Jeff Johnson

Duane Orr was announced Friday as the new head varsity football coach at Linn-Mar High School, pending school board approval. He has three decades of experience at schools like Columbus Junction, Council Bluffs Lewis Central, Mount Vernon and Cornell College.

This is the first of a two-year sharing agreement between HLV High School and Tri-County High Schols for their athletics programs. There are 24 kids out for boys’ basketball, with the varsity team owning a 7-6 record, more than the schools had combined on their own last season. In this case, sharing has meant winning.

Call It Both Ways: High school basketball podcast with Gazette sportswriters Jeff Linder and Jeff Johnson talking area high school basketball.

The Marion boys’ basketball team trailed Mount Vernon by 16 points late in the first half Tuesday night. Then the Wolves completely turned everything around, eventually going on to a 65-46 win.

The parent Minnesota Twins announced Tuesday that Brian Meyer will be the manager of the 2025 Cedar Rapids Kernels. Meyer has been manager at low-Class A Fort Myers, getting into professional baseball after a long stint as a college coach.

Guerin Slezak is only 18 years old but is the captain of this Cedar Rapids RoughRiders hockey team. In his second season in the United States Hockey League, he is the quintessential defensive defenseman.

Despite being defending state champion, advancing to a state championship game seven years in a row and having one of the top players in the state in his class (Mason Bechen), North Linn was left out of the first couple of the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Class 1A poll after a 20-point loss to Dunkerton a couple of weeks ago. The Lynx are back in this week for the first time this season at No. 10. All of the No. 1s remain the same in Cedar Falls, Huxley Ballard, Western Christian and Bellevue Marquette.

Rookie William Rousseau of the Iowa Heartlanders has been one of the ECHL’s top goaltenders, someone whom the NHL’s Minnesota Wild think highly enough of to have him recently sign a two-way American Hockey League contract with the Iowa Wild for the remainder and a one-way deal next season in order to keep him in their system. Rousseau’s grandfather, Bobby, played 940 NHL games and won four Stanley Cups ... as a forward.

The Iowa City West boys’ basketball team has lost three games, two by one point. But the Trojans are coming along, with evidence being Friday night’s 66-55 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Linn-Mar’s boys’ basketball team avenged a 27-point loss from earlier this season in beating No. 1 Cedar Falls, 69-61, in a fine Thursday night game at Linn-Mar. The Lions are ranked No. 6 in Class 4A.

Cael Reichter is a 6-foot-8 senior forward for the North Fayette Valley basketball team. He has a dozen or so school records to his credit, including the marks for career scoring, rebounding and steals. And he has an ongoing streak of 32 consecutive games with a scoring-rebounding double-double.

Call It Both Ways: High school basketball podcast with Gazette sportswriters Jeff Linder and Jeff Johnson talking area high school basketball.

Paul Rundquist learned a lot of basketball and life lessons from his father, Gordon, who died in the fall. This season has been more difficult than usual for Paul, but he has Iowa City Regina with a 10-1 record after a win at Mid-Prairie

Here are boys’ basketball standings from schools and conferences from The Gazette area.

Mike Hilmer has been named one of 24 recipients of a National Coach of the Year award by the National Federation of State High Schools Coaches Association for the 2023-24 school year. Hilmer led North Linn to the Class 1A boys’ basketball state championship before leaving to take a superintendent job at Bellevue.