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Bliss Beck of Clear Creek Amana is The Gazette’s 2024 Female Athlete of the Year
The school’s first recipient of the award, the Drake volleyball recruit was a 4-sport athlete and helped lead the Clippers to the 4A girls’ state basketball championship
Jul. 14, 2024 7:00 am
OXFORD — It starts with her address. Even that is unique.
Bliss Beck texts her home address, and the street shows up on your phone as “Iwv Road.”
Surely, this is a mistake. Ivy Road, perhaps? Iowa Road?
What?
No, sure enough, it’s IWV Road — short for “Iowa City/Williamsburg/Victor” — a western extension of Melrose Avenue out of Iowa City.
At the Beck residence (it’s an Oxford address, but actually closer to unincorporated Cosgrove) there’s a black steel gate.
The gate’s function is less for what it keeps out than for what it keeps in — namely, the young family dog.
It is a reminder of one of the saddest days that Beck has encountered: Dec. 3, 2021. That was also a day in which Beck’s commitment to her Clear Creek Amana teammates was cemented.
That morning, Bliss’ beloved 4-year-old pitbull mix, Izzy, was hit and killed by a passing vehicle on IWV Road, in front of their home. There wasn’t a gate there at the time.
Let’s let Beck’s mother, Shawn Flanagan, finish the story:
“We told Bliss at noon,” Shawn said. “She was devastated. She wanted to go home.”
But the Clippers had a basketball game that night against Solon, and school rules mandated that if Bliss, then a sophomore, left school for the day, she couldn’t play that night.
“Bliss said, ‘I can’t do that to the team,’” Shawn recalled. “So we went to a private room at school, we sat and cried until it was time for her to get on the bus.”
The Clippers lost the game, and Beck lost a pet. But as a teammate, and eventually as a leader, she won the day.
Beck, and her team, have won a lot since.
The volleyball and basketball teams at Clear Creek Amana combined for a 72-1 ledger in 2023-24, including a Class 4A state championship in basketball.
Today, Beck is a winner again. She is honored as the 2024 Gazette Female Athlete of the Year, her school’s first honoree — female or male — in the 42-year history of the award.
‘One of the smartest kids I’ve ever coached’
Beck isn’t afraid to admit it. She wanted this.
“She’s quietly competitive,” her mother said. “She doesn’t say much. But she mentioned it this spring ... ‘I hope to get that.’”
“Yeah,” Bliss admitted, “I wanted to be the first from our school.”
Beck has spent most of the summer in transit between IWV Road and Des Moines; in the fall, she will be playing volleyball and studying psychology at Drake University.
“It’s obvious that Bliss has a certain level of physicality, her size and her presence at the net,” Drake Coach Darrin McBroom said. “That can give her an edge and make her successful at this level.
“I haven’t coached her yet, but everything I hear about her work ethic and her character, we’re getting a great human being as well.”
The folks back home can confirm that.
“Very humble and caring,” CCA teammate Ava Locklear said of Beck. “I wasn’t the (star) she is in volleyball, but she never made me feel like she was better than me.”
That’s the “feeling” part of a highly analytical mind. Remember, Beck — owner of a 4.0 grade point average — is a psych major-to-be.
“I always ask our players how they want feedback,” said Jackie Clubb, volleyball coach at CCA. “Bliss told me, ‘I’m very analytical.’
“Maybe that’s why she’s quiet ... because she’s analyzing and processing.”
According to girls’ basketball coach P.J. Sweeney, Beck is “one of the smartest kids I’ve ever coached, one of the most quick-witted, clever.
“Once you get to know her, she opens up a little bit, and that quick wit comes out.”
Analytic. That’s one way to describe Beck. Here’s another.
“She told me once that she’s squirrelly,” Clubb said.
Locklear said, “Bliss is so goofy. You’ve got to spend time with her to understand. One day she brought a whole head of cauliflower to practice as a snack.
“Oh, and she loves her plants.”
