Paul Yeager: Welcome to the
Sports desk at the IPTV Studio, and to another
episode of Teen Spotlight #IPTVSports.
I'm Paul Yeager.
What makes a championship contender in girls
basketball?
For a sisterhood of longtime teammates in
rural Iowa, it's a combination of practice,
friendship, and consistency all rolled
into one ultimate pursuit - a championship trophy.
In search of this redemption journey, IPTV
Sports headed north.
If you find yourself in Northeast Iowa near
Jackson Junction, you will notice you're not near
much else.
It is not even a town.
It is very small and pretty much, it's pretty
much our school.
But if it's winter, that school, Class 1A's Turkey
Valley, may be just what you are looking for,
because there is a hit show in town that has been
playing for a long time.
Overall, we're known for our sports programs
because we do have a lot of athletic kids, but
recently we have been known for the Turkey
Valley girls basketball team.
I have played with Shelby, Sadie, Kayla -- since 3rd
grade.
We all know each other's strengths and weaknesses.
And we know who to get the ball to.
I feel like that helps a lot, that we have been
playing together for so long.
We kind of read each other's minds.
It works perfectly.
We all flow together.
Don't force it if it is not there.
Take care of the ball.
I think Carla was just like, hey let's get a
basketball program started.
So we all came into the multipurpose room down
there and kind of just all played together and
figured out if we liked the sport or not.
We had both boys and girls in here, 3rd and 4th
grade.
We mostly worked on fundamentals.
My mom has been my coach since 3rd grade and she
has been with us all the way through now, my senior
year.
With changeover at the varsity level, local eyes
fell on Carla as the class of 2017 came of age.
I had several parents asking me throughout the
years, when are you going to do it?
I was more concerned with the turnover of the
coaching, and the fact that there needed to be
consistency.
Green.
That will work them off.
So I had asked Dan, would you consider co-coaching
with me?
I was the assistant for 10 years on the boy's side.
We knew these girls were pretty good in junior
high.
And we had to play three freshmen their freshman
year and we started 13-10.
The next year we went 23-2 and it just kind of
rolled.
Okay, we're just getting victories upon victories
and it felt good.
Never expected to be 26-1.
The girls just kind of rolled with it.
I haven't lost a home game since sophomore year, no
freshman year.
Really?
Yeah.
Our last home loss was my freshman year, so three
years ago.
And last year, we went undefeated all throughout
until the last game of the season.
Turkey Valley trying to earn their first ever
state title.
That was the first time we went to state in girls
basketball so it was pretty exciting.
Playing was unbelievable, it is like a dream come
true.
You know, the outcome, wish it was different.
But that's what this year is for.
Down by as many as 13 here in the second half.
I know my heart is pumping right now.
We got down early and then we got back in the game,
we had the lead late and it just didn't fall our
way.
The half court going to be well short -- Of course
they're sad, but for me, it was, you know, girls,
you came this far.
You were one point short.
But that doesn't take away anything.
After we thought about it for a while, we're just
like we accomplished something so big.
So we were actually pretty proud of ourselves.
We had a bunch of girls they just bought in and
sometimes you get into high schools and girls
aren't basketball girls.
We seemed to have a group of basketball girls that
love to play the sport.
Good job.
Keep doing what you're doing.
All you're doing for us is awesome.
Play defense.
Get after it.
Love it.
We work in the offseason, we work on Sundays, we put
in the time.
So we just want the reward from it.
We've talked about the goals and what it takes to
get there.
Definitely I can see that the girls want to have the
rematch again, if that opportunity arises.
Traditionally rivals are in the same conference or
maybe the same county.
But for Springville and Turkey Valley, the schools
are almost 100 miles apart.
They first met at Rivalry Saturday in Cedar Rapids
in 2016, then in the prime time lights in the Class
1A championship last March.
But in January of this year they played again at
the Rivalry Saturday, something that gets both
teams ready to possibly meet again in the finals.
It is fun.
I think we probably keep tabs on each other a
little bit during the year, kind of watching
each other's scores.
The coaches get along really well.
The players compete really hard.
We know when we face them, wherever it is, it's going
to be a great challenge and win or lose we're
going to get better from it.
Their effort is just amazing.
We enjoy it, we enjoy the challenge and we'll see if
we get to run into them again later in the season.
The Trojans fell again to Springville on January
2nd, dropping two out of three to their newest
rivals.
But as always, the girls from Jackson Junction
prefer the long view.
Last year we did win it, it would have been nice to
win this year, but all that matters is when you
get on the big stage to state.
Because rivalry or no, they've had the same goal
since 3rd grade, and last year, but for one little
point, it was theirs.
Once you kind of get to state, I know a lot of
teams are always kind of like okay, we're there
already, we've kind of done our job, but I know
that we wanted to get to the state championship and
ultimately win it.
We know if we could do it last year we can
definitely do it this year.
Yeager: Turkey Valley fell short of the 2017 state
title, losing to Springville 45-36.
A reminder that IPTV Sports brings you live
championship action in softball, volleyball,
basketball and more.
Tune in to cheer on your favorite Iowa girl.
I'm Paul Yeager.
Thanks for joining me.