Metro Sports Report

Three Metro preps selected for all-star series

Three Metro baseball players have been selected to play in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Series that will be held Aug. 4-7 at Council Bluffs.

Games will take place at Lewis Central High School and Iowa Western Community College.

Players selected from the Metro were Prairie pitcher/outfielder Anthony Gagliardi and first baseman DJ Utley, and Marion second baseman Kasey Semler. All three will be playing for the Large School East team.

The game is open to graduated seniors. Players had to be nominated by their coach, and players selected must raise a minimum sponsorship fee of $225 to offset the cost of putting on the All-Star Series.

Players were chosen for four squads.

Cougars stumped by Kenny, Dodgers

DES MOINES - Griffin Michael leaned against a railing at Principal Park in Des Moines Wednesday night, a look of frustration and disbelief on his face.

"I just can't believe it's over," he said. "It's just a shock right now."

Kennedy's bid for immortality ended in the opening round of the Class 4A state baseball tournament, the victim of the extreme heat, humidity and a hot pitcher from Fort Dodge.

Will Kenny came within one out of pitching a no-hitter and the Dodgers trimmed the Cougars, 2-1, to end Kennedy's dream of winning back-to-back state titles.

Cedar Rapids Wilson, now a junior high school, is the only Metro school to win consecutive state titles with crowns in 1947 and 1948. Kennedy was trying to break the 63-year drought and become the second Metro team to pull it off, but Kenny was too tough.

Prospect Meadows takes another step forward

Proponents of a state-the-art, $9.4 million baseball and softball complex north of Marion appeared to hit a home run Wednesday with the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

The proposed 17-field facility would be located on 120 acres of county-owned farm land just south of the Abbe Center at the intersection of Highway 13 and County Home Road.

The local non-profit group pitching the project is asking the supervisors to donate the land, and board members indicated they are likely to buy into the plan.

Board Member Linda Langston said a decision will be made by the end of August, when the contract ends with the farmer now renting the land.

After a presentation Wednesday morning on the design and a positive feasibility study, however, it was clear board members are excited about the Prospect Meadows Ball Fields proposal.

“I can see that this has real economic development and quality of life benefits,” said Board President Ben Rogers, “for Linn county and for the state to have something like this in our own backyard.”

The stories of 2011 - No. 3

As we come to the end of the 2010-11 high school sports year here in the Metro area, it seems like a good time to look back at the top sports stories, at least to this broadcaster.

This list is not right or wrong, and it certainly is open to interpretation. But looking back, I really believe these were the most interesting and intriguing stories of the past year.

I hope you enjoy.

No. 3 Cedar Valley Christian

Do you remember what you were doing back in 1998?

It has been 13 years since the last time the landscape of the Metro sports scene has changed, but change it does this fall.

Cedar Valley Christian School announced last spring that it will be joining both the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union in the 2011-12 school year. This will be the first change in the Metro high school scene since Regis and LaSalle merged to form Xavier High School in 1998.