Prep of the Week: West Branch Senior Knoop Excelling in Expanded Role

West Branch senior Abby Knoop

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – In the first three years of her high school volleyball career Abby Knoop had mostly a supporting role.

A four-year starter with more than 650 kills to her credit Knoop has been an important part of the most successful run in West Branch volleyball history.

Yet, Knoop made those contributions the last three seasons outside of the spotlight.

As a senior this fall Knoop has stepped onto center stage and shined in her new role.

“It’s a different role I have to play, last year there was no pressure on me,” Knoop said. “I had no pressure to put the ball away because I knew other people on the court could do that. There are those players this year too but definitely I had to step up this year and I had to become a leader on the court.”

Knoop was a potent attacker each of the past two reasons, rolling up a combined 390 kills.

Both seasons she was surrounded by stars as West Branch went 70-12 during those two seasons and made consecutive trips to the state tournament

In 2014 Knoop had 129 kills while playing alongside all-state hitter Maddy Russell.

Last year Knoop was second on the team with 261 kills, behind only senior all-state middle Haley Poula.

This season it was Knoop who became that go-to player on a team full of first-year starters and she hasn’t disappointed in her first season in the spotlight.

“She did some great things last year we just had girls on that team that are playing in college this year so we had a really talented team,” first-year West Branch coach John Walsh said. “She maybe didn’t stand out as much but she has certainly stepped in this year and shown what she can do.”

Knoop is on pace for the best season of her career.

The 5-foot-10 senior has a team-high 210 kills, averaging 4.12 kills per set while helping West Branch to a 13-6 record.

“It’s definitely been different, this year we’ve had to earn our points different ways, we can’t just send the ball to Haley Poula,” Knoop said. “We’ve definitely started clicking. We’ve been working together, we’ve been practicing so hard and we are meshing well together.”

Knoop wasn’t the only player settling into a new role at West Branch this season.

With seven new players seeing significant court time it took the Bears some time to settle in.

West Branch has shown over the past two weeks it is primed for another postseason run.

The Bears have won seven straight matches since a four-set loss to West Liberty on Sept. 13, a stretch that includes back-to-back River Valley Conference wins over Mid-Prairie and Durant.

“This past week has been amazing, after that loss at West Liberty we turned a corner,” Knoop said. “We’ve changed our offense, we started running quicker stuff. We’ve definitely stepped up and I’m very proud of our team.”

Knoop has been a big part of the recent success.

She had 44 kills to help West Branch go 5-0 and win the title at the Lisbon Tournament.

Last week Knoop was at her best pounding 28 kills in a five-set win over Mid-Prairie and following with 17 kills in a road sweep of Durant.

“We don’t make a big deal of it or anything but we know that if we get her a good set she is going to put the ball away a lot of the time,’ Walsh said. “It’s nice to have a senior leader like that to score some points for us.”

Prep of the Week: Frantz Shines in Battle for the Boot

City High senior Bryce Frantz

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Bryce Frantz waited his entire career for an opportunity to play in the annual Battle for the Boot.

When he got the chance the City High senior turned in performance worth waiting for.

Frantz matched his career-high with 31 carries and rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns to help City High (3-1) to a 20-7 win over West High (3-1) last Friday in the annual cross-town showdown.

“It’s probably up there with the most memorable games in my career,” Frantz said. “I’m going to remember it probably for the rest of my life just winning the senior Boot game.”

Frantz missed last year’s meeting with West High with a knee injury.

On Friday he was the difference as City High won back-to-back games over West High for the first time since 2010 and 2011.

The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Frantz accounted for all but 93 of the Little Hawks’ total yards with his 146 yards on the ground, the second highest total of his career.

“We knew we were going to go to Bryce all night and he knew it,” City High quarterback Nate Wieland said. “He just really put the team on his back for a couple possessions and did a great job.”

Frantz gave City High an early 7-0 lead it would never give up with a 10-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds left in the first quarter.

His second touchdown of the game, a 7-yard jaunt with 1:51 left in the third quarter, gave the Little Hawks what proved to be an insurmountable 20-0 cushion.

“He ran tough, he looked quick and he hit the hole,” City High coach Dan Sabers said. “A couple of times the holes weren’t big but he doesn’t need much. He sees it extremely well and he has that ability to quirt through.”

With City High holding a lead the Little Hawks kept going to their senior running back and Frantz kept piling up yards.

Before Friday Frantz hadn’t carried the ball more than 19 times in a game this season.

The only other game in his career with more than 20 carries was a 31-carry, 186-yard performance in the season finale last year at Muscatine.

“Coming into the game I didn’t really think I was going to get that many carries,” Frantz said. “I knew if I got going I was going to keep carrying the load.”

The performance by Frantz on Friday continued a strong start to his senior season.

Frantz has rushed for at least 94 yards in every game this season, eclipsing 100 yards three times.

In four games Frantz has rushed for 470 yards and seven touchdowns giving him 1,235 yards for his career.

Frantz now needs less than 600 yards to crack the prestigious top-10 for career rushing yards at City High.

“Playing running back at City High I don’t feel any extra pressure,” Frantz said. “I just feel like I big shoes to fill so I might as well step up to the plate and fill those shoes.”

Frantz has rushed for 100 yards six times in 12 games since returning from the injury that cost him three games last season.

During that span Frantz has scored touchdowns in 10 games and has scored two touchdowns in a game five times.

“He has really good field vision, he cuts back really well,” City High senior lineman Jordain Buckland said. “He’s not that flash guy that is going to bust out for like 300 yards but he gets the job done and gets in the end zone.”

Prep of the week: Skopec Shines at Cedar Rapids Invite

West High senior Gabby Skopec

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Gabby Skopec's official return to cross country came last October at the state meet in Fort Dodge.

