Metro Sports Report

Saints have big sneakers to fill

Adam McDermott, Calvin Winker and Michael Mims helped the Xavier Saints win 18 games last season and place third at the Class 3A state basketball tournament, but now all three of them are playing ball in college.

McDermott scored 17 points and hit five 3-pointers the other day for North Dakota in a victory against Bowling Green. Winker is playing as a freshman at Missouri Western. And Mims has started a game already at Loras.

Connor Ramlo, a fourth member of the stating lineup for the Saints last year, is a member of the men's soccer team at Creighton, leaving Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann with a rebuilding job this year.

He welcomes the challenge.

RoughRiders cruise by Madison

Hugh McGing and Matt Filipe scored their seventh goals of the season Friday night as the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders defeated Madison, 4-1, in a USHL game before 1,870 fans at the Ice Arena.

The RoughRiders roared to a 4-0 lead on goals by Sam Sternschein, Cal Burke, McGing and Filipe before Madison countered with its only goal in the third period.

Ben Blacker made 37 saves in goal for Cedar Rapids.

The RoughRiders raised their record to 11-6-1 for 23 points. Madison fell to 7-11 for 14 points.

Horman eager to get J-Hawks moving

Brandon Horman was all excited when he became the head coach of the Cedar Rapids Jefferson boys basketball team last season, but the J-Hawks struggled through a rough 1-21 campaign that would have tested anyone's resolve and patience.

If anything, Horman sounds even more excited for Year 2.

Horman had heart-to-heart conversations with all of his players after the season and questioned them about their commitment to the game.

"I kind of challenged a lot of people that way," he said this week. "The commitment level of our boys went way up. They worked really hard in the offseason to get better as individuals and with our team stuff.

"We've gotten off to a tremendous start in our first week of practice," he said. "I couldn't be much happier."

Horman said the J-Hawks maintained a positive attitude last season, kept plugging away and played some of their best basketball near the end of the year. He said his assistant coaches and players helped boost his own spirits along the way.

"They helped me through it more than anything else," he remarked.

Lions get boost from Jared Printy

The Bohannon and Printy families have accomplished great things in the Linn-Mar basketball program over the years with state titles, scoring records and plenty of excitement.

Now there's a member of each family on the Linn-Mar boys basketball team as the Lions prepare for another campaign.

Jordan Bohannon has started for the Lions ever since he was a freshman and enters his final season with 998 career points and a scholarship to Iowa tucked away in his back pocket. Jared Printy played at Cedar Rapids Washington the past few years and transferred to Linn-Mar for his final season of high school basketball before heading off to Western Michigan.