Good-bye West Branch, Pekin and 90-mile trips in the fall. Hello SICL Conference rivals.
District assignments for high school football were announced today (Tuesday) by the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) and there were some major shake-ups regarding Plainsman football. Belle Plaine is now a Class A school. Last year, it was in Class 1A. Last year, there were eight districts in Class 1A with eight schools each. Next season, there will be eight districts in Class A, but four of them have only six schools and the other four have seven.
Belle Plaine is in District Six with BGM, HLV, Iowa Valley, Lynnville-Sully, Montezuma and North Mahaska. All are members of the SICL Conference.
With just six district games, there will be room for three non-district teams on this fall’s schedule. Coach Todd Bohlen said those teams are yet to be determined. The final decision will be made by the IHSAA, but the state association has asked schools to contact some non-district teams about their availability and then submit the names of those schools to the IHSAA. The final schedules for all classes should be finished by the end of February or the first part of March, Bohlen said.
The coach admitted he was a bit shocked that the Plainsmen had been knocked down to Class A. Class designations are based on school enrollments in grades 9-11. Belle Plaine has 145 students. The largest schools in the class have 151 students. Belle Plaine will be the second-largest school in the district, behind Iowa Valley’s 150 students. BGM is next with 137, followed by North Mahaska, 132; Lynnville-Sully, 128; Montezuma, 103 and HLV, 99 students.
Familiarity with the top athletes in the district should be a plus in game preparation. Bohlen added that the Plainsman JV team has played these schools for the past several years. BGM and North Mahaska should have a good number of seniors on their teams next season, he said.
It could be a fun season, with the natural conference rivalries spilling onto the football field and the fact that three of the six other teams in the district are 20 miles or less from Belle Plaine. In fact, the farthest team is Lynnville-Sully, at just 53 miles.
The coach said he hopes that the Plainsmen could keep some of the teams on the schedule for non-district games that they have seen in the past, such as Highland-Riverside or Eddyville-Blakesburg. Some other possibilities include East Marshall, Don Bosco, AGWSR or Tipton.

Belle Plaine avenged an earlier loss to Lynnville-Sully Friday night, then on Monday, the girls battled to the end with undefeated North Mahaska before falling by six points. They followed that with a 38-35 loss at Keota on Tuesday.
Taylor Schafbuch scored 21 points, along with three rebounds, 10 assists and four steals to lead the Plainsmen at Lynnville-Sully. Dani Coover had 19 points, with eight rebounds and three blocks. Macy DeMeulenaere was next with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists. Joy Cronbaugh had five points, two rebounds and two assists. Taylor Janss had three points, Julie Long finished with three assists and Laura Breja had four rebounds and two steals.
Tara Van Rees led the Hawks with 11 points.
The last time these teams met, Lynnville-Sully spanked the Plainsmen for a 39-23 win. This time, the Hawks were coming off a Tuesday game, where they fell by a 40-39 score to North Mahaska.
This time, Belle Plaine took a 13-7 first quarter lead, then put 20 points on the total in the second period for a 33-19 advantage. It was 49-28 after three quarters.
Belle Plaine hit 50 percent from the field, 23 of 46 shots, including seven for 16 three-point attempts. The Plainsmen had just 11 turnovers.
On Monday, the Plainsmen scored nine points in the first quarter, six in the second and 10 in the third, hitting just 12 of 36 shots from the field for the night.
Coover led the way with 14 points, with 10 rebounds, three steals and a block. Schafbuch had nine points, three assists and three steals. DeMeulenaere was next with eight points and six rebounds. Breja added eight rebounds and a block.
The team had 18 turnovers.
Tuesday night, the teams battled to a 6-6 tie after the first quarter and the Plainsmen had a 19-18 lead at the half. But Keota outscored Belle Plaine in the third, 4-2 to take a 22-21 lead into the final period.
Three Plainsmen finished in double figure scoring. DeMeulenaere led the way with a dozen points, along with eight rebounds, two assists and three steals. Coover had 11 points, 12 rebounds, three steals adn two blocks. Schafbuch had 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and six steals. Breja had two points, seven rebounds and two steals. Janss had three rebounds.
The Plainsmen hit on 15 of 53 shots from the field and had 18 turnovers.
Friday night, they return home to face Tri-County for Parents’ Night.

