Earlham Echo

December 2, 2025

Boys’ Basketball

With a new head coach and four new starters, the 2025-26 Cardinals might be difficult to recognize at first. But Cardinal basketball culture runs deep, so one thing that won’t change is the team’s approach to the game. Hard-working, hard-nosed Earlham basketball will be back again this season. Early practices so far have been intense, with the boys hustling and flying around the court like they think it might be the last time they ever get to touch a basketball.

“That’s what we’re trying to do,” said Head Coach Austin Ash. “We want a competitive atmosphere. We like to have a winner and loser of every drill and make practice as game-like as possible. Put pressure on a shot. Put pressure on running the play right. Just give as many game-like scenarios as possible. And the energy is good.”

The 2025-26 season will be Coach Ash’s first year coaching at the varsity level. Ash may lack experience, but he won’t lack knowledge of the game. He’s been immersed in basketball for his entire life. His dad Carey coached high school basketball in the Cedar Rapids area for decades. Ash was an all-state player at Mt. Vernon High School, and then he went on to play at the University of Iowa, where Coach Fran McCaffery praised Ash for his reliability and understanding of the system, team-first attitude and intangibles, and persistence and character. Ash finished up his college career at The Citadel playing for another highly regarded coach, Ed Conroy. So, he’s been exposed to a lot of basketball brain power, and he accessed that in preparing for his first practices as a coach.

“I’ve had a lot of great mentors,” said Coach Ash. “I’ve played for a lot of great coaches—Coach McCaffrey, Coach Conroy, Coach Ed Timm, my high school coach. I’ve been talking on the phone with those guys, asking a lot of questions. I was definitely a little nervous before the first practice. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to be, but just I’ll use some of the things they’ve done and then adapt them; make them my own. I’ve wanted to be a coach ever since I can remember. So it’s been a great first week. The kids are working hard. They make it easy to coach them, and we’re really excited to get the season rolling.”

Coach Ash has watched hours of film of last year’s games to help prepare for this season, and long-time Cardinal head coach Kevin Williamson has helped him with the transition. His idea of what ‘Cardinal basketball’ should look like should meld well with the players that he has inherited.

“Number one, we want to be a team that’s easy to watch; easy to cheer for. We want those stands packed,” he said. “We want to be really tough and strong on defense and then have a free-flowing offense where we’re running in transition off of stops. Also, we want to be able to slow the game down when we need to. So, almost being a game-by-game basis where there may be a game where we come out and shoot 25 threes, and then on to the next one where we’re trying to pound the ball inside and shoot 25 free throws.”

There’s been no need for Coach Ash to call his dad for advice, because Carey was in Earlham to help with the first two weeks of practice, helping to install the offense and just generally coach the kids up.

“It’s a very cool experience,” said Coach Ash. “Something we’ve kind of joked about in the past, and now it’s come to fruition. I love having him around. He’s been great with the guys. He’s been coaching for over 30 years, so he’s seen every type of team; every type of situation.”

The lone returning starter from last season is senior Griffin Messer. He’s athletic and a good outside shooter. Junior Brady Reynolds and senior Blaine Tiedemann were solid players off the bench last season and will start this year. Reynolds is a strong point guard that can score. Tiedemann is 6’0’, 205, and has a soft shooting touch around the basket or from the outside.

After those three, several guys will have plenty of opportunity for playing time. Senior Corbin Etter has been a wrestler for the Cardinals but is out for basketball this season. He’ll provide some much-needed size (6’3”, 230) and is a good shooter. Senior Brodie Hamilton is an energy guy that should get meaningful minutes. Freshmen Austin Rodgers and Jackson Koberg will be in the mix, as will junior Carter Frank, last season’s JV MVP.

While the majority of the roster is relatively unproven at the varsity level, Coach Ash is confident that several players can step into bigger roles.

“There were a lot of guys that kind of were ‘tweeners’ last year,” he said. “They might have played 15 to 20 minutes. But there is a lot of potential there. They had some great players in front of them, so there wasn’t a ton of opportunity for them. Headed into this year, with all those players graduating, they know that the green light’s on. So that’s kind of been the message to those guys so far. They have to step up and be a leader, whether that’s scoring the ball or helping guys run the offense.”

Coach Ash will be assisted by Kaden Howard and Zac Reynolds.

Girls’ Basketball

With a senior laden team and nearly everybody returning from last year’s 12-11 campaign, expectations were already high for the Cardinals coming into this season. When the Cards landed at #13 in the IGHSAU Class 2A pre-season poll, that ratcheted things up a notch. Sometimes the weight of expectations can be a little overwhelming for anybody, let alone high school athletes, but don’t expect that to happen to this bunch.

