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2012 Metro softball forecast: Jeff, Xavier elite

The Metro Sports Report will cover Cedar Rapids and Marion softball teams for the second time this season since coming to existence in January of 2011. To kick off the start of the season I will attempt to breakdown the upcoming campaign with an overview of the local schools and a prediction of how each school will do.

Xavier and Jefferson have been atop the Metro for many years and that was no different last season as Jefferson finished with the area’s best record at 32-7 followed by Xavier at 29-13.

Despite the great regular seasons, both teams came up short in their quest for a state berth. Xavier fell to Iowa City West in the regional semifinal and Jefferson dropped an extra-inning game in its regional final against West Des Moines Dowling.

Leaving last year in the past, I see familiar results for the Metro area in the 2012 season. Jefferson and Xavier will remain the elite teams and compete for conference titles and state berths.

The rest of the Metro should be improved and could make this season a fun one.

Jefferson will be the top team in the Metro again this year as they return a the majority of a very good 2011 team, including top hitter Rachel Sedlacek (.447, 11 HR, 31 RBI) and ace pitcher Hannah Petersen (18-4, 0.88 ERA).

After nine straight trips to the state tournament Jefferson has come up just short the last two years, falling in the regional final twice. This year’s team has state on its mind and I expect them to find a way to win the big one and get to Fort Dodge.

Likewise, Xavier has been near the top of the Metro for many years and that should not change this season. The Saints will have to replace three-fourths of an extremely productive infield, but is very capable of doing so. Xavier will have an adjustment to make with the absence of Coach Brian Erbe, who recently underwent triple-bypass heart surgery.

With pitchers Erin Drahozal (14-5, 1.88) and Jacey Wiebold (15-8, 1.2) back this year, the Saints' pitching will be solid enough to allow the infield to figure things out. Add the strong bats of Audey Richards, Emily Walton and Courtney Colston in the mix and the Saints will be a strong team in 2012.

After the two elite programs the Metro gets a little more complicated. The middle of the Metro should see improvement from teams like Linn-Mar, Marion and Kennedy but it will be hard to say which way these teams will go.

Marion should have the experience to be the third best team in the Metro. The Indians lost only one player from a team that looked better than its 17-20 record in 2011.

Marion dropped a lot of close games last year. The experience of this group should turn those close games into wins as the Indians look to be an improved squad this year.

Linn-Mar is in a similar situation as its crosstown rivals. The Lions bring back a very experienced group. The difference for the Lions may be that they are still get young while the Indians are a veteran group.

Linn-Mar was 17-25 in 2011 and has a great opportunity to improve on that.

There are two big concerns for the Lions. They need to improve their pitching (5.13 team ERA) and have already suffered a huge loss before even taking the field as key contributor Ellie Rizor (.365, 8 HR, 24 RBI) will miss most of the season with a torn labrum.

Prairie and Kennedy are the next two in the Metro ranks from last year, but they could be headed in opposite directions this year.

Kennedy will bring back the majority of its team to be yet another very experienced Metro team, while Prairie loses a strong group from last year.

Looking at that, if Kennedy (8-32) uses the experience to its advantage it could leapfrog a Prairie (13-24) team looking to fill the spots of a great senior class from 2011.

Keep an eye on both teams early. How they start the year could be very telling in which direction they will go this season.

Washington (5-33) has been the Metro bottom feeder and has had troubles competing in the past. But the Warriors have continued to show great improvements under Coach Fanaye Wooldrik.

Washington, like Prairie, lost a very strong group of seniors but has the potential to fill those spots. The Warriors will have their normal struggles as they continue to build, but look for them to take another step forward in 2012.

A more detailed overview of the Metro teams can be found on each team's softball page and/or by clicking the hypertext links in this story.

To wrap up the outlook on the 2012 season I will give the community something to discuss with my predictions on how I think the Metro schools will do in the coming year.

I believe Jefferson is clearly the best team in the area and will finish with the best record in the Metro. Outside of the Metro I believe the J-Hawks' offense will be better this year and the bats, combined with the strong left arm of Peterson, will lead the J-Hawks back to Fort Dodge.

Xavier has the pieces to be a very good team and I believe they will put it all together. I don’t see them winning a conference title, but with the move to five classes this year the Saints should end their season in Fort Dodge, making it for the sixth time in the last 10 years.