By Coach Steve Mengler
The Plainsman seventh grade boys hosted HLV to finish out the 2009-2010 season Friday night. The boys came out ready to play, jumping to a 10-0 first quarter lead in route to a 41-15 victory. Offensively we were quite aggressive pushing the ball down the court for fast break opportunities. When we were slowed down we were still able to get good shots, and if we missed we hit the offensive board with reckless abandon to get second and third chances to score.
Leading the team offensively in this game was Vance Bohlen with 14 points. Adrien Griffith added eight points, Austin Vranek and Josh Long with six points, Justin Jacobi four points, and Trey Squiers with three points. As a team we shot 19 of 66 from the field to hit 29 percent of our shots. We struggled from the free throw line making only three of ten attempts.
This was probably our best game defensively. This was something that we stressed in pregame talks as well as in the huddle during timeouts. When we play good defense our offense responds accordingly and we get out and get fast break opportunities. As a team we grabbed a season high 44 rebounds, far exceeding our previous best of 36 boards, also against HLV. This was one of the few games that we played this year where we were not at a serious height disadvantage. Griffith led the team with ten rebounds, Squiers grabbed nine, Vranek gathered eight, and Long pulled in six rebounds to help the team. By controlling the boards we kept HLV from scoring which allowed us to pull away early in the game.
This was probably the best possible outcome for the last game of the year. We played our best defense of the year and moved the ball successfully on offense. Rebounding, which we have stressed throughout the season, seemed to come together as well to create a positive finish for the season.

END OF SEASON REPORT
The 7th grade boys finished the 2009-2010 season with a 6-6 record. There were probably another couple of games in which we should have possibly won if we had played up to our ability, but overall I was pleased with the effort the boys gave both during games and also during practice.
As a group we are not particularly tall, so this put the boys at a disadvantage against the larger and stronger teams, but we tried to make up for this deficiency by being quicker than the other teams, which worked quite well in some cases. The boys acquired two victories against HLV and one each against BGM, Tri-County, Montezuma, and North Tama. The boys went down to defeat against Iowa Valley twice that has an excellent seventh grade team, and once each to Union, BGM, Meskwaki, and English Valley.
One of the strengths of this team all year was the balanced scoring among the players. Every person scored at some point throughout the season. Our best shooter on the year was Austin Vranek hitting 38 percent of his shots, while Trey Squiers led the team hitting 38 percent from the free throw line. Scoring averages are as follows:

Justin Jacobi 8.25 points per game
Vance Bohlen 7.08 points per game
Trey Squiers 5.91 points per game
Josh Long 4.00 points per game
Adrien Griffith 2.50 points per game
Austin Vranek 2.16 points per game
Cody Bergom 0.36 points per game
Jacob Fabor 0.33 points per game

Rebounding was sometimes an issue throughout the year as we struggled to block out bigger and taller opponents. Rebound averages per game on the season are as follows:

Jacobi 6.67 rebounds per game
Squiers 4.33 rebounds per game
Griffith 3.91 rebounds per game
Vranek 3.58 rebounds per game
Long 2.67 rebounds per game
Bohlen 2.58 rebounds per game
Fabor 1.25 rebounds per game
Bergom 1.09 rebounds per game

It was a very enjoyable season with these boys. It was obvious that they had played AAU basketball together so they came in with some basic skills to build on as the season progressed. I would like to thank Austin Vranek, a first year eighth grade basketball player, for joining our team and putting some minutes in for both the seventh and eighth grade games. By doing this he got some valuable court time and practice that sped his progress in acquiring basketball skills while at the same time giving our other players much needed breaks during games.
I would like to thank the parents, siblings, and other fans for supporting the boys all season. We often had a loud and vocal cheering section at both home and away games. There is also that parental commitment of getting boys to and from practice at the appropriate times that we as coaches appreciate so greatly.
This group of boys has the potential to continue improving throughout the next several years. There are many things that we have talked about at practice that should be considered “homework” prior to the next basketball season, including such basics as ball handling, especially with the left hand, shooting around the basket with the left hand, shooting form and practice, general conditioning, and gaining strength. Of course growing three or four inches would be helpful as well but probably not something that the individual athlete can control.
All or most of these can be accomplished just by getting a basketball out during the warmer spring, summer, and fall months and using spare time to improve these skills. Of course general conditioning and strength can also be helped by being out for all other sports, including track, baseball, and football. Thanks again for a very good season.