“I think everybody is in the right space, so I think it’s good for them to see (the ranking),” said Coach Gentry. “We busted our tail last year and kind of took constructive criticism throughout the season and made some changes. And then now to get recognized, like, ‘Hey, people see what you guys are doing.’ But I think our focus is on winning practice every day. That’s honestly our goal. I think everybody knows we appreciate that we’re getting recognition, but our mindset is on how we can get better today and how we can be at our best the next day. And that’s where our focus is at.”

Last season was Coach Gentry’s first year with the Cardinals and first coaching at the varsity level. When practice began this season, he and his team knew each other much better than they did 12 months ago. 

“The girls are learning fast and catching on to a lot of information that we’re tossing their way. It’s night and day,” he said. “I have a better understanding of our girls. Last year there was more thinking on the fly because we didn’t have the time before. So having that time was very beneficial to learn how they learn and see what we needed to progress and develop. And honestly, the offseason was great. That allowed us to come closer and get well-acquainted with each other and build a lot more chemistry. Coming into this season, there has been great energy and great vibes, and everybody’s locked in on what they need to be doing.”

Coach Gentry displays a ton of energy and a tough-love coaching style with the aim of staying focused under pressure, fighting through adversity, and developing a ‘next play’ mentality after a mistake. With a year together, the coach feels like he and his team have a better understanding of each other.

“I got to know them. I know their strengths and their weaknesses,” he said. “They also know that playing for me, there’s a high level of accountability, and they take that really well. That’s part of one of our pillars is having a high level of accountability to yourself and to the team, and they understand that, no, Coach Gentry doesn’t hate them. They know that I want them to shine come game day. So we take practice very seriously and that’s why our practices are hard, because we want to lean on our habits through thick and thin and when things aren’t going so hot.”

 The Cardinals will be led by a trio of seniors—Avrie Fagan, Darby Moore, and Kenna Harskamp—that were responsible for 72% of the team’s scoring last season. Fagan finished the season with 404 points (17.6 ppg), which set the 5-player school record. She has a good chance of breaking the Earlham career scoring record this season. Darby Moore broke the school single-game scoring record last season with 38 points on February 1 and averaged 13.6 ppg. Harskamp had some of her best games late last season and averaged 6 ppg.

All three of those girls are similarly skilled—they are fast and quick with the ability to drive to the basket and shoot from the outside.

“They definitely built a little bit more toughness and grit over the summer,” said coach Gentry. “A lot of that came from their confidence in the unseen hours, like I like to call it. Being in the gym and playing in the fall leagues has helped them to know what it takes to play consistently at this level. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get embarrassed. And I think that was good for them. And they bring a positive mentality and energy to the squad.”

On an undersized team, junior post player Piper Koberg is the tallest girl on the team. She made a dramatic improvement as a volleyball player in the fall, and with an excellent work ethic, she could make a similar jump during the basketball season.

“She has gained confidence and she’s coming into her own,” said Coach Gentry. “Last year was really good for her. She was kind of tossed into the fire with no experience. She’s just owned it this summer and went hard in the weight room.”

The other starter should be junior Shilyn Terrell. Her athletic career has been hampered by a series of injuries, but she’s healthy now and should be an impact player for the Cardinals.

“Technically speaking, this summer was the first time I got to see her in action,” said the coach. “She’s very athletic and does things that you can’t teach. She brings a new dynamic to the team and adds to what we already have.”

Seniors Mackenzie Harger and Camryn Sly and sophomore Eden Forcht provided quality minutes off the bench for the Cardinals last season and will push for expanded roles this season.

The Cards suffered from inconsistency at times last year. After starting the season with 3 wins in their first 4 games, they lost 8 out of the next 11. They ended the season winning 6 of their last 8 games, but the wins came against teams with a combined record of 28-84. Their record against teams with a winning record was 5-10.

The Cards scored a respectable 51 ppg (30^th in 2A, out of 80 teams), but their defensive average of 48 ppg was 59^th. This year’s Cardinals will need to make a marked improvement in rebounding. They ranked 75^th in total rebounds in ‘24-’25.

Coach Gentry is assisted by Tim Harskamp.

Girls’ Wrestling

2022-23 marked the first official sanctioned season for girls’ wrestling in Iowa. A little over 1,000 girls representing 185 Iowa programs participated that year. Just two years later, participation has ballooned to an estimated 3,700 girls in 223 programs.

While the growth of the Earlham program hasn’t been that dramatic, it has been steady. This year, four new girls join one returning athlete to make up the 25-26 Cardinal team.

Drew Evans was hired before last season as the first-ever head coach for the Cardinal girls’ program. He has embraced the challenge of helping build the program from the ground up.  

