Sports

Optimist Club impacts 25 years worth of children (03/12/10)
Twenty-five years ago this week, a group of locals came together to make a difference for youth. Since then, thousands of young people in Le Mars have been reached by the Le Mars Optimist Club. "We've made an impact," said Jerry Haack, founding president of the club. "Over the past 20-some years, we've touched every kid in this town in a positive way."...

AKC dog show comes to fairgrounds in July (03/12/10)
Dogs of all breeds will take the stage this summer as the American Kennel Club Dog Show comes to Le Mars July 3 and 4. The show, arranged by Sioux Valley Kennel Club, will be held at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds. Organizers expect between 750 and 1,000 dogs to participate in the show, according to Jennifer and Sue Holtgrew, who are local kennel club members and show participants...

Cyclists hope bike safety bill pedals through Legislature (03/04/10)
Last year a Plymouth County woman was hurt after being struck by a beer can while riding her bicycle along a country road. Erin Schroeder still gets butterflies in her stomach when she climbs on her bike. She hopes a proposed bicycle safety bill in the Iowa House of Representatives moves forward to help protect cyclists on the roadways...

Local students excel at IE speech contest Saturday (03/02/10)
Le Mars Community High School and Gehlen High School students have advanced to the state level following competition in the Individual Event District Speech Contest Saturday. The district contest was held at Akron-Westfield High School in Akron, one of 16 sites in Iowa...

Kids take the gold in Kissinger Olympics (02/24/10)
More than 1,350 miles away from the Vancouver Winter Olympics, another Olympic flame is "burning." The students at Kissinger Elementary School in Merrill are competing in their own Olympic games, complete with a torch made out of a lamp and construction paper...

LCHS dance exhibition Friday (02/24/10)
Dozens of dancers will light up the floor in the Le Mars Community Schools Dance Exhibition Friday. The exhibition will be held at the Le Mars Community High School Gymnasium. The show will include performances of the LCS dance team's dances from this year, a co-ed dance with boys from the high school, solos performed at the state solo contest, and dances from four other teams...

Basketball on the big screen: Local students play in new movie (02/23/10)
On Thursday, Skyler Higgins suited up for a Remsen St. Mary's district basketball game. On Friday, the RSM senior was shooting hoops on the big screen. "Winning Favor," a movie that captures the story of two Orange City teams and includes a cast of local ball players like Higgins, opened Friday for a two-week run at the Orange City movie theater...

Local jazz bands qualify for Iowa Jazz Championships (02/12/10)
Jazz bands at Le Mars Community High School and Gehlen Catholic High School qualified for the Iowa Jazz Championships April 13 in Des Moines. Both placed second in their respective classes at the NW Iowa District Jazz Competition in Sioux City Feb. 3. LCS will compete in Class 3A and Gehlen Catholic in Class 1A...

Rewind time at 1960s bash (02/05/10)
Ready to turn back time to the day of hippies, the Beatles and psychedelic grooviness? It's time to bust out your bellbottoms and love beads, the 1960s are making a comeback in Le Mars. The Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce is inviting you to spend an evening in the '60s at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 27 at the Willow Creek Golf Course banquet hall...

Are we sending bald eagles back to endangered list? (02/01/10)
Bald eagles are being attacked by an emerging predator. It's in the food they eat. Eagle protection agencies have been seeing eagles that are oddly sick, explained Plymouth County Naturalist Victoria De Vos. "They started testing the blood and they are finding out that they had very high levels of lead -- a neurotoxin," De Vos said. "It was basically paralyzing them in different ways."...

RAGBRAI to start in Sioux City (02/01/10)
It was close but no banana seat bike for Le Mars for the northwest Iowa overnight stop of RAGBRAI. Announced Saturday, the route of this year's Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will kick off from Sioux City and run 442 miles with overnights in Storm Lake, Algona, Clear Lake, Charles City, Waterloo, Manchester and the final overnight in Dubuque...