Marion is very experienced and if the Indians pitch well they could be very tough in the Wamac. I predict a 10-game improvement for them as they push the top teams in the Wamac. When it comes to the postseason, I predict Marion will come up a little short as it likely will have to get through some very tough teams.

After the top three, I don’t see any of the four other Metro schools competing for any type of title. I will stick my neck out and say Kennedy and Washington both reach double digit wins this year while Linn-Mar improves to a .500 team. As for Prairie, I think it stays fairly stagnate this year.

Now it's time to play ball. The season starts Monday. 

Heart problem stalls Teply's shot at NFL

Jay Teply impressed the Minnesota Vikings at a free-agent camp earlier this month and was going to be offered a contract, but first he had to pass a routine physical exam before the Vikings could sign him to an NFL deal.

That's where the problem started.

The team doctor in Minneapolis discovered that Teply has an irregular heartbeat, enough of a problem that the Vikings withdrew their offer. Teply, a 6-foot-7, 325-pound offensive lineman from Cedar Rapids, was stunned.

First the Vikings had told him on Sunday, May 6 that they were going to offer a contract, and then on Monday, May 7 he was told he had a heart problem and they couldn't sign him to a pro deal.

"Essentially your dream come true," he said of the original piece of good news. "And then you're in the doctor's office and something doesn't seem right, and then the doctor comes in and tells you we can't sign you.

"It kind of surprises you. You don't know what to think. That was probably the longest four-hour drive home I've ever had in my life."

Teply had undergone numerous physical exams at Xavier High School and the University of Northern Iowa, and none of those doctors found anything wrong with his heart. Thinking back, however, he realized something may have been wrong at times.

"I realized I may have experienced something in the past," he said. "My heart would race for a couple of beats and I would slow down.

"Basically my heart beats irregularly. It doesn't beat at a constant rate. It skips a beat every once in awhile."

An irregular or arrhythmic heart beat can be caused by exercise. It also can be genetic, and Teply said one of his grandfathers may have had a similar problem. "Apparently I've had it my whole life and nobody has ever caught it," he said.

Teply is not ready to forget about a pro football career. He's seen his own cardiologist and had a battery of tests that showed he can play football without putting himself in danger.

"I've been cleared to play by my cardiologist," he said. "We're still waiting to hear back from the Vikings on whether they want me or not."

Teply said he plans to undergo a medical procedure to correct his irregular heartbeat, but is not sure of the timing. He's been assured the problem can be corrected. Now it's a question of finding a team that will give him a chance.

"We're just kind of sitting and waiting now," he said.

Teply helped Xavier win the Class 4A state football title in 2006 and was named a first team all-Missouri Valley Conference offensive tackle this past season at Northern Iowa. He was not selected in the NFL draft, but the Vikings invited him to a tryout and offered him a chance to make the team as a free agent.

He did well at the initial camp and showed the Vikings he can play left tackle and right tackle, a valuable commodity in the NFL. Now he just wants a chance to play, either with Minnesota or with another team.

2012 Metro baseball forecast: Kennedy, Marion on top

The Metro Sports Report began covering high school baseball in Cedar Rapids and Marion last year, a few months after it launched the new website in January of 2011. As you may recall, I began the season with an overview of each of the local programs and offered a prognostication for each team’s season.

It went over fairly well, so I'm giving it another shot this season. We'll see the results as the sesson unfolds.

Historically, Cedar Rapids and Marion have had good high school baseball programs with excellent players. This year should be more of the same.

Austin Christensen, the 2011 Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year, is a freshman at Nebraska now, leaving a void to fill locally. It could be filled by A.J. Puk, who is ranked as the 39th best prospect in the country by ESPN. Puk, only a junior, has already committed to play college baseball with the powerful Florida Gators.

The new season begins on Monday, May 21 with the annual Bob Vrbicek Metro Baseball Tournament, so it's a good time to take our first glance at the 2012 campaign. Kennedy and Marion made it to the state tournament in 2011, so it seems logical that maybe that's where we should start as we look at the 2012 season.

“Pitching is the name of the game,” say baseball pundits. If that is true, and I believe it is, Marion and Kennedy are looking good this year.

