Iowa High School Wresting Warriors Descend on Wells Fargo for a Page in the History Books!

By Mike Rickord

The front cover of this 14th anniversary edition of the Iowa Sports Connection features Iowa high school wrestlers for the first time in our history. John Meeks from Des Moines Roosevelt, Cory Clark from South East Polk, and Topher Carton of Davenport Assumption represent the army of young wrestlers that travel to the heart of the state capital to do battle on the 8 mats of Wells Fargo Arena in pursuit of their own page in the rich tradition of Iowa high school state wrestling and etch their name into the incredible annals of America’s number one attended and supported high school tournament. Saturday nights championships have been sold out for decades and are the feeder system to incredible success at the collegiate level in our great wrestling state. Iowa. Iowa State, UNI, Wartburg, Grandview and any collegiate program in this state have been blessed with the incredible depth that Iowa high school wrestling has developed in every class and community.

This is the start of the final weeks of the2012 Iowa high school winter sports season and the culmination of wrestling, boys and girls basketball, boys swimming, bowling, and hockey. The Iowa Sports Connection will have all of the coverage on our numerous platforms and look forward to tracking the collegiate men’s and women’s basketball as they pursue post season play and the wrestling squads seasons wind down this month.

As I type this column on Feb 1st I celebrate the 14th anniversary of the launching of our first publication “The Local Sports Connection” a 16 page 2 color tab paper that by today’s standards would not be used to line the bottom of a bird cage. However, on that Saturday morning February 8th in the bowels of Veterans Auditorium I proudly shoved the first issue into anyone’s hands that came to meet Kurt Warner, Dan Gable, Chuck Long, and the 69 Drake Basketball Final Four squad. It was a proud day for my family on my son Ben’s 8th birthday now 22 with nightmares of being forced into child labor alongside my wife and son Michael stopping the autograph seekers long enough to shove the first sports only free publication (Rag) into their hands . No one turned down my bride and boys in fact I was such an opportunist I even sold out my four year old daughter Mikayla as the athletes were all mesmerized by her smile and innocence, little did they know it was a lure to grab more photo ops for the second issue of the “Local Sports Concoction” as many in the publishing world labeled our baby and now the states premier sports magazine with multiple platforms!

I have been blessed by God with a family that stuck by me and incredible partners and staff through the years. John Streets and Tony Atzenti have been my pillars as we have continued to push the limits of small business sanity in our quest to be Iowa’s leader in covering Iowa high school sports and the youth programs that feed each community “From the Missouri to the Mississippi”. The Iowa Sports Connection has evolved into a statewide magazine and the states foremost publication thanks to Casey’s General Stores and this growth has spurred the launch of the state’s only high school based radio and television network along with incredible websites and digital magazines. I cannot name all of the advertisers that have provided incredible support from the beginning that have helped us sustain our growth of covering Iowans “From the Pee Wees to the Preps to the Pros” with a positive perspective but each and every client has been superb. The Hy-Vee High School Headquarters is known in every pocket of the state as is the Grinnell Mutual Re-Insurance Scoreboard Show, and Casey’s General Stores where this magazine has been available for over a decade.

In closing, the bulk of the appreciation for our awards, success, and growth goes out to the readers, listeners, and viewers along with the athletes, coaches, officials, educators, fans and families in all 99 Iowa counties. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! God Bless you! And God Bless America!