The Iowa State football team is in New York City to continue preparations for the December 30th Pinstripe Bowl against Rutgers. ISU coach Paul Rhoads says the final few practices before leaving Ames he concentrated on the game plan. Rhoads says with the regular season stretching into December there is less of a concern about rust than there was two years ago prior to an Insight Bowl matchup against Minnesota. Rutgers has used two quarterbacks this season, sophomore Chas(chase) Dodd and freshman Gary Nova.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano says the Scarlet Knights need to try and find a way to effectively run the ball against a Cyclone defense that is played its best at the end of the regular season. Running the ball has been a struggle for Rutgers which averages 91 yards per game and ranks 115th nationally. Schiana says another reason the Cyclones made a late season run was the play of quarterback Jared Barnett. The Cyclones are 6-6 while Rutgers finished the regular season 8-4.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops says playing the Iowa Hawkeyes in Friday’s Insight Bowl gives this game a much different feeling. Stoops played on Hayden Fry’s first Big Ten championship team back in 1981 and later served on Fry’s staff. Stoops says having been a part of the Iowa program he knows the last thing his Sooners should do is take the Hawkeyes lightly. Oklahoma is a better than two touchdown favorite. Stoops expects a hard fought game. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it was no surprise to him that Stoops led the Sooners to the national title in only his second year at the helm.

This is the second straight trip to the Insight Bowl for the Hawkeyes who beat Missouri in last year’s game. Injuries hurt the Oklahoma offense late in the season but Ferentz says Sooner quarterback Landry Jones has a bright future at the next level. Oklahoma arrived on Phoenix last night. You can hear the action from the Insight Bowl live on KJAN, Friday night.

(Radio Iowa/Ric Hanson)

An annual event that draws thousands of spectators and athletes to Des Moines every February is the subject of a new book. “Reach for the Stars: The Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament” includes 620 pages of stories, facts and photos from the event’s 90 year history. “Reach for the Stars,” by Dan McCool Author Dan McCool says he conducted over 160 interviews for the book and one of highlights involves the story of Jack Barron, who won a state title in 1980 as a member of the Iowa School for the Deaf.

"Reach for the Stars," by Dan McCool

“This is how smart Iowa wrestling fans are – here’s a guy, deaf, wrestling for a state championship and he wins it. Obviously, he’s not going to hear (the crowd) if they applaud, so they got the idea to stand up and stomp their feet,” McCool explained. “(Barron) could feel the vibration and he must have thought the place was coming down.” The early years of the state tournament were much different than today – primarily because of a lack of strict rules and participation limits. The first tournament in 1921 included a place winner at 95 pounds who was just 11 years old.

“I found an account of a situation where Esterville was going to wrestle Fonda. They found out a couple of the guys on the Fonda team were 20, 21 or 22 (years old),” McCool said. “They were staying in school long enough to wrestle and as soon as wrestling season was over, they dropped out.” The Iowa High School Athletic Association began sanctioning the tournament in 1926 and put stricter guidelines in place. McCool became a fan of wrestling as a youngster, growing up in Clarion, when a friend won a state championship. He later covered the sport for 30 years as a writer for the Des Moines Register. McCool said he enjoys the “individual aspect” of the sport.

“You can have a terrible shooting night and still win a basketball game because the four other guys might chip in for you. You might miss some really big blocks in football, but you have 10 other guys who might be able to patch in your hole,” McCool said. “If you have a bad night in wrestling, it’s on you and everybody sees it. You can have a great night and everybody sees you pin the guy. But, if you get pinned, everybody sees it. There’s no hiding.” The championship round of the 2012 State High School Wrestling Tournament is expected to be sold out for the 25th consecutive year. McCool plans to be at the tournament, scheduled for February 16-18, to sign and sell copies of his book. The book is also available online at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)