Metro Sports Report

Watching the NCAA tournament for Tom

I’m watching basketball for Tom this year.

Usually the NCAA tournament has to wind down to the final eight before I become interested, but Tom used to watch every game he could. He wasn’t a big fan of most sports on TV, but he loved college basketball.

So I’m watching as many games as I can, even though I know nothing about the teams. The team I root for usually loses.

Tom had a finer sense of the game than I do.  Every year about this time, when I knew he was watching, I sent him an email with my standard complaints.

The kids dribble too much, I wrote every year. They get into too much trouble by trying to dribble when they should be passing the ball.

And when they dribble, they palm the ball, turning it over in a way that was forbidden when Tom and I played. It was a form of double-dribblingthen.

The players travel, too, all the time, when they take those two steps and then hop before shooting, a move so blatantly illegal that it would have prompted a referee’s whistle in the old days.

Speed runs in Lucy Schneekloth's family

Her mother was an all-state sprinter, her father a record-breaking base stealer.

Lucy Schneekloth was born to run.

And so far in her first season on the Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School varsity track team, the flashy freshman is off to a fast start.

At the Mississippi Valley Conference indoor meet at the UNI-Dome two weeks ago, she took second place in the 60-meter dash. She followed that on Saturday with another runner-up finish in the 100-meter dash at the five-team Jefferson Early Bird Invitational at Kingston Stadium.

Perhaps even more impressive was that on a J-Hawk team laden with experienced state champions, Schneekloth set the pace as opening-leg runner on a pair of sprint relay teams that blew away the field.

Leading the way for veterans Summer Carber, Taylor Jacobson and Rachel Broghammer, the petite pony-tailed ninth grader with a winning braces-filled smile helped spark the quartet to convincing victories in both the 4x200 and the 4x100 relays.

"For this early in the year, Lucy is doing very well," said longtime Jefferson Coach Bill Calloway, who is no stranger to understatement. "Up to now, we've been working more on strength training than speed. So she's right where I'd expect her to be.

"Lucy's a very hard worker. She'll keep coming along as the season goes on. I know she'll be very good by the end of the year."

Calloway should know what to expect since he coached her mother, then Julie Davis, in the same sprint events almost three decades ago at the beginning of his illustrious career as the Jefferson women's track coach.

Mims finds hoops happiness, national recognition

If you think the constant pressure to train and compete at a high level is sapping the enjoyment from high school and college sports, meet Micha Mims.

The former Cedar Rapids Washington and current Mount Mercy University basketball player glows with delight over her team’s 27-9 season, which culminated in a postseason dash to the Elite Eight of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division II National Championship. It was Mount Mercy’s first tournament appearance since 1995.

Playing in the national tournament was the capstone for a personal journey that started nearly 20 years ago for Mims. Notwithstanding a few disappointments and detours along the way, she says, every part of it was “so much fun.”

You get the sense that “fun” follows her wherever she goes.

“I’m a very lucky person, and I feel blessed to have the opportunities I’ve had in my life,” says the graduating senior with an effervescent grin.

Webb preaches hard work, discipline and toughness

New Jefferson football coach Brian Webb shook hands and met a lot of people Thursday night, but this wasn't a typical "meet and greet" the new coach where everybody tells jokes and slaps each other on the back.

Webb, 32, was all business as he conducted a 60-minute Power Point presentation for Jefferson players, parents, coaches and fans who gathered in the school cafeteria to meet the man they hope will lead the J-Hawks to success.

He outlined his "Vision, Purpose & Mission" for rebuilding the Jefferson football program, which will enter the 2012 campaign with a 22-game losing streak. He said his program will be based on the core values of hard work, discipline and toughness.

Webb flashed a picture on the big screen of a young boy with prosthetic metal legs who was running and smiling despite his disability. The caption to the picture said "Your Excuse is Invalid."