Local News

5 Metro stars picked for Shrine Bowl

Five football players from the Metro area have been selected for the 40th Annual Shrine All-Star Game that will be played on Saturday, July 21 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

Flynn Heald of Cedar Rapids Washington, Mark Atwater of Linn-Mar, Josh Jahlas of Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Jordan Weber of Xavier and Jake McDonald of Marion were honored at a luncheon Friday at the El Kahir Shrine Center on Blairs Ferry Road in Cedar Rapids along with other players, coaches and cheerleaders for the event.

The Shrine All-Star Game serves as a fundraiser for the Shrine Hospital programs for children. More than $2.2 million has been raised for the hospital program since the all-star series began in 1973.

A total of 92 high school seniors have been selected for this year's game, with 46 players on the North Squad and 46 players on the South Squad. Heald, Atwater, Jahlas, Weber and McDonald will play for the North team.

Players must be good students and active in school and community activities to be selected for the Shrine All-Star Game, in addition to being good players.

C.R. schools told to cut $105,000 in salaries

The Cedar Rapids Community School District plans to cut $105,000 in salaries for coaches and others involved in co-curricular activities at Jefferson, Kennedy and Washington high schools and the six middle schools.

Each of the three high schools has been told to slash $25,000 in salaries from its budget for the 2012-13 school year and each of the six middle schools has been told to trim $5,000. Added together, it comes to $105,000 in proposed reductions.

Jill Cirivello, the executive director for human resources for the school district, sent a memo Wednesday to the high school principals, high school athletic directors and middle school principals announcing the expected cuts. The Metro Sports Report obtained a copy of the memo Wednesday afternoon.

Scott Kibby, the activities director at Jefferson, estimated his school might have to eliminate five to seven positions in order to meet the $25,000 reduction.

"There aren't a lot of things that make me sad. This really makes me sad," said Kibby. "This hurts. Sad is the word I would use."

Kibby estimated he'll have to trim his budget for co-curricular salaries by approximately 5 percent. He spoke by phone following a Mississippi Valley Conference meeting in Dubuque and did not have access to all his facts and figures, but he thought 5 percent would be about right.

Kibby will be leaving Jefferson after this school year to become the athletic director at Iowa City West High School, but he plans to be heavily involved in the decision-making process of which jobs to eliminate before he leaves.

Cirivello instructed the principals and athletic directors to submit their budget-cutting plans by May 11.

Kibby quickly informed his staff members of the memo from Cirivello and told them about the need to trim $25,000 from the budget.

"I sent the coaches a note this morning and let them know it was coming," he said. "I said this is not the way I wanted to go out, and I know some of you are going to be frustrated with the decisions that I make, but you need to be in the loop that this is coming. It makes me sad, as I said."

The cuts involve "Schedule C contracts," which Kibby explained are contracts for all co-curricular activities such as sports, fine arts, the yearbook and all other activities that require extra time in addition to normal classroom duties.

Principals and athletic directors were asked for input on possible budget cuts at a recent Athletic Council meeting that normally includes the superintendent of schools and invited guests.

"Thank you for your input during the last Athletic Council meeting regarding the assignment of Schedule C contracts," Cirivello wrote in Wednesday's memo to the school officials. "It is understood that these assignments are important to our students, schools and community.

"Your request during that meeting was that if reductions were necessary, you would prefer that we set the target budget reduction amount and let each school decide how to reduce assignments. That request was discussed and approved.

"Therefore," Cirivello wrote, "each school will be asked to reduce its Schedule C budget as follows:

"High Schools: $25,000 reduction from each school. Middle Schools: $5,000 reduction from each school.

"I know these decisions will be difficult and therefore we are allowing you four weeks to provide a plan for reduction. Please have the written plan to me by Friday, May 11, 2012.

"Thank you in advance for your work on this issue."

Mary Wilcynski, the principal at Kennedy High School, said each school has a certain amount of flexibility in contracts and ways to make cuts, such as possibly splitting contracts for assistant coaches.

"We'll just have to adjust. It's not devastating," she said. "We'll just have to go to the drawing board. It's not ever good news, but I don't think it's devastating."

Kibby and Wilcynski said the highest-paid coaches at the Cedar Rapids public high schools make approximately $8,000, depending on the sport. Football coaches make more than tennis coaches, for instance.

"The coaches don't do it for the money," said Kibby. "They do it for the love of the activity. They do not make much money per hour, when you think about all the time they put into their activity."

Kibby is not sure what impact the $25,000 in cuts will have on the total program at Jefferson. "That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?," he said. "It will have an impact. The coach-to-athlete ratio will certainly go up. It's possible that a program could be cut."

Kibby said he doesn't know if more cuts will be coming in other departments at the Cedar Rapids schools.

"I have no idea, but I'd guess if they're trying to save $105,000 from activities, I'd guess that's not the only place they're going to save money," he said. "If we have budget issues, I can't imagine that $105,000 is the number that we'd get to. I don't have any inside information on that."

Wilcynski does not think programs will be cut. "No. Not at all," she said. "We're not going to get rid of programs."

Kibby, Kennedy athletic director Aaron Stecker and Washington athletic director Paul James rode together to the MVC meetings in Dubuque on Wednesday and had a chance to discuss ways of cutting $25,000 in salaries at each school. The co-curricular budgets at all three high schools are almost exactly the same.

"I want to develop some sort of criteria, because it can be arbitrary," said Kibby. "As soon as it's arbitrary, the person you cut is going to want to know, 'Why me?'"

Wes Washpun will transfer to UNI

Wes Washpun is coming home to continue his college basketball career after spending one season at the University of Tennessee.

Washpun, an all-state point guard from Cedar Rapids Washington, has accepted an offer to join the University of Northern Iowa basketball team next season.