Marion returns seven pitchers who were responsible for 27 wins last year and combined to give Coach Steve Fish 269 innings of work. The Indians also have Mitch Wagner (.384 batting average) and Joshua Davila (.350), two of the top 12 returning hitters in the Metro area.

The Wamac Conference boasts some very good baseball programs, and I think Marion is going to be very successful in the league again this season.

Likewise, Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer returns 17 wins and 113 innings. The Cougars have top hitters in Cody Bell (.381) and Devon Jacobus (.377). Jacobus leads all returning Metro players with 10 homers in 2011.

The Cougars have more. Kennedy’s sophomore teams have garnered conference championships as well as Metro Tournament titles in each of the last two seasons.

I'm not sure I can say Kennedy or Marion will win the most games in the Metro area, but I believe one of these two teams is the favorite to claim the most victories.  As I say that, be assured that there is competition.

Linn-Mar returns 19 wins and 219 innings from its pitching staff from last season. Its leading returning hitter is Michael Redmond (.384), who will be counted on to lead the Lions offensively.

Xavier returns Mack Mattke (5-3 pitching record,.413 batting average) and Corbin Woods (.371) as a nucleus to go with a talented group of juniors who were successful last season at the sophomore level.

Prairie has Brayton Carlson (.429), Brennan Hammer (.367) and Tyler Butz (.364) returning along with Jason Velvick, who missed most of his junior season as a result of an automobile accident (but who hit .400 as a sophomore).

The Hawks also have a number of juniors who, as sophomores, garnered a lot of successful varsity experience. Bryce Alberts (5-2) will be the leader of a relatively inexperienced but capable pitching staff.

The nucleus of the Washington team will be Puk (.436 average) along with Grant Dostal (5-2) and Noah Dostal (.358). Participation has been an issue at Washington, but new coach Tony Lombardi and his staff have aggressively addressed that issue. Washington will likely be a very young program this summer.

Jefferson should have a number of seniors, but they represent very little experience at the varsity level. Chance Tiedtke (4-2) will lead the pitching staff. Christian Knox and Sam Techau are the only two returning players with more than 50 at-bats.

I am writing a more specific summary for each of the seven Metro programs for each school’s baseball site and we'll add the new program at Cedar Valley Christian along the way.

I am going to stick my neck out and make some predictions.

I believe Marion is going to finish the summer with the best record in the Metro. The Indians have all of their 2011 pitching staff, plus they will be getting Cale Cannoy back to go with that staff. I believe if they score five runs a game they will win a lot of ballgames.

Kennedy has a good pitching staff, but none of them have proven to be overpowering at this stage of their development. Clearly you don’t have to have a 90 mph fastball to win. Control is more important than velocity.

Prairie is going to have a loaded lineup, but doesn’t have a pitching staff with a lot of varsity experience. Linn-Mar has experienced pitching, but not a lot of offensive experience. Xavier has Mattke and Woods plus a good group of young players, but they lack varsity experience.

That last paragraph should stimulate plenty of conversation all over town.

I will go with Kennedy, Prairie and Linn-Mar in that order among the local Mississippi Valley Conference teams.  An argument could be made for any of these teams. These three teams could end up in any order or they could all be dead-even when the smoke clears.

Just a step behind Kennedy and Prairie and perhaps only a half-step behind Linn-Mar is Xavier. There are too many questions marks for me to move the Saints up to that next level yet.

I think Washington and Jefferson will get off to slower starts, because of the experience factor, but I believe both teams will improve throughout the season and neither should be taken lightly when the tournament rolls around. They will be competitive, but their lack of experience puts them at a disadvantage, especially early on.

Next summer, I will predict Cedar Valley Christian’s season. This year, I predict that the Huskies will learn a lot as they put their new baseball program into action. I wish them good luck and much success.

Brian Erbe has heart bypass surgery

Xavier High School softball coach Brian Erbe had triple bypass surgery on Friday and is recovering at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids.

Erbe works at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School as an administrator.

Erbe has compiled a 300-132 record in nine years as Xavier's head coach and has reached the state tournament five times.

The Saints are scheduled to open the 2012 season on Tuesday, May 22 with a doubleheader against Cedar Rapids Washington at Xavier.

Xavier and Jefferson officials could not be reached for comment Saturday night.