Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Last week the Your Prep Sports Best Moments Bracket was published.

It was one of the first projects on my list last month after it became evident that the spring sports season wouldn’t start on time due to the national coronavirus pandemic.

Before I began, I knew it would be an extensive undertaking.

Sifting through four years of sporting events is no easy endeavor but I was looking forward to putting some rare time without live games to cover toward a bigger project – something I rarely am able to do.

The job was as enjoyable as I imagined. As I searched archives and pulled up stories from past games, meets or tournaments the memories all came back.

I smiled a lot as I read the stories and saw the photos of some of the best moments we’ve covered since starting Your Prep Sports in 2016.

It was a tremendous reminder of why I was so excited about the prospect of being a part of this website four years ago.

One thing I hadn’t taken into consideration when I started the assignment of building a four-region bracket of the best moments in the history of Your Prep Sports is just how difficult it would be to narrow it down to 64.

A lot has happened in the Your Prep Sports area over the last four years.

There were individual state championship performances, teams reaching the state tournament and winning games at state that were left OFF the list of 64. That is how much success area teams and athletes have enjoyed over the past four years.

Leaving performances like those off the list was tough, the bracket could have been expanded to 128 moments and still could have been filled.

My plan was to write this column revealing my own personal top four moments from that last four years. The Director of Content’s own personal final four.

I almost scrapped that column idea after struggling to cut the list down to 64.

If it’s tough to get it to 64 how am I ever going to narrow it down to 4?

Ultimately, on what would have been Final Four Saturday of the NCAA tournament I decided I’d pick my top four anyway.

So here they are with a couple of reminders.

These are my favorite memories from covering area teams since Your Prep Sports was launched in August of 2016.

Best memories, not best storylines or best games but obviously those things go into what makes a great memory.

Finally, we went with best moments for the bracket over best games or best performances for a reason – moments or memories are different for everyone.  

That’s what we wanted. We wanted to know what YOUR best moments or memories were so let us know.

If you have a team that you cover or a child or relative that participates in a sport and you follow along an attachment is made and those are going to be the top moments for you, as they should be.

For someone that covers seven teams in every sport I develop relationships with coaches and athletes and want to watch them all succeed.

Journalists are taught to be impartial but with a small area to cover like this it is impossible not to root for your area teams to succeed and when they do it creates great moments.

Here are four of my favorites – one from each of the regions of the Your Prep Sports Best Memories Bracket.

The Winter Sports Region: Clear Creek Amana Upsets Marion for First State Tournament Trip (February 25, 2020)

On paper it was one of the biggest upsets I’ve covered which is part of what made No. 15 Clear Creek Amana’s regional final win over second-ranked and defending 4A runner-up Marion so memorable.

The remarkable thing is that the 66-49 win didn’t feel at all like an upset as Clear Creek Amana dominated the final three quarters to secure its first ever state tournament trip.

Few saw this one coming and the fact it was the first trip to state is extra special but what made this so memorable for me was the reward it provided for the Clear Creek Amana seniors and coach staff led by PJ Sweeney who had slowly but steadily turned the program around.

Karsyn Stratton and Meagan Harvey were both four-year starters who put a lot of time and dedication into a basketball program and for them to be reward with a trip to state was special.   

The Fall Sports Region: West High Reaches 4A Title Game for the Second Straight Season (November 10, 2017)

The more memorable game for some came the previous season when West High upset Bettendorf on the road in the Class 4A quarterfinals in a playoff run that ended with its first title game appearance since 1998.

For me the most memorable moment of the stellar two-year run for the Trojans was the semifinal domination of the Bulldogs in the UNI-Dome.
Of my final four this memory is the one that goes most on my own personal ‘feel’ of that day.

It wasn’t an upset, West High was undefeated and the higher ranked team but I had an uneasy feeling about the game.

To me the most intimidating thing in sports is an athlete or even more so a team that has the look of ultimate confidence, as if there is no way they can lose and they know it.

That was how West High looked from the time it hit the UNI-Dome Field more than 40 minutes before kickoff.

No extra energy, no jumping around, just ultimate focus and confidence. I immediately remembering thinking what I imagined would be a tight game could be lopsided.

West High proved me right with a 23-0 win in which it held Bettendorf to 98 totals yards and six first downs while returning to 4A title game for the second year in a row.

A game that has always stuck in my mind.

The Spring Sports Region: Solon 4×400 Seniors Get Fitting Sendoff (May 19, 2019)

If this was a true tournament every commentator would have labeled this as the most challenging of the regions.

This was easily the most difficult selection for my own personal memories. The shock of West High winning the state soccer title as an eight seed, seeing West High girls tennis team almost too drained to celebrate its epic state title win over Ames, friends Joe Hoff and Jiung Jung embracing after batting for a state singles title, the raw emotion of the winning City High 4×800 relay team were all exception memories for this sports writer.

My favorite from the spring was Solon finally getting its state title in the 4×400 relay.

Three of the members of the school-record setting, state title-winning team in 2019 were seniors and had all been part of back-to-back runner-up finishes the past two years.

Often winning relay teams feature a standout that has won multiple state championships.

Those three seniors (Erin Kerkhoff, Abby Smith and Taylor Ryan) are all excellent athletes currently competing at the college level but none had ever won a state gold medal before that moment.

Watching those three seniors close their careers by accomplishing a goal they had set four years ago in their final race was the epitome of what makes high school sports so amazing to me.

The Summer Sports Region: City High Stuns Cedar Rapids Kennedy at State Softball (July 23, 2019)

Simply put, this was a time when I was just thrilled for everyone involved.

The City High softball program was among the worst in Class 5A when Jeff Koenig took over and within three years he had the Little Hawks at the state tournament.

A year after reaching the state tournament for the first time in 17 seasons City High got its true breakthrough with a 10-2 stunner over a third-ranked Kennedy team that hadn’t allowed more than two runs in a game all season.

This was a combination of everything. An unlikely upset by an up and coming program led by a coach that is as positive as anyone in the profession.

What I personally remember most about this game is just how much I smiled talking to City High players during postgame interviews and how long that smiled stayed on my face on the way home.

Again, it was just a game where you walk away happy for the kids and coaches.

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