventually.
The St. Mary’s boys have been playing football for the Tornadoes for many years. (Back in our day, it was fall baseball or farm chores — no football for the fish eaters. The Panthers never sported a girls team until the mid-1970s.) We are accustomed to sharing. St. Mary’s folks know the Tornado fight song. It will all work out. We hope, every now and then, that the band fires up the Washington and Lee Swing for the sentimentalists: “We’ll give a cheer for our St. Mary’s High, to show forever loyal we will be.”
It was a fun run. Go Tornadoes.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee reiterated last week that Iowa will not lead the presidential nominating process. South Carolina will go first, then New Hampshire for the Democrats. The only Midwestern state in the early mix is Michigan. This is nothing new: the DNC gave notice when Joe Biden was still president that Iowa would get shoved aside (after Biden finished way back in the Iowa pack).
Republicans, so far, have Iowa first. GOP State Chairman Jeff Kauffmann urged Democrats to stand and fight. It will be hard for Republicans to maintain their primary position without a united front.
Democratic senate candidate Josh Turek agrees with former Sen. Tom Harkin that their party should go rogue and hold the caucuses ahead of South Carolina. Worst outcome is that the Iowa delegates do not get seated at the national convention. Who cares? It’s just a TV show these days.
It’s not a good look for Democrats to dump Iowa when they cannot win rural votes. It appears that the die is cast. Going rogue won’t make the Democratic Party care about Northwest Iowa. Being first hasn’t helped that much, it is still tough to make a go of it in Kiron. It was fun but Barack Obama did not deliver for Sac City and neither did Donald Trump. We begged the Biden Administration to get some of that infrastructure money to Storm Lake — nothing.
Take your empty promises to South Carolina. Trump destroyed soy export markets. What good did the caucuses do us? They mainly benefit the TV stations, all owned out of state. Perhaps Iowa can have a more constructive conversation in the absence of the caucuses.
Iowa has sufficient capacity to meet demand for 4-year degrees at existing colleges and universities, according to a report commissioned by the Iowa Department of Education and uncovered by Iowa Capital Dispatch. The report says that there are no education “deserts” as was argued by community colleges who want to get into the business of awarding bachelor’s degrees.
We are a net importer of college students and a net exporter of college graduates. That is, there are not enough jobs to occupy the graduates we create. Community colleges should stick to vocational training and affordable two-year education. We do not need to increase property taxes so Iowa Central can brag about four-year degrees.
We certainly do not need Iowa Central trying to filch students from Buena Vista University.
The 119-page report was prepared for the department of education by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) after the department contracted the nonprofit consulting organization in December, according to the report. It is dated March 6. The department did not explain why it kept the report under wraps.
We hope it puts this notion to rest of expanding community colleges until we drive BVU out of business. Iowa’s private colleges are an industry unto themselves that attract educational tourists, if you will, to Storm Lake, Oskaloosa and Orange City. They deserve our support.
If you need a plumber, you know how vital community colleges are.
That would seem obvious, but the state must commission a report and then bury it.
Three northern Iowa farmers — James Hepp of Rockwell City, Matt Bormann of Bode and Zack Smith of Buffalo Center — who call themselves the Lobe Rangers held a field day Saturday at the Hepp farm to press for progress on agricultural conservation. They had big names from Ames, the boss of the Central Iowa Water Works, farmers and others filling up a big machine shed for an earnest discussion of farming for profit while conserving resources.
This is the sort of crowd that should attract candidates for office. Lots of seed caps and plaid shirts.
We dropped in to check it out. You would think we would find Zach Lahn there, the Republican candidate for governor, who called the GOP “Farm to Faucet” water quality legislation from last session a “Band-Aid” and insufficient to the scope of the pollution problem. Lahn must have flown elsewhere. His farmer sidekick for lieutenant governor, Derek Wulf, must have been tending to his foreclosure notice because he didn’t have time for the farm crowd, either.
The Democratic candidate, Rob Sand, was not there, and he didn’t send his lieutenant governor emissary, Dave Muhlbauer, a cattleman. So busy on a Saturday. Too busy to talk conservation. Sand did show up in Fort Dodge on Monday where he gave love to wetlands and pasture. He has been talking more about water quality lately.
One who did show up: Chris Jones, the Democratic candidate for secretary of agriculture. Jones has been an outspoken critic of consolidated agriculture. He was run off from state employment for stating his views on Iowa’s agribusiness pollution problem.
Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig did not show up. Cylinder is not that far away. This should be Naig’s crowd. Two of the three hosts are Republicans, and the third identifies as independent. Ripe for harvesting votes. He knows Matt Bormann, who used to serve on the state soil conservation committee. Naig wouldn’t bother with it.
The Lobe Rangers (so named because they farm on the Des Moines Lobe land formation) held the field day to draw attention to nitrate pollution. They believe that regulation will be necessary and that farmers should have a voice in shaping it. Farmers are meeting and sharing information while politicians operate in their own universe — with the exception of Jones, who is not afraid to go for broke and tell the truth.
Also not there: Josh Turek, Democrat, or Ashley Hinson, Republican, both running for a US Senate seat and the authority to actually do something.
Well, you know, it was Calhoun County. It was not a setting that the politicians can control. It was not in Des Moines. They blew it off, except for Jones. Funny, he is the only one who is not raising millions of dollars to spend on lying TV ads.
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