Iowa
American Press Male Scholar Athlete of the Year: Iowa benefits from Guillory’s leadership – American Press
American Press Male Scholar Athlete of the Year: Iowa benefits from Guillory’s leadership
Published 9:20 am Saturday, July 6, 2024
- Iowa’s Luke Guillory, a two-sport athlete and National Honor Society member, is taking his leadership skills and work ethic to the U.S. Air Force Academy. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
In his four years at Iowa High School, Luke Guillory grew into a leader everywhere he went.
His academic excellence and athletic skills landed him a coveted spot at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and earned him the American Press Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.
“He is an amazing young man,” Iowa Principal Luke Dietz said. “In everything he does, he works as hard in the classroom as he works on the playing field.
“In everything he does, he wants to be truly excel. He puts the work in to be able to do that. He is just a blessing to have here at the school. He has such high character.
“Even with all the success he has had in academics and athletics, I truly believe his best attributes are probably his character, work ethic and moral beliefs. He bases everything he does around those three things. It drives him to succeed in everything he does.”
Guillory started his six weeks of basic cadet training last week. He will be required to serve at least five years of active duty and three years as an inactive reserve after graduation.
Guillory ranked fourth in his class senior class at Iowa of 140. He scored a 32 on the American College Testing exam and a 4.36 grade point average.
He was a member of the National Honor Society, student council and helped start a chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the school.
His influence extends into the community where he volunteers for Special Olympics and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
“That kid is off the charts and in the community,” Iowa head football coach Tommy Johns said. “Anytime you needed him for something, he was going to show up. He was the guy that would get everybody else to show up with him. If Luke Guillory walked into the locker room and said, ‘We are going to help this organization,’ everybody got up and followed. Nobody had any questions. That is the kind of person he is.
“All of it comes from his parents. He was raised right. His parents have a very structured home. They demand excellence out of their kids. It has been very impressive. We are definitely going to miss him, not only the football player but the person.”
Johns said Guillory started at defensive end but found his place at tight end and turned into a top pass catcher with 36 for 420 yards and six touchdowns for the state quarterfinalist Yellow Jackets.
“When he first stepped on to our campus he was shy and a little timid,” Johns said, “but you could tell he had the body and the brain to be a great player. He is very, very intelligent. He progressed along.
“I remember after his freshman year he was questioning if he really wanted to play ball. We had a long, long talk in my office, and he decided to stick with it. From that day forward, he turned into a man. He has been our leader the last two or three years. He is a wonderful person.
“Everybody in the school respects him. They flock to him. He earned that. He is a tremendous asset to Iowa High School, the entire community and our program.”
His intelligence and athletic skills helped him to become a force in the lane for the Yellow Jackets’ 2023-2024 basketball Nonselect Division II state runner-up team. He was a second-team all-District 3-3A forward.
“He is so mobile,” Johns said. “I thought he was a little stiff when he was younger, but so is every other kid for the most part. For somebody to carry around that kind of frame and that kind of weight and move like he could was very impressive.”
With June rapidly finishing up, that means the Iowa high school softball season is preparing to enter the stretch run of the year.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament will begin Monday, July 20, in Fort Dodge at Rogers Park, bringing together many of the top teams and players in the state. High School On SI Iowa currently provides a Top 25 state softball power rankings, so now, we need to see who the top players are.
Below are the nominees for the High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player of the Year in each classification. Stats listed with the player are from Bound and based on those numbers imputed as of June 26, 2026 at noon CT.
Feel free to vote as many times as you like, with voting set to close on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player Of The Year Nominees
Rachel Eglseder, Edgewood-Colesburg, Senior
Eglseder owns a 16-5 record, striking out 225 batters with a 1.66 earned run average while adding 11 extra-base hits and 40 RBI at the plate.
Rylee Mudderman, Kee, Junior
Mudderman continues to be a difficult out, batting .488 this season with two homers, 11 doubles and four triples. She has driven in 38 and scored 35 times, stealing 10 bases.
Faith Shirbroun, St. Edmond, Senior
Speaking of tough outs, Shirbroun owns a batting average of .606 this season, recording seven homers, 17 doubles and five triples. She has driven in 36 and scored 37 times, stealing 22 bases while setting several school records for hitting.
Sydney Lovrien, Clarksville, Senior
The ace for the defending state champions, Lovrien is 13-5 with 100 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched. She also has 23 hits and 21 RBI at the plate.
Sam Kruckenberg, Mason City Newman Catholic, Senior
A veteran now, Kruckenberg owns an 18-4 record with 227 strikeouts and a 1.23 earned run average. She is batting .440 with five homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBI at the plate.
About Our Midseason Player of the Year Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The Iowa chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors of America (LICA) officially opened a new facility on its 80-acre demonstration farm in Marshall County Thursday.
Iowa LICA President Scott Bohle said having classroom and meeting space will make it easier to educate the next generation of professional contractors, along with government employees, lawmakers and students, to help conserve soil and water in the state.
Bohle said the building “gives people a place to gather, collaborate and continue the important work that defines our association.”
Just outside the new space are wetlands, terraces, sediment control basins, bioreactors and other features, which members have built since LICA purchased the farm near Melbourne in 2000.
“We call it the one-stop shop, where you can see anything being put to practice by our landowners,” said Kelby Kiefer, executive director of Iowa LICA.
Together, these “edge-of-field” practices remove 50% of phosphates and almost 100% of the nitrates from the runoff of a 1,000-plus acre watershed, according to the association.
Adding more wetlands, saturated buffers and bioreactors across the state are a key part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It aims to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields by 41% and 29%, respectively.
The strategy is part of a broader effort to reduce nutrient pollution in the state’s waterways and the Gulf of Mexico by 45% compared to the 1980-96 baseline period. It does not include a target date.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state has accelerated edge-of-field practices in recent years, in part through the Batch and Build model. The approach bundles projects in a targeted watershed to reduce costs and save time for farmers and contractors.
Nearly 150 nitrate reducing wetlands and around 500 saturated buffers, bioreactors and multi-purpose oxbows had been built in the state as of 2024. Thousands more will be needed to meet the state’s nutrient reduction targets.
“[Clean water is] something we need to be focused on, and we can be proud of the work that’s happened, but we know that we need to do more,” Naig said. “Buildings like this help.”
Naig said scaling up conservation infrastructure across the state will require more skilled contractors. He described them as the “critical link” between concepts and “getting things on the ground.”
“It’s from that point where you say, ‘We have a design that’s ready to go, a willing landowner,’ but somebody needs to make it happen,” Naig said. “The land improvement contractor sits in that very important spot.”
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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