SE Polk, WSR Lead in Iowa
SE Polk, WSR Lead in Iowa
Round 4 of the Iowa Youth Rugby Association is set for Friday with only two teams now still undefeated.
Last week Ankeny came into Friday night's games with a 4-0 record and found themselves on the losing end 21-10 to Cedar Falls and 19-0 to Waverly Shell Rock. Valley also entered the games 4-0 and were defeated 19-12 by SE Polk ... more on Polk in a bit.
(Iowa's league is a 7s league only, with teams playing two matches each Friday night.)
Surging, then, are Cedar Falls, which beat Ankeny and Fort Dodge in close games to advance to 5-1, joining Valley with that record.
Leading the way are SE Polk and Waverly Shell Rock at 6-0.
WSR is led by the twin scoring threats of Tyler Gast and Simon Ott, who have scored 11 tries between them. Jake Staack and Caiden Bailey have led the defensive effort for a team that has logged three shutouts in six games.
For Southeast Polk, being forced into playing younger players as Iowa came out of COVID restrictions means that those players are now pretty experienced.
"Post-COVID we were starting three sophomores and one freshman," said Coach Brent Wheeler. "Investment in those players is now paying dividends. We were able to add some really good athletes and the returning boys helped move them up much faster than normal."
That meant Polk didn't really ease into practice and instead expected newer players to keep up.
"We took a sink-or-swim approach in our first practice and everyone swam," said Wheeler. "There’s always things to work on but I’m happy with where we are. The level of a play in our league has definitely gone up and coaches are being forced to evolve. We lost a lot of teams from COVID but the teams that survived are more organized and better coached. The product on the field is much better as a result. I’m happy to say our league is growing again."
Polk wins on defense, having posted shutouts in four of their six games and allowed only two tries in each of the other two games. Their 19-12 win over Valley and their 19-10 win over Fort Dodge were easily their closest games.
Fox Wilhelms leads the team with five tries but the scoring wealth has been distributed throughout the squad, with 11 different players having crossed the tryline. It's the same story on the defensive side of the ball. While Wilhelms leads there, too, several players are right behind him.
This Friday Polk plays two teams with losing records and should be favored, Valley will have an interesting clash with a 3-3 Fort Dodge that has been a bit unlucky.