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Published in the Citizen Herald Mar. 26, 2008
By Jon Hapgood
Shock waves and surprise permeated the community of Dunkerton, as Coach Virgil Hovden resigned as the Head Girls’ Basketball Coach last week.
Coach Hovden has just come off a fabulous three-year run with a record of 69-6 overall. The Raiders have won the Iowa Star Conference Championship three consecutive years, and have a 55-game winning streak in conference play.
Dunkerton was ranked No. 1 in Class 1A for the greater share of the past basketball season, and the Raiders made their first appearance ever at the Girls’ State Tournament this year.
The team lost out in the semi-finals 81-62, to a good Newell-Fonda team.
Hovden has coached at Dunkerton for the past seven years with an overall record of 86-54 in six Varsity seasons.
His record in 2001-2002 was 5-15, and the next year a JV team was fielded, as not enough girls came out for the sport of basketball.
After a 0-22 season in 2003-04, Coach Hovden literally “junked” the system the girls were playing with, and started a four-year period of winning basketball, with free substitutions and a full court press.
Coach Hovden said, “It was a system that the girls needed to buy into, and they did with great enthusiasm. Obviously, the system has worked.”
He said, “It is time to relax a bit, before I continue my coaching career, if at all. I’ve been involved in coaching for 22 years, and I have put in some real long hours along the way.”
He has had coaching stops at Oelwein, New Hampton, Turkey Valley at Jackson Junction, Cresco, and Luther College.
He was the Head Girls’ Basketball Coach at Turkey Valley for two years. He also was the Head Baseball Coach at Cresco for 6 or 7 years.
Coach Hovden will continue to coach the Dunkerton Girls’ Track team this spring, and he will continue as the P.E instructor at the school, for grades K-12. |
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