Metro Sports Report

KCC baseball players lend cagers a hand

Cal Clark, Nate Barnes, Brock Adams and Jake McLaughlin became instant  folk heroes at Kirkwood Community College Tuesday night.

It was the darndest thing you've ever seen.

Clark, Barnes, Adams and McLaughlin are baseball players at Kirkwood,  but they answered the call when the men's basketball team needed a  boost and left Johnson Hall to a standing ovation after the 17th-ranked Eagles defeated the Grand View junior varsity, 99-63.

Five Kirkwood basketball players were handed two-game suspensions by  the National Junior College Athletic Association last week for their roles in a mishap in the final minute of a home game against Ellsworth. That left KCC Coach Bryan Petersen with only five eligible players for Saturday's conference game at DMACC and for Tuesday's home  game with Grand View.

Petersen asked Kirkwood baseball coach Todd Rima if he had any players who might be able to help the team for a few days and Rima recommended  Clark, Barnes, Adams and McLaughlin.

Clark played a pivotal role in both games, first in the 58-50 victory  over DMACC and again Tuesday. He played 18 minutes as the "sixth man"  against DMACC and reprised the role against Grand View with 21 key  minutes off the bench.

Clark, who played basketball and baseball at Cedar Rapids Prairie, collected five assists against Grand View and looked comfortable as an emergency college basketball player.

Schulte heading to Iowa as walk-on

Xavier High School quarterback Bryce Schulte has accepted an offer to join the Iowa Hawkeyes as a preferred walk-on for the 2017 season, but he'll apparently change positions.

When Schulte attended the UI camp last summer, Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan suggested he attend the camp as a tight end or linebacker instead of quarterback. Schulte picked tight end, even though he's never played the position in his life.

From all accounts, he performed well as a tight end and that presumably will be his initial position with the Hawkeyes.

"It was fun being physical with other kids at the camp and going up  against them one-on-one," he said in November. "And it was fun catching balls, too, because I'm not used to that either."

Schulte was a starting defensive back for Xavier this past season, but  he was best-known as an all-state quarterback with an accurate arm and a terrific grasp of the offense.

Schulte passed for 4,347 yards, 58 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions during his three years as Xavier's starting quarterback. He ranks first all-time in the Metro area in career TD passes, third in passing yards and third in completions.

Kirkwood wins without 5 suspended players

BOONE - The Kirkwood men's basketball team collected one of the most  unusual victories in school history Saturday.

The Eagles defeated DMACC, 58-50, in a conference game in Boone despite playing the game without five suspended players.

Kirkwood has only 10 players on its active roster, so the Eagles were missing half the team.

The five players were suspended by the National Junior College  Athletic Association for two games for their role in an incident that happened during the final minute of Wednesday's home game against  Ellsworth.

Kirkwood assistant coaches Ben Jacobson and Taylor Blum also were  suspended by the NJCAA and did not make the trip to DMACC.

Cal Clark, a member of the Kirkwood baseball team and a former basketball player at Cedar Rapids Prairie, joined the basketball team and was used as their sixth man against DMACC. He made a 3-point  basket and scored three points.

Three other Kirkwood baseball players joined the team and were in  uniform, but they did not play against DMACC. Todd Rima, the Kirkwood  baseball coach, helped Petersen coach the team.

Byron Harp, Miles Wentzien, Ethan Meeker, Chris King and Elijah Henry  were suspended by the NJCAA. Harp, Wentzien, Meeker and King are  starters and were on the bench in the final minute against Ellsworth  when Henry and Mike Evans of Ellsworth got into a shoving incident  and Henry was assessed a technical foul.

Saints bumped off by Hempstead

It was easy to look at the Xavier Saints this year and think they had  a good chance to win another Class 3A state title with lots of talent back from last season.

They still might get back to Des Moines and take a crack at a state  crown, but so far it's been a struggle.

The Saints fell apart in the third quarter Friday night and lost to  Dubuque Hempstead, 63-44, in a Mississippi Valley Conference boys basketball game at Ron Thillen Gymnasium.

The loss left Xavier with a 4-7 record heading into a special  event Saturday in Omaha against Papillion-LaVista.

Matt Mims, Max Techau and Jackson Joens returned to the starting  linuep this season after helping the Saints win the 2016 state title. Nolan Butkowski, a part-time starter, and Bryce Schulte, a key  reserve, also returned this year.

"There was every reason to be optimistic when you return those guys,"  Coach Ryan Luehrsmann said Friday.

Luehrsmann is still optimistic, but the season is half-over and the  Saints have yet to hit their stride.