“The boys’ program has been doing that for the past few years, too, and they’re really still working on building the foundation,” said Coach Evans. “And to their credit, that really helped bridge the girls’ program in the first couple years before I was here. And now it’s getting to a point where we can have our own practices. We are really still one big program overall, but the girls are kind of doing their own thing.”

Wrestling still might not be ‘the thing to do’ for some girls, but the infusion of new blood and a growing enthusiasm for the sport in Earlham in general may eventually change that. Girls have been wrestling in Iowa for a long time, but it still hasn’t been considered a ‘girls’ sport’ until recently. The stigma is fading fast, but it hasn’t disappeared entirely, and it can be a challenge to get girls to try the sport.

“We had Lilli (Strandberg),” said Coach Evans, “and then I thought, well, who else can we get? And it comes down to really selling the idea of girls’ wrestling and finding those kids who are athletes that maybe aren’t doing a winter sport and finding those who just have connections.”

‘Connections’ are the key to this year’s roster. The most common denominator is that most come from wrestling families.

“I think my dad always wanted to have one of his kids wrestle, and none of my brothers did,” said sophomore Kim Doud. “So I thought, ‘Hmm, I guess I’ll just try it. And Lilli also kind of talked me into it. And I kind of got Zoe (Nixt) into it, and I just talked to people and I was like, ‘This this could be fun. It’ll be a good experience.”

Nixt’s story is similar.

“It was mostly my dad and my brother,” said the sophomore. “They do wrestling a lot, and I tried it for a little bit, and it was all right. But I didn’t have anybody. But with more people, I think that really encouraged me to go out. It helps to have teammates.”

Ditto for Taylor Sinclair.

“I talked to my mom and my dad,” she said. “My dad wrestled before, and he told me he liked it and he encouraged me to come out and try it. I wrestled in elementary school, and it was not that bad.”

Freshman Sannia Leflore moved to Earlham before this school year. She wrestled for the ADM junior high team for one year and loves the physicality of the sport.

 “Ever since I was younger, I’ve always wanted to wrestle,” she said. “It’s an aggressive sport. I would always play-fight with siblings and stuff and I’ve always wanted to push myself to be better. Wrestling is a very good way to block out all of the noise and just really lock in and worry about yourself.”

Strandberg took up the sport only a couple years ago, but now she’s the experienced veteran of the team. She improved her skills last season and was much more aggressive than when she started. She’s keeping her goals for this season simple.

“I want to get physically healthier,” she said. “I want to get through the season without getting injured, and then hopefully go to state. Fingers crossed. I would like to. I think it would be extremely enjoyable and, you know, it’s a thing I feel like everyone strives for when they’re doing this sport.”

“Lilli is a treat to coach. She’s a lot of fun,” said Coach Evans.  “This is a really unique opportunity for her, coming back as the most experienced wrestler and taking on a bit of a leadership role. She’s always the first to take a joke and then fire one back. They’re just a really fun group and Lily contributes to that in a lot of ways. I’m excited to see what she can do moving forward.”

With the exception of Strandberg, everyone is in their first years as a varsity wrestler, and thus they are learning a lot of new things. Most of the team’s practices have been at 5:45 a.m., which isn’t easy. But once they get warmed up, they’ve been focused on the work.

“It’s been difficult learning like basics, but our coaches do a good job of explaining it and walking us through,” said Nixt. “I have a partner that’s also beginning, so that helps. There’s a lot of stopping and pausing and having to question, but it’s part of the learning process. That’s basically all we’re doing right now is trying to learn. And I don’t really mind it, because what else am I going to do?”

Leflore added, “It’s my second year doing wrestling, so I know some things. Maybe some of it comes easier to me, but I feel like this is a really big opportunity just to really think and take everything step-by-step. I just want to get the basics down and go out there and win and really prove myself. Even if I lose a match, I just want to know that I can learn from it and I can grow from it and I’ll just wrestle harder than ever.”

All of the girls had some good moments at the first tournament of the year in Corning on November 22 and Coach Evans has been impressed with the team’s progress early in the season.

“It sounds cliché,” he said, “but there’s something to be said in the sport of wrestling for just putting in your best effort. Especially as a new wrestler, and these girls have really done just that. It’s really easy in wrestling when you start losing a couple matches to get your head down. But everyone has a positive team around them, and they pick each other up. They have a good work ethic, and a good attitude about the sport, and they all really care about each other and the team. I think that that’s probably the biggest thing.”

Yeah, yeah, we want to put them in positions where they can read and react, where they’re not just robots where, oh, I need to go on the block, or coach said I need to be here. You know, if something’s open, or if they see something in their head with a teammate, or at the back cut, or an alley-oop play, kind of like what you said, just being able to have that, put the confidence into them that I trust them to make those decisions. We want them to run our stuff, but also have that in the back of their mind, hey, I can go make this play whenever I need to to help us out.

