Tournament time keeps Gazette sports team busy

Reporters, photographers and editors who supply The Gazette with high school sports coverage have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. That's because it is tournament time.

Hate may be an overstatement, actually, but these people put in a lot of long days during the winter sports tournaments. The upside: they are in the thick of an exciting time for prep sports, where stories that last forever can emerge.

Simply witness what happened at the Iowa state wrestling tournament. Storylines there drew national attention when two girls made it to the state round and Linn-Mar wrestler Joel Northrup wouldn't wrestle one of them, giving up a shot at a state title on the basis of his conscience and faith.

                            Read The Gazette editorial on Northrup's decision.

We've had

swimming and currently are covering the state

bowling tournament. Now we are primed for

girls' basketball next week and the

boys' basketball the following week - especially feeding the interest generated by teams from Eastern Iowa. You also can keep track of the tournaments at

http://iowaprepsports.com/.