Jeff Johnson

Cedar Rapids Prairie graduate Corbin Day was a part-time teacher at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School two years ago. Now he finds himself as hitting coach for the Cedar Rapids Kernels professional baseball team.

Iowa Hawkeyes first baseman Brennen Dorighi didn’t play much his first two seasons of college baseball at Wofford College in South Carolina. Fourteen games, to be exact. Now the grad transfer leads Iowa in batting average.

Cedar Rapids Kernels shortstop Noah Miller is known for his defensive ability. If the 20-year-old from Wisconsin can improve his offense, the parent Minnesota Twins might just have something.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels begin their 2023 Midwest League season Thursday night at Peoria. The opening-day roster includes nine of the top 30 prospects in the Minnesota Twins organization, according to MLB.com. The home opener is Tuesday night against Beloit.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders had their home game Friday night against Madison postponed by weather. That’d be summer-like weather: severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

There is experience at virtually every position for Iowa’s football team. Linebacker is the notable exception, with spring ball important in finding the Hawkeyes’ best players there.

Cedar Rapids Xavier grad Mitch Keller has had a lot of downs in his major league baseball career, but the starting pitcher began to put things together last season. He’s the starting pitcher Thursday for the Pittsburgh Pirates in their season opener at Cincinnati.

The Iowa Heartlanders have hit the college free-agent market hard in the last couple of weeks, signing six players who recently ended their college careers in the United States.

A fabulous 15. Here is The Gazette’s area boys’ basketball team for 2023. Colby Dolphin of Cedar Rapids Kennedy is our player of the year. Kennedy’s Jon McKowen the coach of the year.

Jeremy Rickertsen has resigned as head boys’ basketball coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders are in possession of a United States Hockey League playoff berth with 11 games remaining in the regular season. The club hopes to climb the standings down the stretch in hopes of hosting a first-round playoff series.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association announced districts and groups for each class of prep football for the 2023-24 seasons.

Five guards from the Metro are first-team picks on the 2023 Iowa Print Sports Writers Association all-state boys’ basketball teams. The teams were released Tuesday.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association released preliminary classifications for prep football Monday. It is the first year the IHSAA is classifying schools by a combination of enrollment and percentage of free and reduced lunch students. Cedar Rapids Washington will bump from Class 4A to 5A in the new two-year cycle. Williamsburg will go from 2A to 3A.

In this week’s Corridor Cross Checks, we write about a good week for both the Iowa Heartlanders and Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. And about the University of Iowa men’s club hockey team, which has qualified for the ACHA Division II national tournament.