Boys’ Wrestling

The biggest off-season news for the Cardinal wrestling program didn’t have anything to do with what happens directly on the mat—it was the construction of the new wrestling room. The new building has three times the space of the old room, it’s not nearly as hot or as foul smelling, and nobody is tripping over each other this year.

You might not think that more space would necessarily result in better wrestlers, but it isn’t going to hurt, either—even if the kids don’t quite realize it yet.

“It’s a different feel with a new room. We’re training a little bit different,” said Coach Strandberg. “I think the kids themselves aren’t quite sure. I’ve heard some mumbling from some of them that they don’t get as much break time as they are used to because they were always doing groups of three or four. But they’re adapting to that really well and I expect us to see the results here pretty quick right out of the gate. They are in a little bit better shape and a little bit more fine-tuned just because they’re getting more reps.”

But don’t confuse any random ‘mumbling’ from the Cardinals about break time with shirking or laziness. Day-to-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute, wrestling is as physically and mentally demanding as anything a high school kid will ever do, and Coach Strandberg has a high bar for effort. Earlham athletes know what’s expected of them, and when a new season rolls around, they are ready to go.

“At this point we’re kind of used to it because we’ve been doing it for so long,” said senior Konnar Stiles. “I think we’re just kind of used to the mental aspect of wrestling. We’re always going to be ready for it the next season. We know it’s coming, so I think we’re always prepared beforehand at this point.”

A solid nucleus of returning wrestlers will be joined by two freshmen, and both of them are veterans of club and AAU wrestling. Since everybody has a certain degree of experience, Coach Strandberg and his staff had a little different starting point when practice began a couple weeks ago.

“As a group, they’re just an experienced bunch,” he said. “We didn’t have to do the normal stuff that you do when you have brand new kids in the room, when you’re going teach him how to score, and even the basic fundamentals of how the sport works. The guys are either kids that have come up through our club, or they go to other clubs, as well, so it’s been great. They’re picking up on things really quick and we’re training pretty hard.”

By the time a wrestler gets to the varsity level, he’s had many coaches. Some wrestlers continue to wrestle for clubs after they get to high school—such is the case with a couple of Earlham wrestlers—so having multiple coaches at the same time is common. Different instruction from more than one person can create confusion, frustration, and even conflict, though the best wrestlers and coaches learn to navigate it.

 “When we’re showing the kids stuff, we always tell them that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, or however you want to put it,” said Coach Strandberg. “There’s a lot of things that Max (Millage) does that, I’m sure that he picked up at club, and I’ll just say, ‘Hey, show me that. Show these guys how you’re doing that.’ Because it’s really just about sharpening your sword every single time you go out and every time you’re practicing. If you can pick up something new, that’s great. I try to make it a point to never tell somebody that something won’t work for you.”

Two 2025 state qualifiers return for the Cardinals; Millage, a junior, and sophomore Konner Keller. It’s a good bet that they will both make it back.

Keller started at fullback for the Cardinal football team, so a short break after that season was welcome.

“I took some time off, about two weeks, and got healed up,” he said. “I think I’m good to go.”

Millage wrestles year-round, so he always seems to be in peak form.

“Physically, I’m fine. I’m probably at the best I’ve ever been,” he said. “I feel a lot stronger than I did last year. And mentally—last year, I felt a lot more drained throughout the year. I just really worked on getting myself mentally ready, and right now, I feel ready.”

Senior Josh Winey was a state qualifier as a freshman, just missed qualifying as a sophomore, and missed all last season due to an injury.

“This season means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s my last chance to show what I’m about. I had a hard sophomore season, and then last year I got injured, so I couldn’t finish. I’ve been working hard to get both my ankles back to 100% for this season. It’s a big mental game. I really have to leave it all on the mat; really have to put 100% into each practice.”

Senior Keegan Long lost a close match at the district tournament last season that would have sent him to state, so he’s motivated to get to Des Moines this year. His work in the Cardinal weight room is the stuff of legend, and he looks even more menacing this year.

“Wrestling is the first thing I think of, and now I’m just ready to go,” he said. “I’ve gotten way stronger over the summer and I’m ready to just go out there and kick butt.”

Other returners who made big strides in the varsity lineup last season are Stiles, sophomores Colton Nixt and Bishop Hammen. Junior Cole Eitel was hampered with an injury last season, but he should make an impact this year. Carson Winey and Jack McClure will have opportunities with the varsity. Freshman Colter Lenze is an accomplished wrestler on the club and AAU circuit. He’s joined by fellow freshman Andrew Van Zee.