I have run into David Klockenga a couple times in the last five years at a Drake men’s basketball game. It was always good to see him, even if for a short time. I reached out to David to see if he would be willing to talk about his days covering the Streaks girls basketball team for WAIK. It turns out his memory is better than mine, it is great reading his thoughts and memories.
David covered Streaks basketball for fifteen years, and during a very exciting time from 1993 thru 2007. Consider some of the following stats from the 15 years he broadcasted:
vs. WB6 opponents- 148-21
vs. Peoria Schools- 56-9
vs. Mid-Illini opponents- 50-4
vs. NCIC schools- 40-6
Overall Record- 437-74
WB6 Champs- 10 years
Regional Champs- 14 years
Sectional Champs- 9 years
Supersectional Champs- 7 years
Final Four (2 Classes)- 5 years
Ranked Top 10 (2 Classes)- 13 years
David was enthusiastic about the Streaks, and brought a lot of energy to the broadcasts. You never felt he was doing a job, he never went through the motions. He recognized he was describing teenagers playing basketball. While he was accurate in his descriptions, he didn’t become negative about the kids. His support for the Streaks never blinded him to the good plays of the other team. His enthusiasm for the game didn’t take him down the pass of being a ref critic, his focus always remained on the players.
I will always be appreciative he made copies of each of the broadcasts for my mother to be able to listen to the games. This time period was largely pre-internet broadcasts, so this was a way for my mother to listen to games. She thoroughly enjoyed his broadcasts. David was a professional in his work, and he was a class act.
Where do you live now, and in normal times, what is your job?
In April 2007, our family moved to Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. Both Janet and I at the time took jobs at the Des Moines Register. Today, Janet works for the State of Iowa. Our daughter, Nora, will be entering her junior year at Ankeny High, where she will be a member of the swim team. I own a franchise called Filta. My business filters cooking oil in kitchen fryers, which extends the life of the oil. It’s a service that is a green way to manage kitchen fryers and allows us to clean the fryers for our clients. Of course, with most of our local restaurants and corporate accounts closed during this pandemic, we like many other small businesses, are struggling. We service almost every hospital kitchen in the metro and some nursing homes, so we do have some business, but our corporate customers and most of our restaurants are closed.
I am guessing you have been overwhelmed to watch up close the growth of Des Moines? Where should I have gone to eat in Des Moines that I probably missed?
One of my clients is a place called Zombie Burger. It’s a fun place to take the family and get a variety of creative burgers with a few zombies looking down at you. Janet and I love Flying Mango, which has barbecue, Cajun and Caribbean fare. Splash seafood restaurant in downtown Des Moines is fantastic, but you should leave the kids behind. In Ankeny, we enjoy the Leaning Tower of Pizza, which is a local institution. Speaking of pizza institutions, my wife wouldn’t allow me not to say how much we miss the Pizza House in Galesburg.
During your time announcing, you become attached to the teams you were announcing. Even though you were from Geneseo, you became enlightened! It is tough for announcers not to become just fans, and start whining about refs and focused on refs. How did you avoid that pitfall?
Most listeners don’t want to hear announcers complaining. I believe you announce a game, supporting the team you are announcing, but also call out good play by opposing teams. When it comes to officiating, there were many times when I would say someone traveled but it wasn’t called. So be it, the officials miss calls, they are human. I didn’t feel we needed to say any more. We also tried to point out when officials made good calls.
Including announcing games for a college in Des Moines since we moved here, I have announced for 25-plus years. I can think of only one game when I really wondered if officials had a fix on a game. No, it wasn’t a Galesburg game. Ironically an official was my color commentator for that game, and he wondered, too. Officials want to get it right, and everyone should support them.
As far as Geneseo goes, just think how much the Western Big Six has improved with this great addition to the conference!
You had Jerry Hise as your partner for most or all of this period. The two of you had a good relationship and you could tell on the air. Tell me about how it worked between the two of you.
Jerry is a good friend of mine. Coach Bill Hungate recruited Jerry to the radio station at the start of the 1994 season. Like any friendship, it grew over time. I respected Jerry’s knowledge of the game. At the beginning, we announced both Galesburg and AlWood girls games. AlWood had that two-year run at state, and then Galesburg had that amazing run going to state seven out of eight years. It’s easy to cover a winner, and it’s a lot of fun. My friendship with Jerry grew while we spent hours on the road, and we got to know each other so well, I would know what he was going to say on the radio before he said it.
Jimmie Carr and Tom McMahon would join us for most of those road trips, and the four of us would have a great time. We would get back to Galesburg after a trip to the Quad Cities and end up having a sandwich and maybe an adult beverage late at night before it all ended. Heck that was almost as fun as watching the Streaks win, and win and win.
In your time announcing games for girls basketball, you got to see the growth of fans' interest. What were three or four of the best atmospheres (outside of Redbird) you saw during your time announcing?