Together we can beat the winter blues (01/28/10)
Around 5:30 on Tuesday evening, I was speed walking up the sidewalk to Gehlen, my face staring at the sidewalk in an attempt to keep the cold wind at bay, and all of the sudden I realized - it's still light out! The days are getting longer, the sun is shining (as of Wednesday afternoon) and February is just around the corner...

Cross country skiers head to Le Mars' parks (01/20/10)
Temperatures in the teens, no sun and 24 inches of snow on the ground isn't the ideal setting for most. But for Curt Strathman and Barb Becker, both of Le Mars, those conditions add up to the perfect setting for cross country skiing. Cross country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

YMCA's swim team makes a splash with local youth (01/14/10)
Eight-year-old Abigail Johnson has been swimming since she was 4. That's why she's happy to be a member of the YMCA's Le Mars Stingrays Swim Team. "I like to swim laps -- it makes you very tired," Abigail said after practice Tuesday at the Le Mars YMCA...

Spring construction set for Gehlen Wellness Center (01/12/10)
What started as a free-standing structure to house a wellness center at Gehlen Catholic Schools will now be an addition to the school's back gym. Construction on the addition is expected to start in the spring, according to Tony Gunter, the school's high school athletic director, teacher and coach...

Live Healthy Le Mars offers team approach to good health (01/11/10)
Get ready to get in shape in 2010 by participating Live Healthy Le Mars. The 100-day challenge promotes a team approach to weight loss and physical activity. Local sponsors for Live Healthy Le Mars are the Le Mars YMCA, Floyd Valley Hospital and ISU Plymouth County Extension...

Rewind 2009: The good, the bad and the blizzard (12/30/09)
Editor's note: This is the first of two stories recapping 2009's top stories in the Daily Sentinel. Mother Nature put a wet (or white) blanket on Plymouth County's Christmastime plans, nailing northwest Iowa with more than a foot of snow and winds that lowered visibility and drifted roads shut. ...

Le Mars man injured hunting deer in Taylor County (12/22/09)
A Le Mars man was injured while hunting deer in Taylor County Sunday when a shot missed its target. A piece of slug ricocheted, striking him in the upper chest area. Mathew Fedders, 41, was taken to Clarinda Regional Health Center, then transferred to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where doctors were removing the slug fragment...

Gehlen band prepares for Champs Sports Bowl (12/21/09)
This morning (Monday) Gehlen Catholic's Competition Marching Band rehearsed one final time at the Le Mars YMCA before their planned departure early Dec. 26 for the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. The Gehlen marching band will compete against nine other schools from throughout the nation Dec. 28 in the field show competition...

LCS board receives budget cut ideas from teachers, staff (12/16/09)
Teacher and staff suggestions for Le Mars Community Schools budget cuts range from a salary feeze to dropping the orchestra program. That input is another item on the Le Mars Community Schools' board of education timeline for cutting expenditures for the 2010-11 school year which it crossed off its list at Monday's meeting...

A story of dots and dashes: Navy radioman's story began with Morse code (12/11/09)
When Tom Leaverton was a boy, he and his friend used to follow that friend's older brother-in-law -- a telegrapher -- around and watch him send Morse code messages. When he gave the boys each a telegraph key, Leaverton and his buddy strung a wire down the one-block alley between their houses in Sioux City and tried their hand at Morse code...

Knock out king Gabel hits the cages (12/04/09)
When Matt Gabel stepped into the cage for his first official fight last December, his stomach was full of butterflies. But the 6-foot, 200-pound muscle man had little to worry about. In less than a minute, his opponent was on the ground. Now, with a 7-0 record, the Le Mars fighter is heading back to the ring Saturday in Sioux City, and this time for a championship...

When life was simple: Fitzgerald recalls pony carts and hand-me-downs (12/03/09)
Editors Note: This story is the first in a weekly series looking back at life decades ago and remembering a time when people's lifestyle was very different than today. Was life simpler when $1 bought four gallons of gas or during the Great Depression when it cost less to use corn as fuel than sell it or when children played baseball instead of computer games?...

Winter day camp at Hillview (12/01/09)
A day camp for fourth through eighth graders will be hosted at Hillview Park in Hinton Dec. 30. Plymouth County Conservation is hosting the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. camp, offering a range of activities including snowshoeing, cross country skiing, tracking, shelter building, ice fishing, Dutch oven cooking and more...

