Black Hawks force Game 5 in Clark Cup

The Waterloo Black Hawks defeated the Green Bay Gamblers in game 4 of the USHL Clark Cup championship series, 5-3, behind a hat trick by Jamie Hill Saturday, May 19 at Young Arena in Waterloo, Iowa.

The series will go to the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis., Wednesday, May 23, for a winner-take-all final game. The Black Hawks have won two of the last three in Green Bay, including the regular-season finale and game 1 of this series, but the Gamblers, winners of the Anderson Cup for the best regular-season record in the USHL, has not lost back-to-back games all season.

Lt. Gov. Reynolds visits GMT

Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds visited GMT Corporation in Waverly, Iowa, to visit local business and government leaders about the opportunities area businesses have seen in recent months as well as to talk about Gov. Terry Branstad's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Initiative.

Following a round-table discussion in the company's conference room, Reynolds toured the current plant, which will move to the South Industrial Park this summer.

Shell Rock pasture fire

Fire departments from four area communities battled a blaze on a pasture on Lake Road near Shell Rock Wednesday afternoon, March 28, 2012. The cause of the fire was undetermined, and crews from Shell Rock, Waverly, Clarksville and New Hartford took 90 minutes to douse the flames.
The Butler County Sheriff's Office and Shell Rock Police Department also responded to the emergency.

Southeast Elementary 3rd Graders reading

Third-grade students in Sally Kittleson's third-grade class at Southeast Elementary in Waverly practice their reading while discussing the education reform bill that recently passed the Iowa House.

UNI students stage study-in

Students United for Academics staged a study-in on the main floor of Seerley Hall on the University of Northern Iowa campus from March 5 to 9 to protest the expected academic cuts. Students stayed in the UNI administration building in shifts through the week, with undergraduate and graduate students and faculty bringing attention to President Ben Allen's proposed budget reductions at the university.

PLS hosts school info fair

The University of Northern Iowa held a school information meeting inside Nielsen Fieldhouse at Price Lab School on Monday, March 5, with eight school districts and private schools offering information to PLS students and parents in their options for the 2012-13 school year.

Representatives from the Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Janesville, Hudson, Dike-New Hartford and North Tama districts as well as Valley Lutheran in Cedar Falls and Waterloo Christian School were on hand to talk to the PLS families, but the event was lightly attended. A group wishing to keep the school open was in Des Moines lobbying legislators to reverse President Ben Allen's recommendation and the Board of Regents' approval of the June 30 closure.

UNI no confidence in Ben Allen

The faculty of the University of Northern Iowa cast a vote of no confidence in the leadership of President Ben Allen and Provost Gloria Gibson during an all-faculty meeting called by their union, United Faculty.

The vote on Allen was 197-53 in favor of the no-confidence resolution with four people abstaining, while Gibson received a thumbs-down by a 172-69 margin with nine abstentions and one spoiled ballot. More than 250 faculty members of the university attended the vote.

Caucus at Waverly-Shell Rock High School

About 450 Republicans from the Waverly area gathered at Waverly-Shell Rock High School to caucus for their preference for their party's nomination for president to face President Barack Obama.

Overall, the county went with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 31 votes, while statewide, Romney outlasted former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum by a scant eight votes, the smallest margin in U.S. presidential primary history.

Cedar Falls girls 51, Dubuque Senior 32

The Cedar Falls girls' basketball team improved to 5-2 on the season after defeating Dubuque Senior on Dec. 9, 51-32. Kaz Brown scored 16 points to lead the Tigers, while Imonee Qualls added 15. Katie Sommer led the Rams with 8.

Recent activity/Growing a Lotus

It's been a while since I sat down and actually blogged about things personally, so here it goes:

During the week of Thanksgiving, I had a session with Mary, the owner of Field of Yoga, and I wanted to do that session around John Friend's Growing a Lotus course. She came up with a syllabus that combined his course with the teachings of Lilias Folan. From Folan's workings, Mary decided to add some elements that would help with my hip opening beyond what Friend teaches. She used a couple of terms that I forgot, but basically it allows the hip joints to heat up first, then be opened.

