HARLAN (Aug. 25) - Three state-ranked teams will be in the field this Saturday when Harlan Community opens the season by hosting the annual Cyclone Volleyball Tournament. Play will begin at 8:30 a.m. with three pools of three teams each. Pool A will feature HCHS, 8th-ranked (2A) Tri-Center and Underwood on the south court of the high school.

 AVOCA -- AHSTW will host seven other teams Saturday for the season-opening Lady Vike Invitational at 8:30 a.m. The tournament will begin with pool play. In Pool A in the high school gym, AHSTW will compete against CAM, Denison-Schleswig and Essex. Pool B, in the elementary gym, will feature Atlantic, Thomas Jefferson, Earlham and Riverside.

 GLENWOOD -- The Harlan Community cross country team will open the season Saturday by competing in the Glenwood Ram Invite at 9:30 a.m.

 HARLAN -- The tradition continued for the Harlan Community baseball team this summer as yet another season ended on the final Saturday of July. Playing in their fourth consecutive Class 3A state championship game - and the sixth in 11 years - the Cyclones capped a 33-4 season by facing state power Davenport Assumption in the title game. The top-seeded Knights got the best of HCHS for the second straight year, defending their crown with an 11-

 HARLAN -- Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees, but the Harlan Community softball team made definite strides overall during 2018. While the Cyclones are still in search of their first postseason victory during Brooke Schaben’s three-year head coaching tenure, the roster is still young as a whole and the numbers are trending in the right direction. With five of its top eight hitters still freshmen or eighth-graders, HCHS imp

 AMES -- Highlighted by Big 12 Conference Player of the Week honors in late April, Iowa State University sophomore Logan Schaben batted .203 and hit six home runs this past spring in helping the Cyclone softball team finish 23-33 overall and 4-14 in the Big 12 for sixth place. An infielder and designated hitter for ISU, Schaben is the daughter of Gary and Jackie Schaben, rural Portsmouth, and a 2016 graduate of Harlan Community High School.

 MACOMB, ILL. -- Dillon Sears started 41 games and batted .217 in his first season of NCAA Division I baseball this past spring, helping the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks finish 17-31 overall and notch their most conference wins since 2006 with a 14-12 record in the Summit League. The freshman infielder is the son of Chad and Janelle Sears, Westphalia, and a 2017 Harlan Community High School graduate.

 EL DORADO, KS -- Iowa Western Community College sophomore Marcus Klein earned All-American status for the second straight year by placing second in the decathlon at the 2018 NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships held May 17-19. Klein, a 2016 graduate of Harlan Community High School, is the son of Rose Stitz, Harlan, and Tracy Klein.

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community football team will hold its annual preseason “soap” scrimmage, hosted by the Harlan Lions Club, on Thursday, August 16, at Merrill Field. The freshmen team will scrimmage at 6:00 p.m., followed by the varsity scrimmage at approximately 7:30. The area’s other three prep football teams will also hold public scrimmages later this week.

 PORTSMOUTH (Aug. 8) -- The National League squad blew open a close game with 10 runs in the final two innings to defeat the American League 13-3 in Wednesday night’s Iowa Western Baseball League All-Star Game at Portsmouth. The NL team consisted of players from Portsmouth, Panama and Persia while the AL selected players from Council Bluffs, Walnut and Massena.

 SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Chad Swanson, a longtime Harlan Community teacher and coach, was honored at the National High School Athletic Coaches Association’s national convention June 26 as a finalist for the National (Girls) Assistant Coach of the Year. Swanson was one of just eight finalists chosen from throughout the country for this award.

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community volleyball team began practicing for the 2018 season Monday morning (Aug. 6) as it looks to build on last year’s 23-13 match record. Second-year head coach Willie Baughman expects to start the season with a roster of approximately 35 players in grades 9-12.

 HARLAN -- The annual Harlan Community Cyclone Cross Country Camp for grades 7-12 is being held this week (August 6-10) with 44 total runners in attendance. The five-day camp will conclude with a timed four-kilometer race Friday morning at Prairie Rose State Park.

 LOGAN -- The Harlan Community Summer Swim Team capped an undefeated season here July 7 by winning its 12th consecutive Western Iowa Swim League conference meet title. Harlan placed first in 39 of 78 events on the day, set three school records and scored 740 points to win handily over second-place Missouri Valley (482).

 DES MOINES -- Seniors Sophia Peppers of Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton (Class 1A) and Peyton Gross of IKM-Manning (2A) are both first-team selections and five other area players have also been recognized on the Iowa Girls’ Coaches Association’s 2018 All-State Softball teams. Peppers is a repeat first-team selection after twice being named to the second team earlier in her career.