Jeff Johnson

Kaden Wetjen is a former Williamsburg prep who found a niche as a kickoff returner last season for the Iowa football team. Can he help the Hawkeyes’ wide receiver group out this season as well?

Connor Colby was forced into playing time before he was ready because of attrition on the Iowa football team’s offensive line. Then he was forced into playing tackle, a position he shouldn’t have been playing. As he enters his senior season, the former Cedar Rapids Kennedy prep has settled in at right guard and could be in for a productive season.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels have qualified for the Midwest League/High-A Central playoffs 10 straight seasons, every season the Kernels have been affiliated with the Minnesota Twins. That streak is in jeopardy, with a tell-tale two-week road trip to Ohio on the docket for C.R.

Sophomore John Nestor looks to be in line for some heavy playing time this season as a defensive back this season for the University of Iowa football team. His parents moved from the Chicago suburbs to West Branch a couple of months ago to be near their oldest son and so dad John Sr. could be a head prep football coach for the first time.

Here is your bi-weekly update on players in affiliated professional baseball (major and minor leagues) from the Gazette area and University of Iowa.

Kyle Hess and Nick Lucky grew up playing on the same youth baseball teams in Pennsylvania. They went their separate ways for college but are together again, this time in affiliated professional ball with the Cedar Rapids Kernels

To say it’s been a meteoric rise this season through the Minnesota Twins system for pitcher Zebby Matthews is a massive understatement. He was with the Cedar Rapids Kernels for the first month of this season, got moved up to Double-A, then Triple-A and made his major league debut Tuesday night at home against the Kansas City Royals, getting the win.

New head coach Eric Addy is attempting to build a strong culture in his Cedar Rapids Washington football program. Part of that attempt was conducting the first official practice of the 2024 season at Kingston Stadium ... at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker had shoulder surgery Thursday and is out of commission right now.

Center Luka Garza is the University of Iowa’s all-time leading scorer. It’s been fits and starts in his three-year professional basketball career thus far, but a two-year guaranteed NBA contract he signed last month with the Minnesota Timberwolves provides some security and a reason to continue to work to improve.

Cedar Rapids Kernels relief pitcher Nolan Santos is from Florida, pitched high school, junior college and Division I college baseball in the state. He spent most of his first two professionals seasons in Florida, too, recently being promoted to C.R. The only other time he hasn’t pitched in his home state was the summer of 2021 when he also found himself in Iowa, with the collegiate Northwoods League’s Waterloo Bucks, who are owned by the Kernels.

Here’s your 8th look at how baseball players from the Gazette area and University of Iowa are doing in the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues.

Outfielder Walker Jenkins is considered to be the top prospect in the Minnesota Twins farm system, one of the top-five overall prospects in baseball. Injured in the very first game this season, the 19-year-old outfielder is healthy and seeking to make an impact with the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Noah Miller won a Minor League Baseball Gold Glove last year at shortstop as a member of the 2023 Midwest League champion Cedar Rapids Kernels. He returned to Veterans Memorial Stadium for the first time since the championship game Tuesday night ... as a member of the opposing Great Lakes Loons.

Sophomore Chase Fjelland hit a walk-off single in Friday night’s Class 3A championship game to beat Sioux City Heelan. The Comets won all three of their state tourney games by a run, their final five postseason games by a run.