Former W.D.M. Woman Knows All About Valley's Championship Tradition; Now She's Doing Her Best to Bring St. Olaf College Some Women's and Men's Golf Success
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RON MALY

Vol 3, No. 53,
Aug 21, 2003

To Le Ann Finger, it comes as no surprise that Valley of West Des Moines won five state high school championships in the past school year.

When Le Ann was a student at Valley in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she played on three state title teams herself.

"Bill Coldiron was my coach and our teams won three state high school girls’ championships," Le Ann said. "Bill ran a top-notch program and was a big supporter of women’s golf throughout the state of Iowa."

Valley’s teams seized titles in football, baseball, softball, boys’ track and girls’ soccer in the 2002-2003 school year.

These days, Le Ann Finger, 40, watches Valley’s success from afar. She’s got her own athletic teams to develop and observe at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

Le Ann, the daughter of Marv and Ruth Hiddleson of West Des Moines, coaches both the women’s and men’s golf teams and is the sports information director at St. Olaf, her alma mater.

"I’ll be starting my sixth year as the women’s golf coach, and I was recently named the men’s coach," Le Ann said. "St. Olaf is a four-year liberal arts college. We’re a Division III school, so we don’t get the top athletes because we’re not able to give athletic scholarships, but we’re one of the tougher schools in the country academically."

Le Ann said St. Olaf, which competes in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, has 27 men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports.

Carleton College is also located in Northfield, and carries on a spirited athletic rivalry with St. Olaf. Heck, how could any sports fan overlook the coveted Goat Trophy? Now, in the Sept. 13 football game the two colleges will have their own football bowl game.

And it’s called, of course, the Cereal Bowl.

"Malt-O-Meal cereal is made in Northfield, and our coach has decided the St. Olaf-Carleton football game will be the Cereal Bowl," Le Ann explained. "Malt-O-Meal will be handing out complimentary packets of cereal at the game.

"In fact, Midwest Living magazine is doing an article this fall featuring the St. Olaf-Carleton football rivalry, which dates back to the early 1900s."

Marv and Ruth Hiddleson, Le Ann’s parents, have appeared in this column before.

I wrote about them when Marv told me about the "Hawkeye Bathroom" they have in their West Des Moines home. The bathroom, which has Tiger Hawk wallpaper and is filled with University of Iowa memorabilia, has been featured on Keith Murphy’s WHO-TV sportscasts in recent years.

Le Ann has observed her parents’ fierce Hawkeye loyalty as long as she can remember.

"They’ve stuck it out for a long time—even during the Bobby Commings coaching years in the 1970s," Le Ann said. "Now they go to Rose Bowls and, of course, attended the Orange Bowl last season.

"Dad is now 70 and I thought my parents would move south to get out of the Iowa winters, but Dad said he couldn’t give up his Hawkeye athletics. His license plates say ‘1959 Iowa grad’ and he had a bumper sticker that said, ‘I Bleed Black and Gold.’"

Le Ann moved with her family from Des Moines to West Des Moines in 1973. She said it was when she was a fifth-grader that she went to a park in West Des Moines—probably Fairmeadows—to hit golf balls with a classmate.

"I’d never played golf before or even been on a golf course," Le Ann said. "My classmate and her older brother asked if I wanted to buy their junior clubs for $10. So I took lawnmowing or babysitting money and bought the clubs. Suddenly I had a big interest in golf.

"My parents had just become members of Des Moines Golf and Country Club, so I signed up for junior golf there."

The rest is history. Le Ann has maintained her interest in golf and now is doing her best to build winning women’s and men’s programs at St. Olaf. The college has both a spring and fall season.

She’s a nine-time women’s club champion at the Northfield Golf Club, has passed the players’ ability test and is an apprentice with the PGA of America. She teaches youth golf clinics in the summer and gives more than 150 private and group golf lessons.

Le Ann lives in Dundas, Minn., with her husband, David, and daughters Kelsey, 12, and Brooke, 10.