As a quick summary, this sequence involves a move called chakravakasana, which is moving from cat/cow pose (all fours with a back arch) into child's pose, or balasana. Many yoga classes has this move as a warm-up, only with this sequence, my knees are displaced, one is about a couple inches behind the other, and the movement is in an arc on the side of the knee that is in back. After about six reps, I hold about halfway back for six breaths and repeat on the other side.

After that, I do a bowing low lunge, with uttanasana (standing forward bend) after each side's set. Then I do a sequence where I start in prayer chair pose, revolved chair, revolved side angle in prayer position and revolved triangle on each side. Next I do a sequence of three-legged down dog (tri pada adho mukha svanasana) with a straight leg, then bending the leg, arching my back over the base leg, then Vasisthasana (side plank) with the top foot on the base leg like in tree pose (Vrksasana). Mary wants me to try to incorporate a "cradle-baby" variation, where I take the top foot and cradle it in front of me to open the hip more, however after three breaths in the tree variation, my bottom arm starts to shake. I guess I need to build up strength in my arms. That's the main reason I cannot do a handstand (Adho Muhka Vrksasana).

After that sequence, I do a headstand (Sirshasana) and shoulder stand (Salamba Sarvangasana), followed by a backbend, either cobra (bhujangasana), bow (dhanurasana) or locust (salabhasana), and then go to seated hip openers. Mary didn't include that in my sequence, but I feel I need Sirshasana and Salamba Sarvangasana to complete my practice, and between Vasi (as Mary likes to call it) and the seated postures was the best spot I can think of putting it. Before I do those sequences, I go into an easy cross-legged position and do some isometric exercise, where I press down on the knees with my hands as the knees press up. I do that a total of four times, twice with the left shin in front, twice with the right.

I have two seated sequences. First includes variations of pigeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana). First, I stretch forward with the front leg at a wide angle and foot flexed, and then I twist my upper body toward the bent knee, and I try to grasp by back foot with the opposite hand. Once in a while, I feel a cramp in the hamstrings when I bend up that back leg. After that, I swing the back leg around to the front and do what Mary calls a "bird wing" stretch, where I put the bent leg's ankle atop my straight thigh above the knee, keeping the foot flexed and knee pointing outward. I then bend over and grasp the extended foot and bend as forward as I can. The focus is to help the bent knee move out and down to open the hip. I can get that knee just below the top of the straight leg on each side. I repeat this sequence on the other side, and then I do what is called "double pigeon" or "fire log" (Angistambhasana), where the shins are parallel to each other where the feet are as close to the knees as possible, one atop the other. Then it's a forward bend. I try to do that twice with each leg atop the other, so a total of four times.

After that sequence, I do a sequence that includes "cradle baby" and "through the needle" stretches. I start by bending one knee vertically and the other across the thigh in a pigeon-like formation and leaning on my hands behind me. After six breaths, I grasp my foot with the opposite arm, in the crook of the elbow, straighten the other leg, and hug the leg into my chest, as if I'm holding a baby. Then I lean back as far as I can, working my back to the floor and my bent leg toward the chest as much as I can, keeping the other leg straight. I can almost get straight with my right leg held, but I'm a bit less with my left. Next, I move the held foot to its opposite hip joint for a lying tree pose in half-lotus, trying to work my knee as far to the floor as possible without hurting it. The bottom of each leg can just about break the plane of the top of the opposite one. After that, I do the "through the needle" stretch, where I put the bent leg back atop the opposite thigh and then grab the back of that thigh through the bent leg and pull toward my chest as much as possible. With my legs in the same position, I do a twisting variation, where I swing my legs so the foot of the bent leg is resting on the floor on its opposite side. After that, it's what is called Brigid's Cross, where I extend the leg that was bent over the opposite thigh and then twist so that leg is underneath me and I lie on my front with arms outstretched. After a few breaths, I get up, straddle my legs and bend forward between them. Then it's corpse (Savasana) and a short meditation.