By Jeff Brown
www.boredfactoryworker.com
“When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.” – Author Unknown
“When it snows, you have two choices: go to the bathroom or blow your nose.” – Jeff Brown
There’s no Business like Snow Business
As I write this column, it’s snowing outside. I’m preparing for another day working with my dad as a Snow Removal Technician. (Official Motto: “Have shovels; will scoop until we’re pooped.”) It’s not a bad way to earn some extra cash, but I hope it goes a little easier today than it did yesterday.
3:30 AM Accidently knocked alarm clock off the shelf.
3:31 Intentionally knocked the shelf off the wall when I couldn’t get the alarm to stop. Stupid clock.
3:33 Put my slippers on and hobbled over to the window. Yep, it snowed.
3:34 Brewed some coffee.
3:38 Got dressed and brushed my teeth.
3:44 Drank some coffee.
4:00 The weather channel said it might snow again this afternoon. Drank some more coffee.
4:05 Put on my insulated cover-alls and boots.
4:07 Downed another cup of joe.
4:12 Went outside and promptly fell on the ice. Stupid ice.
4:15 Brushed snow off my wife’s car.
4:25 Headed for the house and fell on the same spot. Went inside, took off boots, made a beeline for the bathroom.
4:29 Put boots back on, went back outside, almost fell down again. Grabbed bag of salt and threw a few handfulls on the slippery spot.
4:35 Commenced shoveling the driveway.
4:55 Dad drove by in his truck to pick me up. I threw my shovel in the back and asked him to wait a minute.
4:56 Headed back to house, took off boots, made another beeline for the bathroom.
4:59 Exited bathroom, put boots back on, took boots back off. Headed for bathroom again and blew nose. Yanked bunch of Kleenex out of the box and stuffed them into my cover-all’s pocket.
5:03 Dad honked his horn. I raced back to the door, put my boots back on, and ran out of the house. Slipped on another icy spot. Grabbed salt bag and threw the whole thing (plastic and all) on the ice.
5:04 Got into truck and Dad drove us across town to his house.
5:15 We hooked the trailer up to his truck, drove his tractor (with snowblade attachment) onto the trailer, loaded his walk-behind snowblower, and off we went.
5:23 Arrived at first job site. Unloaded snowblower and tractor. Commenced clean-up.
5:55 Finished job, loaded trailor, blew my nose, drove to the next job.
6:00 Unloaded trailor. Commenced clean-up.
6:38 Finished job, loaded trailor, blew my nose, drove to the next job.
6:45 Unloaded trailor. Commenced clean-up.
7:05 Loaded trailor, blew my nose, and drove to the gas station.
7:09 Used the bathroom and emptied used Kleenex pocket into trash-can (yuck), washed hands, bought and consumed donut and bottle of Gatoraide. Drove to the next job site.
7:20 Unloaded trailor. Commenced clean-up.
7:40 Finished job, loaded trailor, blew my nose, drove to next job.
7:44 Unloaded trailor. Commenced clean-up.
8:11 Finished job, loaded trailor, blew my nose.
At this point we were finished with the commercial properties that had to be cleaned before 9:00 AM. Dad dropped me off at my house for a coffee (and bathroom) break before we headed out to the residentials.
9:00AM to 3:30 PM Dad picked me up and we drove to the first job site. We unloaded the trailer, shoveled, loaded the trailer, drove to the next job, unloaded the trailer, shoveled, loaded the trailer and I blew my nose. Then, for a change of pace, we shoveled a couple properties by hand without unloading the trailor and then we stopped at the gas station to go to the bathroom (and I unloaded my icky pocket again). We drove to the next job, unloaded the trailor, cleaned, loaded the trailor, drove, unloaded the trailor, cleaned, loaded the trailor and I blew my nose as we drove to the next job.
To finish off the day, we loaded and unloaded the trailor four more times. When we were finally done, Dad dropped me off at my house. I staggered in, removed my boots, and plopped on the chair. It felt so good to relax. I fell right to sleep and the next thing I knew was my wife getting home from work. I yawned and asked her how her day went.
“Fine,” she said, as she took off her coat. “Do you know it’s snowing outside?”