Washpun will have to take a redshirt season in 2012-13 due to NCAA transfer rules, then will have three years of eligibility after that.

Washpun was Tennessee's backup point guard during non-conference games this season, but he fell out of favor and played sparingly during the Southeastern Conference campaign. He scored 16 points in 17 games for a 0.9 average.

Washpun visited UNI this past weekend. He picked the Panthers over Nebraska, Milwaukee, South Dakota State and Tennessee Tech.

Washpun originally committed to Missouri State when Cuonzo Martin was the head coach there. When Martin became the new coach at Tennessee last spring, he offered Washpun a spot with the Volunteers and Washpun accepted.

Ryan Sweeney enjoys fresh start with Red Sox

DETROIT - The first five batters in the Boston Red Sox lineup have a chance to be all-stars again this season and lead Boston to the playoffs.

The sixth hitter in the lineup is Ryan Sweeney, and he could turn out to be just as important as Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis.

Sweeney, the pride of Cedar Rapids, is surprised to be hitting sixth for the powerful Red Sox -- surprised and happy.

"In spring training you hit everywhere, but I figured to be somewhere 7,8,9 with the guys that we have in this lineup," he said before Saturday's game against Detroit. "Who knows what will happen later on, but for now I'm hitting sixth again today."

Sweeney justified Manager Bobby Valentine's faith in him by going 2-for-3 with a walk in Boston's 10-0 loss to the Tigers Saturday. He went 2-for-4 with a clutch RBI triple in Thursday's season opener and is hitting .571 for his new club after two games.

"I think he can be a major contributor," Valentine told the Metro Sports Report. "He's one of the best athletes on the team, an outstanding defensive player, loves to play the game. I think he's in the prime of his career, where his offense is ready to take a leap forward."

Sweeney, 27, feels rejuvenated after four frustrating, injury-riddled years with the Oakland A's. He's a career .283 hitter, but fell out of favor in Oakland and was traded to Boston during the winter. He went from a second-division club to a pennant contender when he moved from the west coast to the east coast.

"You have renewed energy to want to play baseball," said Sweeney. "It's like any job, sometimes you don't want to do it, you know what I mean? Last year I had that feeling quite a bit.

"You know how much I love baseball, and with the Red Sox you're going to be playing in front of a sold-out crowd pretty much every night. It's kind of a cool feeling to see that."

Sweeney made a strong first impression with the Red Sox on Thursday when he laced a two-out RBI triple off the right-field fence to tie the game, 2-2, against Detroit closer Jose Valverde, snapping Valverde's string of 51 straight saves without a blown opportunity.

Sweeney also deprived Detroit ace Justin Verlander a victory on opening day after Verlander, the 2011 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner, had pitched eight
scoreless innings and left the game with a 2-0 lead.

Sweeney normally doesn't show much emotion on the field, but he did Thursday when he reached third base with his stand-up triple to give the Red Sox new life.

"I knew I was going to get a triple because I saw the ball get away from him (the right fielder)," he said. "It happened so quick. You get on third and you're pumped up, because you can't believe you did that."

Boston lost that game, 3-2, in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Red Sox fell to 0-2 for the young season after being shellacked on Saturday when Boston pitcher Josh Beckett was rocked for five home runs in 4 2/3 innings, including two apiece by Detroit sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.

Sweeney walked, popped out to shortstop, singled up the middle and lined a single to left Saturday, lifting his on-base percentage to .625. He also made a nice catch on the warning track on a deep line drive to right field.

It's not clear what Sweeney's role will be when regular left fielder Carl Crawford returns from the disabled list once he recovers from a wrist injury. There were signs in spring training that Sweeney, a left-handed hitter, and Cody Ross, a right-handed batter, might platoon in right field. For the time being, Ross is playing left field and Sweeney has
played both games in right.

"There's no reason to have that determination at this time," said Valentine, a veteran major league manager who's in his first year with the Red Sox.

Sweeney has done everything right so far.

"He knows that the slate is clean here, so the impression that he's making is going to be the lasting first impression," said Valentine. "So I would think a good start would be beneficial. But we're looking for a good season. It's not about getting a couple of hits early.

"I'd just like to see him healthy and enjoying the game. And if he is, I think he'll be a major contributor."

Sweeney has made a strong first impression on Pedroia, Boston's all-star second baseman.

"He does everything on the field well. He's a baseball player," said Pedroia. "He has a great swing, he's a young player. I know he's got time in the big leagues, but he's still learning, still getting better. I think he'll do fine here."

Pedroia thinks it was psychologically important for Sweeney to have a good game in the season opener for his new ballclub and new fans.

"Oh yeah, especially in that situation," said Pedroia. "Opening days are kind of weird. There are a lot of guys that, deep down, are trying to do things they're not capable of doing.

"That helps, especially in that environment. Every game we play is a playoff atmosphere. If he can calm his nerves like he did on opening day, he'll be fine."

Sweeney played on losing clubs in Oakland, before skimpy crowds. Now he's playing for a contender in sold-out stadiums. Coming to the park is fun again.

"There's a significance to every single game you play," said Sweeney. "When you're at the All-Star break and you're so many games out (of first place), it's tough to stay focused.

"You're trying to help your team win, but you're playing for yourself, too. Now it's important to win every single game."

Boston finishes its three-game series at Detroit on Sunday, then heads to Toronto for a three-game series on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The home opener at 100-year-old Fenway Park in Boston is scheduled for Friday, April 13 against Tampa Bay.

Sweeney is looking forward to his first game at Fenway Park as a member of the Red Sox.

"I've gone in there on the visiting side, but now to go in there on the home side will be pretty cool," he said. "I've never been in the home clubhouse there. To be able to experience that and be able to play on that field every day is going to be pretty cool."