 

Here & There

There are a number of things on my mind as I wrestle with the quarterback controversy at Drake….One surrounds the mystery concerning the man who wears uniform No. 80 for the Chicago Cubs. Paul Sullivan, who covers the Cubs for the Chicago Tribune, periodically writes a column called "Paul Sullivan on the Cubs" in which he responds to readers’ questions. Well, ol’ Paul got a dandy the other day from someone who identified himself as Dave Bohnenkamp from North Liberty, Ia. [I say "identified" because sometimes people who write letters to the editor or to columnists use phony names and addresses just so they can fool people. But let’s assume the Trib did a thorough check on Bohnenkamp]. Anyway, the letter—which was buried far too deep in the column to suit me--read: "Hey, Paul: Perhaps you can shed some light on this mystery: Who is the guy who is in uniform [Martinez, No. 80] who sits on the bench and follows Sammy Sosa around during the pregame? A security person? Part of Sammy’s posse? I know he can’t be a coach because MLB rules are keeping Dusty Baker’s buddy, Sammy Jackson, from being on the bench and in uniform as a coach during the game. So who is ‘Martinez’ and why does he get to be in uniform on the bench?" This was Sullivan’s answer: "He’s Julian, Sammy’s special assistant. Why he gets to sit on the bench and wear a uniform is something that’s never been fully explained, but that’s Sammy’s world, and I’m just here for a brief cameo." Bad answer. Very bad. Now I want to know who No. 80 really is, why he follows Sosa around and why he sits in the dugout. If I were one of Sullivan’s bosses, I’d also want him to find out more about No. 80. Sounds like a helluva story to me….Also in that same Sullivan column was a question from one Gregory Shriver of West Des Moines, who just happens to be a member of the sports copy desk at the local paper [local, that is, in Des Moines]….Shriver asked a question about parking near Wrigley Field and got an answer from Sullivan….A guy called to ask me about a column he saw in the local paper. "Sean Keeler wrote that former Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke had a heart valve that was 90 percent blocked," the caller said. "I think Keeler, as usual, was confused and meant artery, not valve, when he wrote about Duke’s bypass surgery." Well, I don’t like having to correct the things that other people write, but the caller seemed to know what he was talking about….More stuff about the local paper: A reader e-mailed me: "We get the early edition over here in Omaha. But two questions about the Register’s front page: (1) If you’re going to list the cities affected by the blackout, why pick a Detroit suburb instead of Detroit? (2) And if you’re going to use the suburb, why not spell the name right. It’s Grosse Pointe. The early edition called it Gross Pointe."….Hey, that’s also the same paper that had Champaign, Ill., spelled Champagne. These are obviously tough times at 8th and Locust, especially when it comes to spelling, geography and numerous other things….Another dumb thing they do there: Putting photographs of the columnists in the paper with the notice "Joe Columnist’s column will return soon."….People at that place have the mistaken idea that readers actually pay attention to what days columnists such as Marc Hansen, my very good friend Rob Borsellino and John Carlson are supposed to be in the paper. Sad to say, putting their photos in the paper while they’re on vacation invites break-ins at their homes, and many savvy newspaper people know that. When Hansen was in the sports department, he told the copy desk to not put his photo in the paper with a message saying he wasn’t writing that day because it would call attention to the fact that he might be out of town….Charlie Smith of Tulsa, who was in town to visit our lunch gang the other day, says he doesn’t miss sportswriting now that he’s retired. "I read the first two paragraphs of the press day football stories and turned the page," he said. I know what he meant. All of ‘em were just like last year’s press day stories….And isn’t there some way the Big 12 Conference can eject poor old Baylor and add Arkansas?….By the way, for the second year in a row, Oklahoma of the Big 12 is ranked No. 1 in the preseason Football Writers Association of America "Super 16" poll. The Sooners received 16 first-place votes to four for No. 2 Ohio State. Oklahoma was one of three Big 12 teams picked. The others were No. 5 Kansas State, which received two first-place votes, and No. 6 Texas. The only other Big Ten team listed is No. 7 Michigan. "We certainly appreciate the respect our program has received, but our team is very much aware that championships are never won in August," said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. "A high ranking at this time of year simply signifies that the writers value what we’ve accomplished here and see promise in this team. We appreciate that and are very good about keeping it in perspective. We remain focused on winning championships, and that’s a long process."

[Ron Maly’s e-mail address is malyr@juno.com ]