Sports, Thursday, August 6th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com

Coble Named to IAHSBCA All-Star Series Roster:

Despite the cancellation of the IAHSBCA All-Star Series, teams were still selected and Mount Pleasant’s Nik Coble was honored to the Large School East Division roster.

Coble, who will attend Southeastern Community College, finished this year with a 4-1 record on the mound with a 1.30 ERA in 37.2 innings.

He struck out a team-high 46 hitters while walking just 20.

Coble also was sublime at the plate, leading Mount Pleasant in home runs with five and runs batted in with 30.

He was selected to the All-Star roster as pitcher, one of just four honorees, joining Western Dubuque’s Casey Perrenoud, North Scott’s Grayson Drezek, and Alex McAleer of Central DeWitt.

On the Small School East All-Star roster was Notre Dame’s Drew Chiprez, selected as a third-baseman.

Chiprez feasted on Southeast Iowa Super Conference pitching this year, hitting .545 with seven home runs, 25 runs batted in and 27 runs scored, helping lead the Nikes to the Class 1A State Tournament.

Big Ten Announces Changes to 2020 Football Schedule:

The Big Ten Conference announced yesterday that they have approved plans for the 2020 football season, including a 10-game conference-only schedule beginning as early as the weekend of September 5.

The Big Ten Championship will be played on December 5th in Indianapolis.

Each team will play six division games and four cross-division games, while receiving two built-in byes with an open date on November 28th.

The Hawkeyes will open their season at home against Maryland before heading on the road to do battle with Purdue and Minnesota.

Iowa will then home for the next two weeks against rival Nebraska and Northwestern, before trekking east for a road date at Illinois.

The Hawkeyes have their bye in Week 7 and then will travel to Penn State and host Michigan State before another bye week.

They close the regular season with a home game against Wisconsin and a road game with Ohio State.

While the conference remains hopeful for a September 2020 start in all fall sports, including football, issuing a schedule does not guarantee that competition will occur.

Football will have, at minimum, two COVID-19 tests per week and testing will be managed by a third-party laboratory to ensure consistency across the conference.

Grand View tabbed to win Heart of America:

Grand View and Benedictine were each picked to take the titles for their divisions in the 2020 Heart Football Coaches’ Preseason Poll.

Grand View, last year’s North Division Champion, was selected as the favorite to claim the title this season after receiving five first-place votes and the maximum 50 points. Culver-Stockton claimed the final first-place tally and tied with William Penn as the second-place favorite after totaling 44 points each.

Clarke landed in fourth place after collecting 37 points, followed by Peru State (34 points) and Graceland (31 points).

For the second year in a row, Benedictine was selected as the favorite to claim the South Division title after receiving three first-place votes and tallying 48 points. Baker, last season’s defending South Division champ, landed in second after receiving two first-place votes and a total of 43 points.

The 2020 season is set to begin on September 12th with divisional competition slated to open on October 17th.

The NAIA Football Championship Series has been delayed to Spring 2021 with official dates still to be determined by the national office.

NCAA Division II, III Fall Championships Cancelled:

The NCAA has announced Division II and III fall championships have been canceled for the 2020-21 season.

According to the NCAA, the decision was made “due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related administrative and financial challenges.”