Athletes make Iowa proud

In response to Roger Steffen's Jan. 13 letter titled “Gazette sports coverage needs better priorities”:

First of all, Marcus Paige is a student-athlete at Linn-Mar, not Cedar Rapids Washington. Second, The Gazette is a local paper that should and does feature local athletes, no matter the sport. Keep up the good work, Gazette.

Instead of whining about athletes going out of state, we should be proud that we have this kind of talent and support them and their choice on where to play college ball and possibly open doors in their future. Why would these high school athletes want to play for a local subpar college team, just because it is the Hawks? These kids are winners and want to play for a winner.

So I say congratulations to Paige, Kiah Stokes and any other high school athlete who gets a chance to play for a successful program - make us and the state of Iowa proud.

As for wanting more coverage for the Hawks, give me a break. Did you notice that virtually the whole sports front page was dedicated to the Hawks during the football season? I am sure Northern Iowa and Iowa State would love to have half that coverage.

Eric Freese

Marion