I will put any sports pieces I write in here. All I have right now is a pice about the Hiawatha Hawks Basketball season as of the last North Boone game.
In basketball, there are many peaks and valleys that you have to go through in the course of a game. The teams that win consistently are the ones that learn to play at the same level throughout the game whether it’s a peak or a valley. That is one of the first things I remember hearing from the boys new coach, Coach Bill Heisler. As the season has progressed, I’ve learned that this not only applies to one game, but to the entire season as a whole. This years team has had its share of peaks and just as many (if not more) valleys, but they have learned to work through them.
The season began on a peak with the Hawks winning their first game of the season against Earlville in the Somonauk tournament. Then they had a valley the next game as they lost to Somonauk at the Somonauk tournament. The Hawks then began a new peak by defeating Leland and Elgin Academy to finish off the Somonauk tournament. That put them at 3-1 heading into pack the place against Genoa at Genoa. They went on to lose this game by ten and were left with a feeling of, for lack of better words, “why,” for they knew they could have won that game. This began a path to the deepest valley the team has faced this year. The next game they had was their conference opener against North Boone and lost to them. The next team was Polo; and after losing to Polo, the team had hit its lowest point of the year. If there is a place lower then a valley that’s where they were. At this point in the season they had fallen below .500 for the first time at a record of 3-4 and 0-1 in conference.
The next game was the conference home opener against AFC. The Hawks won this game and took a big step out of the valley. They did, however, go on to lose their next two games at the Marengo Christmas tournament against North Boone (didn’t count as a conference lose) and Marengo. After that, they beat Rockford Christian by a score of 86-81 in their last game in the tournament. This catapulted them into a five game winning streak beating Lamoille, Durand, Paw Paw (“Paw squared” in Mr. Berry’s words), and South Beloit. This brought the Hawks to a record of 9-6 and 3-1 in conference. Next was the most important game in the season.
It was the Hawks’ third and final game of the year against North Boone. With a win, they would have moved into a tie on top of the Four Rivers Conference. However, they would end up losing in one of the hardest losses they had all year putting them in a brand new valley. Coach Heisler once said that rebounding is one third of the game of basketball. Once again, this can apply to more areas than the games themselves. Such as right now when the Hawks will have to rebound from this loss and keep winning to secure a good seed in the regional tournament.