I think I'm making some progress, as I mentioned in a few places. One thing where I see progress is in Angistambhasana. When I started the sequence with Mary, I could only comfortably put my feet to mid-shin. The last two days, I can now get them to my knees. I also feel that in pigeon, my groin is getting really close to the floor, maybe about an inch or less. My left knee, which I injured in May 2010 when I tried to force a lotus, isn't hurting as much when I do any bent-to-the-side poses. However, I feel I'm still a ways away from getting into full Padmasana.

Then Mary asked me why I feel so strongly about being able to do Padmasana. I had to think for a second. First, I told her about how I read that Padmasana was found by ancient yogis to be the best cross-legged seat for meditation. As the feet are atop the thighs, the legs are locked in position, which helps calm the mind and body for meditation. Also, I said it would allow me to be able to do some more advanced variations of some asanas. Not just headstand in lotus or shoulder stand in lotus, but also other asanas that need open hips, like full twist pose (Purna Matsyendrasana).

Mary told me I should really think about this, and even journal my feelings. The more I do this, the more I feel I should be able to do it. Other than openness of my hips, I do think another obstacle to doing Padmasana is the thickness of my thighs. It's not that they're muscular, because there is a bit of muscle there, but there's quite a bit of subcutaneous fat in there. If I can just reduce the size of my thighs, Padmasana might not be too far behind.

Today, I met with my psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Conditt, and the journaling came up. I was trying to figure out whether to do it here or have a notebook. I mentioned Jill's blog, so I figured since I can post on here and maybe some people who know about this thing might give me some relevant feedback. Dr. Conditt said I might also get some bozos who also give me crap. I figured I could delete the bad comments.

Anyway, Mary is going to start some new classes after the first of the year, including one called "Bootless Camp." My year away from regular classes is about to end, so I'll have to talk with her about this. Maybe during my next private session we'll discuss this, or we can meet sometime outside of the studio. I feel I know what I need to do, plus I did well when her teacher, Karina Ayn Mirsky, was in town last month, so I think I can get back into regular classes.

Well, as always, I'll keep plugging.

A real-life Hamburglar

I don't know if many of you have heard of this yet, but there was a real-life Hamburglar that broke into, of all places, a McDonald's. Overnight Saturday into early Sunday, Whitley Teslow, a Wartburg College student, had a little bit of a late-night food craving after having a few drinks in the downtown Cedar Falls bars, so he went to the Micky-D's on First Street. However, that location closes at midnight, so when he went to the drive thru window, no one answered.

Allegedly, Teslow broke the forward drive-thru window and climbed into the restaurant. He fired up the grill and frier and cooked himself a burger, some fries and had a drink. He's even shown pumping ketchup in one shot. After he was finished, he left through the same window he broke to get in. Odd thing is, there was another McDonald's location two miles away near the intersection of Main Street and University Avenue that is open 24 hours.

Teslow now faces third-degree burglary, fourth-degree criminal mischief and fifth-degree theft. The most serious charge, burglary, carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and $7,500 fine. I guess this will turn out to be a truly unhappy meal.

Bettendorf 35, Cedar Falls 7

The No. 6 Cedar Falls football team ended its season in the Class 4A semifinals Friday night, Nov. 11, with a 35-7 loss to Bettendorf in the UNI-Dome.

Barkley Hill ran for 65 yards before being knocked out of the game in the third quarter with a left-leg injury. Ike Boettker, who was sidelined for three weeks with a back injury, returned to the line-up and threw for a touchdown to James Harrington.
The Tigers end the season with an 11-2 record. Bettendorf will face top-ranked West Des Moines Valley next Friday in the Class 4A title game.

Janesville beats Bellevue Marquette in 5 sets

The Janesville volleyball team will return to the Class 1A state volleyball tournament after defeating Bellevue Marquette in five sets, 20-25, 25-17, 26-24, 20-25, 15-9, at West Delaware High School.

