District spawns 2 title contenders

DES MOINES -- One school district. Two high schools.

One memorable, successful girls' basketball season.

The Western Dubuque County Community School District has advanced two teams to the state semifinals. Cascade advanced in Class 2A on Monday, drubbing Manson-Northwest Webster, 43-21. Western Dubuque High, based in Epworth, pulled the surprise of the tournament (thus far) Wednesday, knocking off Sioux City Heelan in Class 4A.

"This is awesome," said Western Dubuque's Rose Simon-Ressler. "We scrimmage against them, and I'm sure they have the same goal as us."

Namely, to win two more games.

Despite their proximity (they're 14 miles apart), the Cougars and the Bobcats do not play in the regular season. Western Dubuque (enrollment 577 in grades 10-12, according to the BEDS Documents), is a member of the Wamac Conference; Cascade (enrollment 191) competes in the new River Valley Conference.

The Cougars (26-0) ran the table in the RVC. The Bobcats (22-2) split the Wamac crown with Williamsburg.

If there's any snarkiness between the two teams, nobody was sharing.

"We're rooting for them," said Western Dubuque's Zoey Weber. "We're going to support them, and we hope they do the same for us."

The identity for years has been defense for Cascade, and the Cougars were at it again Monday, holding Manson-Northwest Webster to 19-percent shooting. Western Dubuque has an excellent front line in Simon-Ressler and Megan Maahs.

Western Dubuque Coach Amy Ostwinkle worked under Mike Sconsa at Cascade before taking her present job.

"She's a great coach with a great pedigree," Sconsa said."To have two teams, so close together, succeeding like this -- it's just awesome."

MEANWHILE, IN ORANGE CITY ...

While Western Dubuque and Cascade share a school district, MOC-Floyd Valley and Unity Christian share a community.

The clubs from Orange City (population, 6,000) would meet in the Class 3A championship Saturday if they clear semifinal hurdles -- No. 1 MOC-Floyd Valley meets No. 4 Mediapolis on Thursday; No. 6 Unity faces No. 2 Crestwood.

"We've all been talking about that," said Unity's Kassidy DeJong. "It's one game at a time, but that would be crazy."

MOC-Floyd Valley has an elite athlete in Alexis Conaway, who posted 21 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and seven steals in a first-round romp over Center Point-Urbana.

"(A championship matchup with Unity) is fun to think about, but right now we're focused (on Mediapolis)," Conaway said.

THANKS, CARLISLE

North Scott students had a tough decision Tuesday: Support their boys' basketball team in a substate game at Clinton (the Lancers lost to Cedar Rapids Kennedy) or accompany the girls at state.

The vast majority opted for Clinton.

But the Lancers weren't without support. The students from Carlisle, who played the following game, hopped in the North Scott section and adopted the Lancers.

The action didn't go unnoticed.

In a note sent from Eldridge to Carlisle, North Scott AD Jason Schroeder sent the following message:

" ... Your student section showed great support in joining the North Scott students by doing their best to cheer North Scott on to victory.  Even though the outcome of the game did not go in our favor, it was much appreciated and did not go unnoticed.  The two student sections combined to cheer in an appropriate sportsmanship manor.  It was as though they were all from the same school ... "

Text of the entire message: http://ow.ly/d/1Xti