Exciting things happening at West Fork

Last week was the culmination of the wrestling season and also girls basketball. The wrestling season ending at the State Wrestling Tournament with Kale Petersen bringing home the first State Championship for West Fork. Congratulations to Kale, his family, and his coaches. I think it is important to again mention another first for the wrestling program and that was that we had girls participate this year for the first time for our program. Girls wrestling is growing quickly within the state and to have some pioneers for West Fork may inspire other young girls to consider wrestling as they get older. We all want to congratulate Senior Levi Janssen as he wraps up his wrestling career and thank him for all he has done to help build the program.The Girl’s Basketball Season wrapped up last week as well as they were defeated in tournament action after advancing to the second round. The girls basketball team had a great season and were fun to watch in the fast-paced full-court style that earned them an overall record of 14-8. Again, the future is bright as we have most of our players back and only graduate two seniors in Makenzie Fessler and Sadie Latham. Congrats to the players and the coaches on a successful year.

Boys Basketball has had an exciting couple of weeks as the boy’s team has advanced to the Sub State Basketball Game on Saturday, February 27th @ 7:00 in Forest City. This team continues to be a lot of fun to watch as they play their in-your-face defense and are such an unselfish senior-led team that could have any one of seven players lead them in scoring on any given night. We want to wish them well as they take on a tough Top of Iowa Conference team Lake Mills. Congrats to both Kaden Ames for joining the 1000 point club, and Head Coach Frank Schnoes for joining the 600 Career Wins Club. Both are great accomplishments and both are well-deserved honors.

We also want to thank all of our Cheerleaders that have supported their teams in this difficult season with reduced crowds, making their roles even more important. Senior cheerleaders this winter sports season were Liz Speakar, Kylie Fink, Tia Lau, Hailey McCoy-Munger, and basketball cheerleaders Jordan Swenson and Grace Willms.

Our goal is to have as many students involved in as many different activities as possible. Extracurricular activities, as well as band and choir, are a great way for students to be part of a team. We know Mr. Grunklee and Ms. Wilson would love to have more students involved in their programs.

Other activities that have had great success this year again are the West Fork Dance Team and West Fork Archery. Archery has seen their numbers almost double since starting the program a year ago. We would appreciate it if parents would continue to encourage their students to be involved in these activities. Research indicates that students do better when involved in different activities and their attendance is also better. There are many skills that are developed when students participate in these activities. Work ethic, commitment, time management, and teamwork are just a few of the skills that students acquire when involved. We hope to add more clubs/activities that students can consider being a part of in the future.