Linn-Mar High School - Marion, Iowa

Kehe brings Hall of Fame resume to Linn-Mar

How to treat people, stay focused, strive for a common goal, communicate effectively, rebound after a loss, become a productive citizen, give back, multi-task and manage your time.

Those are a few of the lessons you can learn from playing volleyball, according to Teresa Kehe, who is beginning her first year as Linn-Mar’s head volleyball coach.

A member of the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame who has already achieved major success at both the high school and college levels, Kehe is returning to the prep ranks this fall to do the thing she loves best: Teach.

“We’re not about wins and losses,” she says. “We’re about development of the individual as well as the team, preparing them for future life.”

The chance to rebuild a Linn-Mar program that fell to the conference cellar last year is a homecoming of sorts for Kehe, who grew up in Cedar Rapids — as Teresa Langguth — and played on the inaugural Jefferson High School volleyball team from 1974 to 1977.

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Jenks: 'Tough decision' to skip X-C

Sports fans know Stephanie Jenks as an outstanding distance runner and world-class triathlete, but the 15-year-old sophomore at Linn-Mar High School is also a top-notch student.

That's one of the reasons Jenks has decided to skip the 2013 cross country season with the Lions and sacrifice a chance to defend her state title.

Jenks will spend 10 days in London next month while competing for Team USA in the ITU Junior Elite World Triathlon Championships. She is concerned about missing that much time in school and wanted to lighten her load this semester.

Jenks will continue to train and compete with the Linn-Mar swim team, just as she did last year, but she will not run for the Linn-Mar cross country squad.

"It was a really tough decision," Jenks said Tuesday night. "We spent days on it. I knew I had to swim for sure. It was whether I'd run cross country or not."

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New Linn-Mar pool set for Nov. 1

The Linn-Mar girls swimming team got inside the school's new aquatics facility for a preseason photo that's being used on the annual schedule poster.

Unfortunately for the 47-member team, that is likely all it will get to do there this season.

"I was at an event with our board members just the other day and the goal is to have the pool open on Nov. 1," said Linn-Mar Coach Chad Derlein. "That would be just a week before the state meet is scheduled, so it doesn't look like we will get to swim there this season."

It was hoped the facility would be open by Oct. 1 so the girls could swim the back half of their schedule in the pool, but weather delays early in the spring pushed the project back.

Linn-Mar Assistant Superintendent Rick Ironside told the Metro Sports Report in April that the project was running about a month behind. His hope was that if the weather improved, the ground could be made up.

However, heavy rains through much of May and early June made that impossible.

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Jenks will swim (not run) for Lions

State cross country champion Stephanie Jenks will swim for the Linn-Mar Lions this fall, but she will not compete with the cross country team, according to a story on the Iowa Prep Sports website.

Jenks, a sophomore, is one of the top triathletes in the nation in her age group. Her running and biking times in the triathlon are among the best in the nation and the world, but her swimming time occasional lags behind her competitors.

That could be one reason why Jenks will skip the cross country season and focus on swimming. She participated in both fall sports last year for Linn-Mar.

Jenks won two titles at the Drake Relays and two more titles at the state track meet this past spring.