Metro Sports Report

Marion boys have some huge shoes to fill

Kasey Semler and Dusty Albaugh are not coming back. Their Marion High School basketball careers are done.

"Wouldn't that be nice, if they got a redshirt year?" Coach Mike Manderscheid joked.

Semler, an all-state guard who averaged 21.2 points last season, is a freshman at Kirkwood Community College now. Albaugh, who averaged 12.1 points, is a student at Iowa State.

They're gone, taking much of Marion's firepower with them.

Dan Van Gorp, Dylan Cronk, Tyler Fisher, Austin Hardman and Tre Kinney are gone, too, eliminating much of the supporting cast that helped the Indians finish 17-8 and reach the Class 3A state tournament.

J-Hawks stroll in Hall of Pride exhibition

The Jefferson J-Hawks enjoyed playing with All-American Jarrod Uthoff on the team last season, but they might enjoy playing just as much without him this year.

Maybe more.

Taylor Olson poured in 26 points, Alec Saunders netted 23 and Ky Kramer added 16 as Jefferson rolled past West Branch, 81-41, in a Hall of Pride scrimmage at Jefferson Friday night.

Jenks sisters among nation's elite

Deb and Mike Jenks are raising their two daughters to pursue their passions, no matter what.

Turns out, what the Linn-Mar middle school sisters like to do best is run.

Run really, really far, in fact, and really fast, too.

Typical young girls in all other respects, 14-year-old Stephanie and 12-year-old Jennifer proved two weeks ago at a meet in South Dakota to be among the very best youth cross country competitors in the Midwest.

Before that, both claimed Class 4A state championships in cross country for their grade level.

Memories of my long-ago trip to Nebraska

As you're reading this, you're either following the Iowa-Nebraska football game or you have the score well in hand. I would like to give you a few memories of football at Nebraska.

The first thing I would like to expound on was the game I happened to cover between Oklahoma and Nebraska for the Big 8 championship on a Friday in Lincoln, Neb. How come I was there? Well, the Saturday after this game, Nebraska opened its new basketball facility that was named after one of its famous football coaches, Bob Devaney.

So I figured I'd trundle out to Lincoln and see what a Friday-after-Thanksgiving football game looked like. Oklahoma at that time was coached by Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne was the coach at Nebraska.