In any sport, including baseball, it’s hard to shake off a losing skid. To alleviate this, players and coach engage in small superstitions or rituals to convert the bad juju back into good fortunes.
Whatever happened within the West Fork baseball team, it surely worked, as the Warhawks snapped a three-game skid and countered with a two-game winning streak during their second week of play.

The West Fork girls’ golf team, guided by WF girls’ golf coach Mary Schulz, gathers up for a group photo before competing at the Class 1A Regional Tournament, held this past Monday at the Rice Lake Golf & Country Club in Lake Mills. Pictured from left to right are Emma McKee, Allison Pitzenberger, Hailey McCoy-Munger, Kalli Trewin and Rose Rother.

At this point of the track and field season, there’s only one big event left to go. The one final track meet is the big one, in the 2021 Iowa High School State Co-Ed Track & Field Championships.
The West Fork track & field teams excelled at the Class 1A-District 8 State Qualifying Meet, held on May 13 at Northwood-Kensett High School Track in Northwood, pushing eight events through to Des Moines.

Hampton-Dumont/CAL boys golf competed at Fort Dodge on May 10 for the North Central Conference meet.
The Bulldogs place third with a team score of 339, falling three behind Clear Lake’s 336 and three ahead of Humboldt.
Tommy Birdsell medaled in the tournament, with a runner-up score of 79. Falling one shy of first place.
Will Sackville and Tucker Heeren shot for 84.

Hampton-Dumont/CAL boys soccer club defeated Belmond-Klemme at home, 4-2, on May 10.
On Thursday, the Bulldogs were dealt a 0-10 loss by Denver on the road.
Against the Broncos, the Bulldogs put up two goals in the first half.
Both teams scored two in the second half, to keep HDC ahead of the Broncos.
The Bulldogs had 11 shots on goal.
Luis Mota scored the hat trick with three goals.

The Hampton-Dumont-CAL boys track and field team competed in Neveda on Thursday for Class 3A Districts.
Two events moved on to the Class 3A State meet for the Bulldogs, Jordan Severs in the 400-meter dash and the 100-meter relay team.
Severs finished first in his race with a time of 56.79.
The 4x100 finished in fourth place with a time of 44.52.

Hampton-Dumont-CAL girls golf played at the Mason City Country Club on May 10 for the North Central Conference meet.
The Bulldogs placed fifth with 450 team points, beating Webster City by one point.
Trinity Swart and Madison Lindaman both scored 112 in the 18-hole tournament.
Kortney Dunt and Skyler Valley recorded 113 strokes.
On Friday, the Bulldogs defeated Waverly-Shell Rock 242-250 at home.

Hampton-Dumont/CAL hosted Belmond-Klemme on May 10. The Bulldogs blasted the Broncos in a 7-0 victory.
In the first half, the team put up four goals and finished off with three additional goals in the second.
Franka Schmid went above a hat trick and scored four goals with seven shots on goal. As a team, HDC hit 17 shots on goal.
Kimberly Guillen, Irlanda Tangarife and Laren Meader all scored a goal for the team as well.

Hampton-Dumont/CAL girls tennis faced St. Edmond on the road on Thursday. The team lost 0-9 to St. Edmond.
Jessica Martinez, Aspen Harlan, Madison Lindaman, Lily Mason, Kaci Sanders and Ava Crooks made up the singles lineup.
Doubles teams were Martinez and Harlan, Lindaman and Mason, and Sanders and Sophia Schmerlaib.

The Hampton-Dumont-CAL girls track and field team finished their year at the Class 3A District meet on Thursday in Neveda.
The team competed with four girls total.
Zoe Erdman placed fifth in the 400-meter with a time of 1:06.09.
Lydia Mass placed fourth in the 1500-meter, running 5:26.79.
Sydney Buseman finished ninth in the same event with a time of 5:47.05.

HAMPTON – Ask foreign exchange student from Germany Franka Schmid if she knows the past history of Hampton-Dumont/CAL girls’ soccer and she said she’s been made aware.
In the past, it was a victory for the Bulldogs to score a goal.
However, Schmid’s free kick goal in the second half on Thursday, April 22 against Garner-Hayfield-Ventura proved to be the only one H-D/CAL needed to post the first-ever match win, 1-0.

HAMPTON – Garner-Hayfield-Ventura broke open what was a close 2-1 boys soccer match at halftime to take a 5-1 win over Hampton-Dumont/CAL on Thursday, April 22.
What appeared to be a frantic pace to start, both teams opened with penalty kicks against each other in the first 5 minutes, 32 seconds of the match.
However, it was all Cardinals after that.

JEWELL – Jordan Severs won the 400-meter hurdles and took second in the 110-meter high hurdles as the Bulldog boys’ track team finished fourth out of eight teams at the South Hamilton Hawk Relays on Thursday, April 22.

DES MOINES – A year removed from helping lead West Fork to a state appearance, senior Kayden Ames went from second to first team all-state in Class 1A by the Iowa Print Sports Writer’s Association, announced early Tuesday morning.
Ames, a 6-foot-1-inch guard for coach Frank Schnoes’ Warhawks, averaged 15.6 points per game this season in which they were put on pause twice because of COVID precautions.

HAMPTON – Ahead of the Monday, March 22 Hampton-Dumont school board vote to approve a new football coach, the Iowa High School Athletic Association announced the new 2021 Fall districts and class realignments on Friday, March 12.