Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Counting down to the new year is nothing new.

10.9.8.7.

You know where this is going, right?

The New Year’s Eve tradition of counting away the seconds to the start of a new year.

We’ve all done it at least a few times even if for many of us the years of anxiously awaiting the stroke of midnight have come and gone.

Never has that count down to a new year started earlier than in 2020.

Admit it, a few of us started the countdown around July when this big bully of a year kept rearing back for another potential gut punch.

A global pandemic the likes of which hasn’t been seen in a century produced the corona virus fall out.

Cancellations, lockdowns, new procedures, guidelines and protocol to combat the spread of COVID-19.

In August many Iowans felt the impact of a derecho, another crude twist to 2020.

By the time the actual count down to the new year was drawing near many couldn’t wait to flip the calendar to 2021.

There is no debating that 2020 has been a year that few will ever forget while many will try.

It’s certainly been a challenge.

As the final hours of this year like no other tick away I’ve found myself wondering how the past 366 days (don’t forget this was a leap year) will fit into my own personal memory bank.

As I sat back to think about the past year in an effort to fill this column I kept coming up with good times.

There was certainly tough times and painful moments but my brain kept pushing the positive to forefront.

That’s sort of how I’m wired I guess, I’m the guy looking for the silver lining when the sky is pitch black.

This year challenged the optimist in me but I seem to keep coming back so that’s what I’m going to focus on in the moments left in 2020.

I’m going to remember the good that came from a year filled with so much bad and I’m hoping everyone can do the same.

So here are five of my favorite work moments from 2020, a year that despite it’s many ups and downs allowed me to continue to do what I love at Your Prep Sports.

Perspective From Prep Athletes During Spring Sports Interviews 

One thing I’ll never forget from this season is the interviews I did with athletes the day it was announced the pandemic had forced the spring sports season to be cancelled.

I was so heartbroken for those athletes, especially the seniors, that I almost didn’t make the phone calls to set up interviews.

I’m so glad I did.

The conversations I had with 17 or 18-year old kids like Gabbi Bullard from Solon and Nick O’Connor from Clear Creek Amana changed my entire outlook on the situation and gave me a boost of positivity at just the right time.

I was floored by maturity those athletes showed in talking about opportunities they had lost forever. The few hours I spent on the phone that day did more for me than those kids will ever know.

Three Wild Days at State Wrestling 

The state wrestling tournament is always a blur for those that cover the event.

Three consecutive days of rushing from mat to mat to cover match after match. It’s both physically and mentally exhausting.

This years’ tournament that featured an amazing SIX Your Prep Sports area state champs was one of my favorite events ever.

I covered some of the best wrestlers in the state – I’m talking big-time hammers like Ben Kueter, Hayden Taylor and Hunter Garvin.

Graham Gambrall and Jax Flynn provided amazing stories with their runs to titles, some of the best I’ve ever written about.

And Harvard-bound West High senior Will Hoeft is one of the smartest and toughest kids I’ve ever seen compete. Ever.

Those kids and many others made it an amazing three days.

But that’s just the start.

The kindness I encountered from friends and colleagues Jeff Yoder and Amber Seaton is why I do this job.  Those are two of the best humans you will ever find.

And that kindness spills over to media members like KJ Pilcher from the Cedar Rapids Gazette and coaches like Blake Williams from Solon and City High’s Cory Connell – guys who loves the sport and take the time to help out a wrestling novice like me. Those are the types of things you remember long after you forget the scores of matches.

So too are the memories like when I dug into my backpack looking for a pen and found a candy bar with a note from my oldest daughter telling me she loved me and would miss me while I was gone. I’ll always remember the first time I cried in the press room at state wrestling.

Football Interviews During Derecho Week 

The week following the derecho is one I personally will never forget despite every day being an absolute blur void of warm showers, sleep and electricity.

It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I realized what that week was like professionally for me.

I had set up six of seven football interviews that week. I made exactly zero of those at the appointed time.

With no electricity at our house and working from sun rise to sunset cleaning up at my moms’ I tried my best to reschedule appointments on the fly with spotty cell service.

The coaches were incredible. I kept getting texts from coaches like Garrett Hartwig and Lucas Stanton saying “You are welcome any time” or “come by whenever”.

I got it all done, showing up at more than a few places covered with sap and saw dust.

The memories of that week are more personal than the others but they make me smile now and had me in tears more than once at the time.

The Best Upset I Ever Covered Was No Fluke 

Clear Creek Amana’s win over second-ranked Marion in the Class 4A regional final is the best upset I’ve ever covered.

Marion beat the Clippers by 29 in the regular season and that 29-point loss was the closest the Clippers had come against Marion in the last seven meetings.

Still, on that February night on the home court of a defending state runner-up that had lost at home one time in the past five years Clear Creek Amana left no doubt who was the better team.

I kept waiting for a Marion run that never came. Karsyn Stratton (one of the nicest kids I’ve ever covered) and teammates Meagan Harvey and Calia Clubb and Whitney Traetow just kept making play after play after play.

Oh, and just for a cherry on top of the biggest upset in recent state history – the reward was the program’s first ever trip to state.

It was absolutely the type of game no written story can ever do full justice to and no writer will ever forget.

City High’s Never Say Die State Baseball Thriller 

City High’s loss to Dubuque Hempstead at the state baseball tournament isn’t the fondest memory for some but it is one I won’t soon forget.

I wrote about it in a column after the game and I’ll say it again, I’ve never seen a team, on that type of a stage battle their absolute butts off the way those City High kids did.

The Little Hawks just wouldn’t quit and you could absolutely see it in their play during the game and in their eyes during postgame interviews – they never questioned they would win that game despite facing a big early deficit against a higher-seeded opponent.

In sports, games boil down to wins and losses and that one went as a loss for the Little Hawks. But I will say this – my son loves baseball and that is a game I’d show him and say, “that’s how you play the game.”

Those are some of the things I choose to remember from 2020.

Hopefully everyone has their own memories that stick out and make you smile.

Now, lets hope for a much more memorable 2021.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.