Bella Hedrick
The Hawk-Eye
The Winter Sports are coming to an end and the Red Hawk athletes had a great season. With it coming to a close, it is time to update on the facts.
A look at the Lady Red Hawk basketball season
The first team-up is the girls basketball team, the Lady Redhawks, they have gone 8-7 overall, and 4-4 in the Big East. The Lady Redhawks started the season off with a loss to Troy but by Christmas break, they had a string of victories and they went into the new year with 3-2, with victories over Maur Hill, Sabetha, and Horton and losses with Troy and Silver Lake.
To start 2025, the Lady Redhawks took a tough loss at Holton and then found ourselves on a winning streak, beating Rossville, Jeff West, Perry, Jackson Heights, and Marysville. Lady Redhawks met up with Troy in the final round of our Hiawatha Invitational Tournament and came up short once again.
“Our team was solid in the HIT this year,” head coach Stacy Jasper said. “We opened up with Jackson Heights and ended that game with a running clock on them, played a very physical Marysville team and won and then played an impressive rematch versus Troy but couldn’t quite close on that one.”
After the mid-season tournament, the Ladies had two rough competitors in form of Nemaha and Riley County being ranked in the state.
“Our weakness all season long has been our size as we are typically much smaller than our opponents,” Jasper said. “We struggled with Nemaha’s size and couldn’t quite find our rhythm offensively.”
Even with those losses, the Lady Redhawks have stayed tough, after a beating from Holton (34-61), the Red Hawks have five more season games before postseason play.
Now onto stats: sophomore Kylie Nelson has been the top scorer with an average of 15.1 points per game, and her sister junior Kenzie Nelson has had an average of 7.9 rebounds. Senior Alija Contreras has an average of 10 points a game. Juniors Adison Williams and Claire Twombly have been tough defensive players, with Adison Williams being the free throw player and averaging three points a game. Senior Dani Morton has been the go-to defense player who gets the most turnovers. Laura Lierz, Michaela Williams, Pauly Rockey and Kyndall Nelson all come off the bench and have all offered impactful minutes through the season. Between all four of them, they can defend, shoot the three and provide a lot of encouragement and support on the bench.
“There have been a lot of fresh opportunities for me throughout my final year,” HHS senior Alija Contreras said. “We have had some doubts this year, since we only have a small squad and we started a new league with bigger girls we have had some concerns for our team. However, that hasn’t stopped us from showing everyone else what we truly can do as a team. They are the most gifted girls I’ve ever played with. These last few games are my chance to prove to them that everything they have taught me has been beneficial.”
With the season ended, I know many seniors are feeling sentimental and are going to miss the season. The underclassmen now have the standard to work hard to be the new leaders as the freshmen are coming next year.
“My junior season of basketball has been a fun ride,” HHS junior Claire Twombly said. “Going into the season I know some had their doubts about our small-sized team and losing one of our top shooters, Abby Elfner, but I’m proud to say we have persevered and played our game each time we step on the court. One of my favorite games this year was our home win against Rossville. We’ve had great support from the community this season and it’s well appreciated.”
The girls fought very hard this season and made it to the second-round of the sub-state tournament. They lost to the Wellesville Eagles. It was a close game and the girls never stopped playing.
A look at the Red Hawk boys’ basketball season
The Boys basketball team has a record of 8-11, and is 5-4 in the league. The beginning of the season was a work in progress, They started slowly and were only 1-4, at Christmas break. The boys started to turn up in January, with wins versus three state-ranked opponents, including a road win against Nemaha Central, they were previously undefeated. The Redhawks also defeated future league champions, St. Mary’s at home for the Valentine’s Day game.
“The improvement our team made throughout the season has been what we are most proud of,” head coach Brady Jasper said. “We made a lot of progress from December to February.”
The Redhawks have four players averaging 10 or more points per game and it is the team effort that makes them a good team. It is not about the individual stats that make them good, it is the teamwork and dedication that markets them successful. The boys, unfortunately, lost the first round in Sub-State, they worked hard and had a great season overall.
A look at the dance team
The Hiawatha Dance Team has also been putting in the work to give the fans great half-time routines.
“The Hawkettes started their year with camp in August,” Coach Stacy Newell said. “During the two-day camp, they learned two dances to perform during basketball season.”
The dancers loved the music choice this year and enjoyed dancing at halftime. This basketball season we started with four home games and the dancers started strong. This year’s team is freshman Brynnan Boye, Ali Krauter, and Michaela Williams. The sophomores are Anna Erdley, Kylie Nelson, Pauly Rockey, and Saige Stover. The juniors are Quinn Boye, Laura Lierz, Claire Twombly and Adison Williams. The seniors are Acacia Erdley and Kinsey Winters.
A look at the powerlifting team
The powerlifting team has done great work despite the few meets they had. Even with their small numbers of boys, they are fierce competitors with junior Koen Mcmullen, sophomore Jhace Reeves, and sophomore Rafe Schuetz. They met on Feb. 1 at Royal Valley succeeded with McMullen getting third overall (730 lbs), Reeves with seventh overall (630 lbs), and Schuetz being first overall (855 lb). The next meet on the Feb. 15 ended up with McMullen in first (755 lbs) and Reeves in seventh (655 lbs). Even with a couple of weeks in between you can see they were getting stronger every meet. Now they are working towards the state meet, on March 29.
“We have several guys that are working out with the powerlifting team, but not going to the meets,” coach Chris Diller said. “I am impressed with the gains we are making week to week, even with the snow days and missing some workouts. I think the three that are going to state all have a great chance to earn some medals. Koen has a good chance of being a state champion. Rafe will have some very strong guys in his weight, but he will be right there competing for placement. Jhace has impressed with how strong he is, not being around the program year.”
A look at the Red Hawks in the wrestling coop
Hiawatha’s wrestling through D-West has been a great opportunity for many of our Hiawatha Students. We had two boys going to compete for the state on Saturday, March 1. Junior Gabe Johnson and Freshman Brenner Lowe have made humongous progress and have made a big impact on the wrestling program. The boys went and saw the Salina state competition, they worked very hard and made They made HHS very proud.