Yes, she does.
As a recent interview at IWV Road was winding down, Beck and her parents (Drew Beck and Shawn Flanagan) invited a reporter to Bliss’ room, where a variety of succulents were in a stand, near a window, green and happy.
It was obvious that they receive lots of sunlight, lots of water, lots of love.
The home is in the style of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. High ceilings are a must: Drew stands 6-foot-8, Shawn 6-foot-1.
“When I moved to town, Shawn was waiting tables at Wig and Pen in Iowa City,” said Drew, who played basketball at Eastern Illinois University.
“I was enamored. I overtipped her. I drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of pizza to get to know her. That was 24 years ago.”
Their only child, Bliss is 6-foot-2. Her frame is well suited for volleyball and basketball.
Growing up on the family’s acreage in the rolling hills of southwest Johnston County, Bliss spent many a summer night with Drew and Shawn, playing Wiffleball in the yard. So her first love was softball.
Her long limbs helped make Beck a formidable pitcher, and she fashioned a 22-6 high school record through her sophomore season.
During the fall of her junior volleyball season, her arm started to hurt. Bad.
“Previously, it would get tight on her. Now it was a burn, down her forearm,” Shawn said. “It started to affect her volleyball, it hurt when she was hitting.”
The ulnar nerve was the culprit. There were two options. Surgery or stop pitching.
Beck chose the latter.
But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss it: “Pitching is an art,” she said, ever the analyst.
Clear Creek Amana reached the state tournament in both volleyball and basketball in Beck’s junior year, making an unexpected run to the 4A final in volleyball.
Last fall, Beck’s senior volleyball season, the Clippers were ranked No. 1 and 46-0 before bowing to North Scott in the 4A state semifinals.
“It was so disappointing, it was heartbreaking,” Beck said. “It’s hard when everybody expects you to win. But North Scott was close to unbeatable that week.”
That left basketball. Beck was a complementary piece offensively behind Locklear and sophomore Averie Lower, but her real value came at the defensive end, where her length and wingspan made her a terror at the top of CCA’s 1-3-1 zone.
“If you had to guard a point guard, or if you had to guard a post, you could rely on her,” Locklear said.
Sweeney said, “You look at the stats. Maybe you didn’t see the points, but her impact on a game was unbelievable, the blocks and altered shots.”
The Clippers completed a 26-0 season, shutting down Waverly-Shell Rock in the 4A final, 43-25.
Beck capped her high school career at the state track and field meet, in her fourth straight high-jump competition.
Then came graduation, and in early June, offseason workouts began at Drake. She spends her weekdays in Des Moines, her weekends on IWV Road.
Weekdays start with lifting at 5:45 a.m. There could be an open spot at middle hitter in the Drake rotation this fall, and, Beck said, “my goal is to be in that spot.”
Meanwhile, back home, folks are settling in to face life after Bliss.
“It’s like a grieving process,” Clubb said.
The nest at IWV Road will be empty, too. Drew and Shawn will be tasked with loving the pets, watering the succulents.
“I’ve told people, you don’t realize how much life Bliss brings to this big house,” Drew said. “Pretty soon, it’s going to be so quiet.”
Bliss Flanagan Beck: 2024 Gazette Female Athlete of the Year
School: Clear Creek Amana High School
Birthdate: Nov. 24, 2005
Family: Parents, Drew Beck and Shawn Flanagan
High school accomplishments: A two-time first-team all-stater in volleyball, finishing her career with 1,227 kills, 383 blocks and a .390 kill efficiency. Led the Clippers to a Class 4A state runner-up finish in 2022, a 46-1 record and a semifinals berth in 2023. Started for CCA’s 4A state-title basketball team (26-0), earning third-team all-state honors as a senior and scoring 658 career points. An effective softball pitcher through her sophomore season, she compiled a 22-6 record, and was a four-time state track qualifier in the high jump.
College: Will play volleyball at Drake University. Plans to major in psychology.
Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com
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