Pella Forte Excited to Return to State Dance

The first-ever officially sanctioned state qualifying meet for Iowa High School Girls Wrestling will be held this Friday across the state, with local athletes competing in central Iowa. The Pella girls team — also made up of athletes from Pella Christian and Knoxville, will head to the Iowa Events Center...

Pella Christian High School will host the sixteenth annual All-City Speech Night tonight at 7:00 pm. The festival will showcase all the 2023 Large Group Speech events of both city high schools. A free-will donation will be taken to be divided between both schools. Click here for a full list of state qualifiers from Pella and PCHS.

The Knoxville Bowling Squads will make one final appearance at Statesmen Lanes in Oskaloosa for a home meet against Creston today. The Panthers, while not seeing wins this year, are seeing progress. Coach Shaun Renard is pleased with the progress and hopes the mental aspect of the game also keeps getting better.

The City of Pella is introducing a new leader at Bos Landen Golf Course. Matt Jennings is the new Bos Landen Clubhouse Manager and Golf Pro effective this week. Matt grew up in Prairie City, where he started playing golf at the age of 13. He was successful throughout his high school and college career, earning state medalist in Class 2A for PCM in 2010 and compiling twenty top ten finishes at Henderson State University. Jennings earned his bachelor’s in business management.

He had one of the greatest post-high school careers of any Iowa-based graduates on the baseball diamond, and this past weekend, the Norwalk native was honored by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association in their Hall of Fame. Two-time MLB All-Star Joel Hanrahan discusses his return to Iowa and memories from the Little Hawkeye Conference on this week’s Radio Sports Page.

Rick Hurt with the South Central Iowa Solid Waste Agency (SCISWA) said his organization puts out a calendar every year and they have done so for at least the last eight years. It is a calendar with a theme, which for 2023, was Composting. The calendar became a contest that drew around 550 entries from area third through fifth grade students in the SCISWA planning area, which covers Marion, Monroe, Lucas and Poweshiek counties.

Grammy Award Winners Dailey and Vincent will be performing in Knoxville at the Knoxville Performing Arts Center Friday, February 3 at 7:30 p.m. The show is a Lori King Production with advance tickets selling for $35 and tickets at the door $45. VIP tickets are on sale for $55. King, who promotes the show, tells KNIA/KRLS News seeing Darrin Vincent and Jamie Dailey is like bringing the Grand Ole Opry to Knoxville as they honor their heroes.

The Indianola girls basketball team needed late-game heroics to pull off the victory Tuesday night on the road at Oskaloosa 51-50, while the Indianola boys used a strong second half to pull away to complete the sweep 67-44. The Indians girls won the first quarter leading 12-8, but quickly saw...

Knoxville students performed well at the District Large Group Speech competition in Tama Saturday at South Tama High School. Brianna Murphy and Kaeding Phillips qualified for State Speech with their play called Two Friends at the End of the World according to Jakob Jehn, Speech coach at KHS. This play takes place during the final hours of the world before the moon crashes into it, ending all life. The two friends head to the local lake and have a conversation about life and friendship.

Enjoy highlights from this weeks and last weekend from our area games on KNIA/KRLS. Indianola vs. Oskaloosa Girls Tuesday on 94.3 KNIA. Knoxville vs. Chariton boys and girls (Panthers vs. Cancer) Saturday 95.3 KNIA. Pella Christian boys vs. Des Moines Christian Monday 92.1 KRLS. Pella vs. Norwalk Friday KRLS2.

Three Jefferson Intermediate School students were the winners in the annual U.S. Flag Essay Contest held by American Legion Post 89. Post Commander David Robbins says each year fifth graders from Pella and Pella Christian schools submit approximately 200 essays about the American Flag, and members of the local veterans group selects winners.

The Norwalk boys basketball team extended their winning streak to six games Tuesday night with a 67-51 home victory over Pella Christian, sweeping the Little Hawkeye Conference season series. The Pella Christian girls, meanwhile, earned a series split by defeating the Warriors 46-38 for their first conference win of the...

The Simpson College women’s gymnastics team split a triangular at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse on Sunday, scoring a team score of 179.850. The Storm had their highest score of the season on beam with Baily Tessena winning her second career beam event with a 9.6. The Storm scored a 45.450 on floor, a 46.500 on vault, and a 40.875 on bars, and Avery Ingram won the all-around title with a score of 35.925. The hosts won the meet with a 188.225 and Hamline came in third with a 175.950.

Indianola High School senior Lizzy Orey was awarded a scholarship from the Greater Des Moines Partnership as announced last week, the inaugural Career Launch Scholarships. Orey will receive $1,000 towards secondary education. The Career Launch Scholarship was created to support regional high school students in their career and educational goals...

The Knoxville School Board met last night. The board approved an agreement with Pleasantville for mock trial and an inter-contract with Des Moines Public School. A discussion on baseball field improvements was held and the board considered an overnight trip request for the four students in the chorus to go to Wartburg College among other matters. The overnight trip was approved.

The Norwalk girls and boys basketball teams will both be gunning for a Little Hawkeye Conference sweep tonight when the Warriors host Pella Christian. The girl-boy varsity doubleheader starts at 6:15 p.m., airing live on 92.1 KRLS as well as kniakrls.com. The games will also be streamed live on the Warrior Productions YouTube channel.

Carousel Theatre is in the middle of their 58th season of bringing shows to Indianola, working towards two more performances in the spring of 2023. Carousel Theatre Board President Alex Lindsley tells KNIA News he thinks part of what has made Carousel a long-term success is the ability to bring in talented actors from not just Indianola but the surrounding communities, and the range of shows they have been able to put on.

Merrietta’s wishes were to be cremated. No services are planned at this time for Merrietta (Curtis) Stanley, of Knoxville. Merrietta’s wishes were to be cremated. The Winfield Funeral Home is assisting her family.

The Indianola boys swimming team has one of their last tune-up meets before postseason begins tonight hosting Marshalltown, while the Indianola girls and boys basketball teams travel to Oskaloosa for a conference doubleheader. The Indians are coming off of a strong performance at the Little Hawkeye Conference meet hosted at...

Several local baseball coaches and a former standout player were recognized at the annual Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Banquet this past weekend. Former Norwalk standout and MLB All-Star Joel Hanrahan was selected to the organization’s Hall of Fame. Joel was a 2x All-Star with the Pittsburgh Pirates and accumulated 441 career strikeouts in the majors over seven seasons. He was selected in the 2nd round of the MLB draft after graduating from Norwalk, where he was a 1999 All-State honoree. Hanrahan will be featured on this week’s KNIA/KRLS Radio Sport Page, that airs Wednesday at 6 p.m. and Thursday at 10 a.m. on KNIA/KRLS.