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Albaugh helps Indians knock off Clippers

Dusty Albaugh is a man for all seasons for the Marion Indians.

Winter, spring, summer, fall. Basketball, track, baseball, football. You name it, he does it.

It was basketball Tuesday night and Albaugh helped the Indians trim Clear Creek Amana, 57-53, in a key Wamac Conference game at Marion.

Albaugh tossed in three 3-pointers and scored 13 points. Of equal importance, he drew the key defensive assignment against hot-shooting Clay Miller with the game on the line and made sure Miller did not get good looks at the basket.

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Marion meet renamed to honor former coach

Marion has renamed its invitational wrestling meet to honor a former coach, athletics director Corby Laube announced Saturday.

The tournament has been renamed the Loyd Shaffer Marion Invitational and was held Saturday.

Shaffer coached the Marion wrestling team for 26 years, starting in 1965. He also coached football and track, and taught physical education at Marion.

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“A Coach’s Life”: Fascinating portrait of Les Hipple and Marion

Marion native Dan Kellams gives readers a rare treat with his new book on former Marion High School coach Les Hipple, well worth the time for anyone interested in the school or the city itself.

Kellams, a Marion High School graduate who played for the legendary coach, provides a poignant biography of the stern taskmaster whose teams dominated the Wamac Conference in the 1940s and 1950s, while also providing a keen historical look at the city of Marion itself.

Hipple compiled a 105-42-10 record in 18 years as Marion’s head football coach from 1945-62 and won seven conference titles; collected a 310-120 record in 20 years as the boys basketball coach from 1945-65 and captured 12 Wamac crowns; coached the boys track team from 1945-62 with five league titles, and also won eight state cross country titles in a row.

Hipple is a member of the Iowa Halls of Fame in both football and basketball, one of the few coaches to hold both honors, and his basketball teams were among some of the best in the state, regardless of classification. Marion High School named the school’s athletic fields after him in 1978, a fitting tribute to his career, but numbers and honors don’t do justice to the man or the book (“A Coach’s Life: Les Hipple and the Marion Indians”).

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Marion takes big step forward

The "where" question about a major upgrade of Marion High School athletics facilities has been answered. So, for the most part, has the "what."  Now it's time to find the answers to "when" and "how."

The biggest decision needed to proceed with the upgrade was whether to renovate the existing football field near Thomas Park or build a new, multi-purpose facility at the Les Hipple Athletic Complex adjacent to the high school.

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