Fall All-Sentinel sports section today (11/30/09)
The Fall All-Sentinel sports section is included inside the Daily Sentinel today. The section features the All-Sentinel teams for football and volleyball as well as the athletes of the year for football, volleyball and cross country.

Local fitness business owners get building into shape (11/27/09)
Getting fit doesn't always have to mean jogging. That's the idea behind the two new fitness businesses opening up in a building on Business Highway 75. In The Rhythmz Health and Fitness and Raise the Bar Fitness began business this month in a building that was formerly home to Bomgaars and later Dollar General, just south of the Le Mars Truck Stop...

LCS board takes closer look at cutting sections (11/25/09)
Le Mars Community Schools board members have targeted reducing a section in grades kindergarten, first and second, including the possible closing of an elementary building, as one of three areas in which to cut expenses for the FY11 budget. This discussion came as the board checked off one of the dates on its timeline toward a decision on elementary section reduction at its Monday meeting...

LCS board begins process to cut $1 million from FY11 budget (11/11/09)
With a goal of cutting $1 million from the 2010-11 school year budget, Le Mars Community Schools Board of Education members approved timelines and processes for expense and elementary section cuts. "Administratively, we have been working on potential expenditure reductions already," Superintendent Dr. Todd Wendt told the board at their Monday meeting...

Olympic champion returns to roots: Jennie Finch headlines Pink Ribbon Night (10/30/09)
You won't find too many natives of Southern California who enjoy the smell of a cattle farm. But Jennie Finch is not your typical California girl. "It's funny how you appreciate the smell of cows and cornfields," said Finch, a softball pitcher for Team USA and a two-time Olympian, said in Le Mars Thursday. ...

Ethanol outlook: Where is the industry headed? (10/21/09)
Editor's note: This story is part two of a pair of stories looking deeper at the ethanol industry and Plymouth Energy's recent quest to raise $10 million for the ethanol plant. In the past decade, ethanol has been both a golden egg and a rotten one...

Meister claims half marathon title (10/20/09)
This weekend Greg Meister, of Le Mars, was up earlier than most people like to be on a Saturday, and it paid off. Meister took home the title for the Siouxland Lewis and Clark Half Marathon Saturday in Sioux City. With a time of 1:22:04, Meister beat out 278 runners in the 13.1-mile race, half the distance of a full marathon's 26.2 miles...

Loess Hills golf course plan denied permit (10/13/09)
Concern for Loess Hills preservation was at the top of a list of reasons why the Plymouth County Board of Adjustment denied a man's request to turn his land into a golf course. John Denney, of Rural Westfield, came before the board Monday seeking a conditional use permit to build and operate a nine-hole golf course on his 20.92 acres near North Ridge Road in western Plymouth County...

Lady Rockets fall to sixth-ranked Knights (10/07/09)
The Remsen-Union volleyball team struggled as it hosted Unity Christian, a Class 2A state tournament participant a season ago, in War Eagle Conference action on Tuesday. The sixth-ranked Knights (Class 2A) defeated the Rockets 3-0 by scores of 25-15, 25-8 and 25-10...

Gehlen Catholic slates homecoming activities (10/05/09)
The Gehlen Catholic Jays will celebrate homecoming week Oct. 5-9 with the theme "Wipe Out the Wolverines." Twelve seniors have been selected for the 2009 homecoming court. Queen candidates are: Rachel Koopman, daughter of Keith Koopman and the late Kelly Koopman...

Plymouth County youth celebrate National 4-H Week (10/05/09)
Plymouth County 4-H'ers will join with 4-H members across the nation to celebrate National 4-H Week Oct. 4-10. Nationally, the week kicked off with the 4-H emblem being featured in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday. The emblem was on the No 24 DuPont Chevrolet car driven by Jeff Gordon at the Kansas Speedway...

