Iowa team beats Texas for national championship

**Clone83** · 06-07-2010, 08:13 PM

. . . . in JUCO baseball.

So there.

Congratulations to the Reivers of Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. Historically they have been pretty good, but I see this was their first national title:

Daily Nonpareil Online > Sports

Last weekend at the NJCAA Division I Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo, fifth-rated Iowa Western and No. 1 San Jacinto, a five-time national champion, were the final two teams standing. With one loss in the event, the Reivers needed to beat unbeaten San Jacinto twice to secure their first national baseball title.

"We’re playing a bunch of Texas kids, which is the hotbed of baseball. It was David vs. Goliath,’’ Iowa Western coach Marc Rardin said. "And I told my guys, I was like, ‘We’re not even supposed to be here. We’re the token Northern District team.’’’

The Northern District consists of the two Illinois regions and the Iowa region. A Northern District school had never won a juco world series. But the Reivers, whose players hail primarily from cold-weather states, beat San Jacinto 10-4 on Friday, setting up a winner-take-all game on Saturday.

Trailing 4-3 heading to the bottom of the eighth, Iowa Western rallied for two runs and then slammed the door in the ninth.

One year after going 0-2 at the national tournament and losing both games by the 10-run rule (16-6 and 11-0), the Reivers were sprinting out to form the first Northern District dogpile in juco baseball history.

After starting the season 7-8, they won 44 of their final 48. . . .

Incidentally, I think last year was the first year for the Reivers football program. A wealthy businessman from Omaha (one of the first shopping mall developers in the United States) donated some otherwise prime development land in the area to get them started. I'm not sure, and certainly haven't been there myself, but just inferring from the initial cost estimates, the stadium sounds comparable to West Des Moines Valley - pretty nice for SWI.

Tom Osborne was heavily involved in organizing and getting the program off the ground. Though he was just a consultant as I recall, because of his knowledge and experience, he was essentially the leader. It was even rumored that perhaps he would coach, before the turmoil at NU and him going back to be the AD there.

What is a Reiver you might ask?

Border Reivers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo–Scottish border from the late 13th century to the end of the 16th century. Their ranks consisted of both Scottish and English families, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality. Their heyday was perhaps in the last hundred years of their existence, during the Tudor dynasty in England. . . . .

Again, Congratulations and way to represent!! Go Reivers!!!