Police officers and public works employees and the City of Belle Plaine have approved a three-year contract calling for pay increases in year two and three and graduated increases in the amount employees will play for their health insurance.
The city council approved the agreement at Monday’s meeting.
The new agreement calls for no increase in pay the first year, a two percent increase the second year and a 2.5 percent increase the third year. The first year of the agreement, employees will continue to receive 100 percent city-paid single and dependent coverage for insurance. In year two, employees will pay five percent of the cost and in year three, 10 percent of the cost.
“This is a big step for the city,” city administrator Bill Daily said. Rising costs and budget cuts have caused many government entities to look for ways to economize. He said the negotiations lasted about four or five hours and he commended the employees for their recognition of the tough times cities are facing.
“This proves that we’re a team,” he said.
Traditionally, non-union employees have followed the union contract in any raises or adjustments to insurance negotiated. Daily said this time will be no exception.
The council approved rate increases for water, sewer and garbage collection. The current municipal code states that rates will be tied to the consumer price index (CPI) from the previous year. But a lower than normal CPI, coupled by reduced revenue from fewer households in the city prompted city officials to seek the increase.
Water and sewer rates will increase five percent. The current rate for residents is $4.27 per 1,000 gallons of water and $4.27 per 1,000 gallons of sewer use. The new rate effective July 1, 2010 will be $4.49. Customers outside the city limits now pay $5.70 for water and $5.70 for sewer per 1,000 gallons. Their new rate will be $5.99.
Garbage rates will increase three percent. The current rate is $18.48 per household per month. The new rate will be $19.04. The landfill charge for businesses and the per apartment rate will remain the same.
Following a public hearing, the council approved a contract with Denver Underground & Grading of Waverly for $262,921,06 for a sanitary and storm sewer project. Bids were received from 10 Iowa firms for the project. The winning bid was considerably lower than engineer’s estimates of $295,648.50.
The council passed the third and final reading of an amendment of the curfew ordinance. It will allow violators to be cited. They will be able to pay a fine without a court appearance. Police Chief Kris Hudson had suggested the change to enable the city to enforce the ordinance without causing violators to miss school or work time for a trip to court in Vinton.
The council approved a contract with Akay Consulting of Boone to assist the city in its quest for National Register of Historic Places designation for the downtown area. Daily told the council that the designation could open doors for possible future funding for downtown improvement. The timetable for the application process will continue throughout the remainder of the year, with a decision from the National Register officials by the end of the year.
Daily said it appears that no single building in the two-block downtown area would qualify for the designation on its own. But perhaps the district as a whole could qualify.
In other action, the council approved the renewal of the beer, carryout wines and Sunday sales permits for Country Foods.
The public hearing on the proposed 2010-2011 city budget will be held Monday, March 1 at 6 p.m.
The next council meeting will be held Tuesday, Feb. 16, since Feb. 15 is Presidents’ Day, a city holiday. The council will hold its monthly work session at 5 p.m. with the formal meeting to follow at 6 p.m.
In his report to the council, Daily said the installers of the Walldog murals was in town over the weekend to examine the damaged mural on the grain bin at the intersection of Highway 30 and 131. The mural was damaged during a recent winter storm.
Daily said the installation was “new territory” for the Walldog installers. They indicated that the murals can be repaired. Their work was guaranteed and the murals were also insured, he said.
He also announced that the city has been invited to make a presentation for a Community Attraction and Tourism grant to the board on Feb. 10. Although there will be no decision on the grant request that day, a good showing by community leaders and others from the city at the meeting would send a strong signal to the board of local commitment for the downtown revitalization project.
Daily reported that an offer has been made for someone to become the next director of the Belle Plaine Community Development Corporation. It is hoped the new person will be on board by March 1, he said.