Jennie Finch headlines Pink Ribbon Night in Le Mars (10/02/09)
World champion softball pitcher Jennie Finch will be the keynote speaker at Floyd Valley Hospital's seventh annual "Pink Ribbon Night" Thursday, Oct 29, at the Le Mars Convention Center. The event celebrates Breast Cancer Awareness Month. "This is the first year for a big name speaker," said Kari Daale, Community Health Education Assistant at Floyd Valley Hospital...

Pageler hangs up the mop on 36 years as LCS custodian (09/30/09)
After 36 years of pushing mops and brooms, cleaning windows, the gymnasium floor after events, and much more, Loren Pageler is retiring as custodian in the the Le Mars Community School (LCS) District. His last day on the job is today (Wednesday). "That high school was only 9 years old when I started working there," Pageler recalled...

Pheasants' habitat dwindles by millions of acres each year (09/18/09)
Hunters may face a challenge this season -- the pheasant population is on a downward spiral in Plymouth County and throughout Iowa. Last year Iowa had 100,000 hunters and 383,000 birds, which is four birds per person in the field. Other years there have been 1.5 million pheasants, said John Linquist, Pheasants Forever regional representative. "From the early 2000s to now there has been a steady decline because of weather and habitat," Linquist said. The cold, damp spring this year affected pheasants' nesting habits, said Mike Slota, Pheasants Forever chairman for Plymouth County youth programs. "The weather has to be somewhat warm to produce the insects for the chicks when they're hatched," Slota said. "The hens can't keep the chicks adequately warm and they just die from exposure." The loss of habitat also affects pheasants' nesting because hens have less area to hide from predators, Slota said. Pheasant habitats, which usually require 5 to 10 acres, are areas with a mixture of tall and short grasses and flowering plants that attract insects, Slota said. A major reason that habitat is dwindling is that millions of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres are going away each year, Linquist said. Last year alone 1.1 million CRP acres expired, according to www.pheasantsforever.org. With the price of grain, farmers are finding they can make more money planting their land than putting it into CRP acres, Slota said. "With this economy you can't blame any farmer for squeezing every dollar out of the ground they can," Slota said. "Their job is to produce grain and make money off the ground. We understand that." Farmers began enrolling their qualified land into CRPs to be planted into habitats 10 to 15 years ago and receiving federal compensation, Linquist said. "A lot of people's acres are expiring and there are no new signups," he said. Another 3.8 million CRP acres will expire this fall and 4.4 million acres next September for a total of 21 million acres gone from the program by the end of 2012 without a new signup. The USDA does not have a signup scheduled, according to the Pheasants Forever website. "It's hard to maintain a bird population when we're constantly taking conservation acres out of play," Linquist said. Pheasants Forever hopes to turn that around with its program, Reload Iowa. The intent of Reload Iowa is to establish 1 million acres of new habitat on Iowa landscape. That means $11.5 million will need to be raised and 50 employees hired to go door-to-door to work with landowners to create the habitat, Linquist said. "That program is going to have to pay enough money out to entice the farmer to want to do this," Slota said. "The farmer has to look at the bottom line." There are also national programs like Conservation Practice 38 or State Acres For wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) working to help conserve and create new habitat. SAFE started last year with 200,000 CRP acres that were divided among states. "We had 27,700 acres," Linquist said. "All of those acres have been used up and all within a year." The loss of habitat and dwindling pheasant population in Plymouth County and throughout the state has a trickle-down effect on economy and recreation, Linquist said. "When the population of the birds down so does the population of the hunters," he said. That means less dollars spent shopping, eating and staying locally by nonresident hunters. Fewer hunters also leads to a loss of revenue on licenses, which means less money to help support county and state parks, Linquist said. "That's what buys the land and sees to the upkeep," he said. "We're hurting ourselves by people not going out and hunting." A declining pheasant and hunter population is also detrimental for the next generation of would-be hunters, but Slota's optimistic Reload Iowa and similar programs will turn the numbers around. "I hope we start seeing an increase in the next couple of years," Slota said. "I would love to see it start going back the other way and hopefully we are doing the right things to make it start going the other way."