In her first race in nearly a month, Skopec placed 58th at the 4A state meet to help West High to a fifth place team finish.

That performance at state will go down as Skopec’s formal return from a heel injury that caused her to sit out 30 days during her junior season.

The real Gabby Skopec returned last week.

Skopec won her first race since sustaining the injury on Oct. 1 last year, cruising to the individual title at the 18-team Cedar Rapids Invitational last Thursday at Seminole Valley Cross Country Course.

“It was special because I kind of feel like I took (winning) for granted last year,” Skopec said. “It was special for me to get back to that level.”

Skopec won the Cedar Rapids Invitational title in 18:56.81, nearly 20 seconds in front of runner-up Hannah Frazee of Cedar Rapids Prairie.

She took the lead early and cruised to her first win in more than 11 months.

“It felt really good, I wasn’t expecting to go in and be leading for that much of the race so I was really happy with it,” Skopec said. “I was not expecting to win and definitely not by that kind of margin. I thought I could win but I wasn’t expecting to.”

The victory by Skopec helped West High to a team title in a Cedar Rapids Invitational field that featured seven ranked teams.

West High finished 11 points in front of runner-up City High.

“This is what we expected from Gabby all the way through the year last year,” West High coach Mike Parker said. “She is a year older, a year more experienced and I think that year of extra training has allowed her later in race to just put the hammer down. Last year she was good but really there wasn’t a point in the race where she just put the hammer down and left people and she is doing that this year.”

Skopec appeared to be on her way to a special season last fall.

She won three of the first six meets she competed in, including a win at the Southeast Polk Invitational on Oct. 1.

That’s when Skopec first felt discomfort in her heel.

“I was running the race and it was hurting but I didn’t know how bad it was until after I finished,” Skopec said. “I was walking around after the race and it hurt really bad.”

A week of rest provided no relief so Skopec went for an X-Ray and was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her heel.

The only treatment – rest.

Skopec went 30 days between competitions after suffering her injury, returning only for the state meet.

“You could go to any meet if you are really good after sitting out four weeks but you can’t go to state where all those girls are good,” Parker said. “It broke my heart when I had to watch her struggle at state when I knew she was one of the best girls in the state.”

Skopec returned from her injury in time for track season and trained through the summer.

She entered her senior season poised for the breakthrough she expected last year.

“I tried to go into the offseason with a mentality that I wasn’t going to take any steps back,” Skopec said. “I’m just going to move forward from where I am.”

Skopec has picked up right where she left off before the injury.

The impressive win in Cedar Rapids vaulted Skopec to the top spot in the Class 4A individual rankings released by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches this week.

“She knows this is a short season and she commits to the time that it takes to get ready for the next practice after a challenging practice,” Parker said. “I think that will benefit her as we go through the season. As we mount all these miles the people that don’t prepare for practice that’s what really starts to drag them down. I think she will be as prepared as someone can be when we get to the state championships.”

Skopec’s return has helped West High climb to No. 2 in the 4A team rankings behind top-ranked Johnston.

Skopec joins juniors Bailey Nock and Claire Ronnenbaum as West High runners ranked in the top 11 in 4A.

West High will go head to head with Johnston on Saturday at the Heartland Classic at Iowa State.

“I think we can win state but we need to keep working hard so we can catch up to where Johnston is at,” Skopec said.

Prep of the Week: Siders Settling in on Defense

Clear Creek Amana senior Cory Siders

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Cory Siders always envisioned making an impact by catching the football. 

Siders finally got his hands on the ball enough to produce the breakthrough game he’d been waiting for on Friday but the way he made his biggest impression was slightly different than how he imagined.

A three-year varsity letter winner at wide receiver, Siders intercepted three passes in just his second career start at corner back as Clear Creek Amana shutout Independence 26-0.

“I had never played varsity defensive back before this year, last year I was basically all wide receiver,” Siders explained. “I was kind of expected to learn a new position because going into your senior year you are expected to do more than anyone else and I just tried to learn everything that I could. I guess it just came to me.”

After three seasons playing primarily receiver, defensive back has come naturally for Siders.

On Friday the football kept coming to Siders and the 6-0, 195-pound senior kept making plays.

Siders returned one of his three interceptions 66-yards for a touchdown to give Clear Creek Amana a 19-0 fourth-quarter lead.

“We ran a different type of coverage so as the corner I was pressed down on the flats,” Siders said of the interception return for a touchdown. “I saw that third guy bubble and all I did was stay back a little bit and right when I saw the quarterback flip his hips I went right for the ball and it came right to me.”

After dedicating three seasons to playing wide receiver Siders has used that offensive knowledge to aid in his transition to defense.

It showed on Friday as he broke on passes three times to end Independence drives with interceptions.

“That helps me a lot because I know how to read the receiver and I can kind of guess when he is going to break down and where the quarterback is going,” Siders said. “The biggest thing is just watching the quarterback.”

The career game for Siders wasn’t limited to his strong day on defense, he also had the best game of his career at receiver.

Siders entered the game with 13 career receptions after catching a team-high 10 passes for 123 yards a year ago.

He nearly equaled those numbers on Friday making a career-high seven receptions for 50 yards.

“Not only did he do a great job on defense with the pick-six and the other interceptions but he made a couple of one-handed catches on offense that were unbelievable too,” Clear Creek Amana coach Matt Hughes said. “That really brings a lot of confidence to our quarterback when he just has to get it close and Cory can get up there and snatch it.”

Two games into his senior season Siders has proved to be weapon on both sides of the ball.

Siders has now caught eight passes for 59 yards and a touchdown on the season.

“He’s always had those abilities we just haven’t been able to get him the ball as much as we’d like,” Hughes said. “He’s begged for the ball every year for three years and this year we are getting him the ball in space.”