Kee’s amazing journey continues

FORT DODGE - The secret's out.

In the most remote corner of northeast Iowa resides a remarkable softball transformation.

Eighth-grade pitcher Kendra Cooper wiggled out of a seventh-inning jam, and Lansing Kee continued its unlikely run with a 3-1 triumph over No. 4 Ackley AGWSR in a Class 1A semifinal at the state tournament Thursday afternoon at the Rogers Sports Complex.

'It feels so good to be something, you know?” said a jubilant Kaylee Darling. 'We knew even back in January that we were going to be awesome.”

But this awesome?

Two years ago, the Hawks were 0-25. At 10 a.m. Friday, Kee High (34-9) will play for the 1A championship against No. 1 Akron-Westfield. The Westerners (37-0) beat Martensdale-St. Marys, 3-2, on Thursday for their 52nd consecutive win.

'Hopefully we can put up a good fight against them,” Darling said. 'Heck, maybe we can beat them.”

Why not? The Hawks already have taken down the fourth- and second-rated teams this week.

Maybe Kee's progress comes as a surprise to the masses. It doesn't to the Hawks.

'(The state tournament) was on our goal sheet at the beginning of the season,” said fourth-year coach Elizabeth Hill, who played at Vinton-Shellsburg and Mount Mercy. 'Our motto is, ‘The dream doesn't work unless you do.'

'And the girls have bought into it. If I say, ‘Jump,' they say, ‘How high?'”

Kee High led from the outset, getting a run in the first inning when Valerie Meyer singled home Darling. The Hawks extended it to 3-0 in the fifth on RBI hits by Ellie Cooper and Darling.

Kendra Cooper breezed through the first six innings, but it got spooky in the seventh. AGWSR (28-7) scored a run (on Olivia Ingledue's RBI single) and had the bases loaded with one out.

Up to the plate came Ashley Sicard, who has cracked 14 home runs this season.

'I just wasn't going to give her anything pretty,” Cooper said. 'I knew I had people behind me to back me up.”

Sicard popped out, Megan Martelle grounded out, and the Hawks' amazing journey continues.

'That was heart-wrenching,” Darling said. 'But I fully believed that (Cooper) could do it.”

Summer sports success is common as Kee High. In the past, the glory came solely from its baseball program.

'Not any more,” Darling beamed. 'It's a softball school this year.”

LANSING KEE 3, ACKLEY AGWSR 1 (Class 1A State Semifinal)

Ackley AGWSR 000 000 1 - 1 5 1

Lansing Kee 100 020 x - 3 4 3

Ashley Sicard and Jami Johnson. Kendra Cooper and Ellie Heiderscheit. W - Cooper (22-4). L - Sicard (28-6).

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