It's just torture year after year for fans of land grant institutions (09/17/09)
During my year-long post-college malaise period I spent once again living with my parents, I met a couple of University of Oklahoma transplants through a mutual friend. My biggest question for them: What is like to attend a school that is always in the mix to win a football national title, year in and year out?...

Cycling club adds bike racks downtown (09/16/09)
The Plymouth County Cyclists Club is installing more places to lock up bikes around downtown Le Mars this month. The club has ordered 12 bike poles to install downtown along Central Avenue. The bike poles are a metal pole with a ring on top that allows two bikes to be locked...

The tris that bind: Triathlon draws 18 teams, 117 individuals (09/14/09)
Usually, old college friends come together for things like reunions and weddings. Kelly Van Gelder, of Le Mars, and her friend Kris Merfeld, of Des Moines, got together for a triathlon. Together, they swam, biked and ran a total of about 18 miles during the third annual Le Mars Sprint Triathlon Saturday...

Triathlon will draw more than 150 competitors (09/10/09)
Rich Sudtelgte will swim, bike and run his first triathlon Saturday. In fact, the Le Mars Sprint Triathlon with be the his first race -- ever. What spurred him on? Siblings. "My brother and sister have done it for the last two years," the Le Mars man said. "I ran track in high school but haven't run since then."...

Maass honored with Farm Bureau Ag Award (09/10/09)
A retired Remsen farmer is the 2009 recipient of the Plymouth County Farm Bureau's Service to Agriculture Award. The award was presented to Kenneth Maass and his wife, Bethene, at the 91st annual meeting of Plymouth County Farm Bureau Tuesday evening at the Le Mars Community Middle School Auditorium...

Hinton voters to decide fate of proposed elementary (09/03/09)
Hinton Community School is bursting at the seams with students and increasing enrollment trends indicate that's not going to change. "We have run out of room particularly in the elementary classroom area," said Rob Held, Hinton School Board president...

Alexander brings experience, knowledge to Hinton school (08/07/09)
Mike Alexander will ride into Hinton on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle next week as new superintendent of the Hinton Community School. Alexander will bring eight years of experience as a superintendent and close to 20 as a school administrator. "I think I've a real passion for kids and the public education system," Alexander said. "I think those are some qualities I could bring to Hinton School District."...

Holy rolling for hunger: Pastors cycle across U.S. (08/05/09)
A group of pastors are fighting hunger, but not from the pulpit. Instead of waiting for people to come to church, they're bringing the message to them on a bamboo bicycle built for three. Hitting every corner of the country, three Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) pastors and their support team from West Virginia put thousands of miles behind them to raise awareness of world hunger and how people can respond...

Westergard and Schilmoeller reign as fair queen and king (07/30/09)
It may have been raining outside, but the smiles were shining bright in Century Hall as the 2009 Plymouth County Fair royalty court was announced Wednesday. Ben Schilmoeller was crowned king and Caine Westergard was crowned queen of the 2009 fair. Their royalty court includes Princes Ryan Schroeder and Brian Kehm; Mr. Personality Chris Erickson; Miss Congeniality and Princess Stephany TenNapel and Princess Angie Breuer...

Hansen shoots top spot in national gun competition (07/21/09)
Patrick Hansen's Swiss Vetterli rifle was built in the 1870s. It's about 4 feet long and weighs 10 pounds. Shooting that rifle Hansen, of Le Mars, earned overall national champion in the Big Bore Issue Class at the Cast Bullet Association Military Nationals in June...

Journey is over but adventure is not for Morrow (07/21/09)
Le Mars native Hugh Morrow's journey from China to the United States and most of the way back is finished, but he's far from slowing down. From Xiamen, in the People's Republic of China, Morrow sent word of his latest venture -- book writing. "I will be publishing a series of children's adventure books that will introduce Chinese culture to the west. ...

Area golfers off to quick start shooting aces at Willow Creek (07/14/09)
It's arguably the most exciting play in all of individual sports. The shot, the landing, the roll, the possibility. The anticipation as it glides closer and closer, and then the roar of hundreds of fans that surround the green and line the fairway -- even if it's all in your head...

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