The Wildcats had 20 kills by Kendyl Sorge, followed by 10 from Shelby Shnurstein and Natalie Brace. They will face Trinity Catholic of Fort Madison in the first round of the state tournament Nov. 9 at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

Cedar Falls 21, Iowa City High 7

The sixth-ranked Cedar Falls football team reversed its fortunes Monday night against No. 9 Iowa City High in winning the second round of the Class 4A football playoffs, 21-7, in the UNI-Dome.

After giving up two touchdowns in the first minute of last year's quarterfinal game at Bates Field in Iowa City, the Tigers were able to keep the Little Hawks out of the end zone until very late. City High was 1-for-5 on fourth-down conversions, while Barkley Hill paced the Tigers' rushing attack, gaining 149 yards and scored two touchdowns. Brayden Longnecker added a six-yard score to break the ice.

The Tigers will play Friday night at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids in the quarterfinals against Cedar Rapids Washington, a 28-26 upset winner over eastern-half top seed Linn-Mar in Marion.

CVYSA Dyno-Mites, Select academies end fall session

The Cedar Valley Youth Soccer Association held the final practices for the fall session for the Dyno-MItes U6 and CV Select U7-8 academies on Oct. 16.

The Dyno-Mites held their usual activities, while the CV Select Academy held a round-robin 4-on-4 soccer tournament.

Author's Note: The wind was howling out of the northwest at about 40 miles per hour that afternoon, and into the camera's microphone. The interview with Dyno-Mites director Kathy Bering could not be heard, so a transcription of a simultaneous audio recording was used for the subtitles.

Iowa City West 21, No. 1 Cedar Falls 10

The Iowa City West football team handed top-ranked (Radio Iowa and Des Moines Register) Cedar Falls its first loss of the season Friday, Oct. 21, 21-10, to win the Valley Division of the Mississippi Valley Conference in the UNI-Dome.

Cedar Falls dropped from a No. 2 seed in the eastern half of Class 4A to a No. 4 seed to face Muscatine in the first round of the playoffs Wednesday in the UNI-Dome at approximately 8:45 p.m.

I, however, will be covering the Waverly-Shell Rock-Webster City Class 3A first-round game Wednesday night.

ABC show, local fair board hold fund-raiser

The design crew of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" -- Ty Pennington, Paul DiMeo, Tracy Hutson, Sabrina Soto and Jeff Dye -- along with Larson Construction of Independence, the National Cattle Congress and rocker Bret Michaels helped raise a large amount of money for the Audrey Gibbs family of West Union Thursday night, Oct. 6, 2011, with a community event on the NCC grounds.
There was an auction and raffle that raised the bulk of the money, while the audience was entertained by an exhibition truck pull, lawnmower races and demolition derby. Pennington told the crowd how Gibbs would be surprised by the support they have given the family, and Michaels also told of his personal connection to the Gibbses.

No. 1 Cedar Falls 55, Dubuque Wahlert 21

The top-ranked Cedar Falls football team won its homecoming game Friday, Sept. 30, over Dubuque Wahlert, 55-21, in the UNI-Dome.

Barkley Hill had four rushing touchdowns, while James Harrington had two scores, one on a 71-yard punt return and the other on a 16-yard pass from Ike Boettger. Shawn Hagarty (29-yard interception return) and Ben Challgren (23-yard catch) also scored touchdowns.

Cedar Falls High School homecoming coronation

Cedar Falls High School crowned Elizabeth Kosmicki and Brady Cervetti as the homecoming queen and king for 2011 on Sept. 29 in the Clair C. Stanard Auditorium. Kosmicki's reaction was one of stunned disbelief, while Cervetti was cool about his win.

Do It for Don 5K raises $6,200

More than 100 runners, walkers and other supporters helped raise more than $6,200 in the Do It for Don 5K run to benefit C.F. High girls' cross country coach Don Williams at Birdsall Park Sunday.

The runners braved the rain to run the boys' cross country course, with proceeds from free-will donations helping to pay Williams' medical bills after his Aug. 31 bicycling accident.