You are taxing my memory on this one a little bit. But first off, the Galesburg fans might be the best in the state! During that run, I believe we were breaking unofficial attendance records at GHS for fan participation. That atmosphere was a great home court advantage. I think we saw how that started to influence the other conference schools. Rock Island had some really good teams during that time, and the games at Rocky were very loud. Another loud place was Alleman. I hope people realize how hard it is to announce a game when the crowd noise is that loud. We can’t hear each other in our headsets.
I believe you covered seven state trips. What are some of your best memories of the trips to state?
We were going to state so much, the support staff at Redbird Arena got to know us personally. Other media members wondered how we would sometimes get preferential treatment. We always sat courtside at Redbird Arena, so we could look up and see the amazing fan support Galesburg offered, which is another great memory. With all those trips to state, we also found a couple of great places to hang out at after the games and enjoyed some great pizza.
On the court, we broadcast 20 games at state, four AlWood games and 17 GHS games in nine total years. So, it’s hard to remember a lot of specific plays. I’ll talk about one of the great moments a little later in this interview. But I do have a few other things that stand out in my memory. On a sad note, I’ll never forget the moment Michelle Flaar went up for a layup and came down in pain. She had blown out her ACL in her knee, and this wasn’t the first GHS player to have done this. Her brief scream echoed in our headsets, and that sticks with me. As an announcer, you shouldn’t speculate on an injury, but we already knew what had happened and talked about it.
On a much happier note, watching the end of the 1999 semifinal when Galesburg held off Lincoln 41-39 was so fantastic. It doesn’t get any better watching a team celebrate a trip to the state title game. Finally, it also doesn’t get old watching trophy ceremonies, and we got to witness those five times for GHS!
Give me your top ten- “greatest games”-
There are so many great games and many never made this list. I won’t claim I’m right about this list, but let’s enjoy celebrating these games. In reverse order, here are my top ten.
10. * 1997 Moline Sectionals: Win over Rock Island. Rocky was very good, ranked 12th. But Molly Watson went off, scoring 33 and the Streaks had a big win at one of my all-time favorite facilities.
9. * 1996 Dixon Supersectional: Win over Belvidere. The Streaks finally broke through. After the sectional semifinal win, I think we all knew this was going to happen, but what a celebration when it finally did!
8. * 2001 State: Revenge win over Peoria Central. This was probably a quarter final upset win for GHS. After losing to Central in November, Galesburg entered the game with a 30-6 record while Peoria was 29-4. Coming off a 24-point performance in the Super, Sarah Pacheco scored 24 again in this win. Shannon Williams had 19 and Shanell Jackson added 15, and Galesburg went back to the semifinals with a dominating 69-47 win.
7. * 1995 Sectional at Galesburg: win over PND. It was so exciting to finally see GHS win a sectional, and to see it at home was so exciting!
6. * 2000 Streator Sectional: OT win over Moline. First of all, you can’t get to Streator from Galesburg. In fact, you can’t get to Streator from anywhere. Megan Pacheco had maybe her best game ever, scoring 25, including a three to send the game to overtime. Moline tried to pull off the upset but Streaks won by 10!
5. *1999 State Title game: Chicago Marshall over GHS. The only loss in my top ten, but state championship games should be celebrated! This was a classic all time matchup. Chicago Marshall was a perennial power and entered the game 30-1. GHS 33-1. Sorry Evan, but if you coach until you are 95, you probably won’t catch Dorothy Gaters in all time wins, because she will still be coaching too. Gaters currently has 1133 wins, David Powers sits at 966 and Evan is at 913.
4. * 1999 DeKalb Supersectional: Win over Harlem. Galesburg was 30-1, but Harlem didn’t care. GHS won 65-64 behind 24 by Sarah Larson and 14 by Megan Pacheco. Galesburg won at the buzzer thanks to Sara Pacheco’s shot.
3. * 1999 State: Win over Lincoln. The run in 1999 was amazing. GHS played great defense and held on for a 41-39 win in the state semifinal!
2. * 1996 Ottawa Sectional: Win over Freeport. I think this was the most important win in program history! Freeport was THE team before GHS was. They had been to state in the previous two years, and had plans to go again that year. Everyone remembers Molly Watson's big drive for the win, but she was the third leading scoring on the team that night. Sara Wood had 19 points, and Ami Pendry had 17. It was arguably the best guard threesome in Streaks history!
1. * 1999 State: Win over Loyola. I honestly felt going into this quarter-final game that GHS would win despite playing the two-time defending state champs. Yes, GHS was ranked second, but almost every media member thought Loyola would win, saying they had played a much tougher schedule. It was a 56-54 win with GHS shocking the state. I had to spend the entire game correctly pronouncing the names Gvozdenovic and Sobieszchzyk. (I still remember how!)
What were the ten biggest shots during your time?
These are some of the great memories in Streaks history and depending on who you are, you might rank these differently. In reverse order, here is how I rank them, but I have gone back and forth over the years on the top two moments in Streaks history…In MY OPINION!
10. 2007 Galesburg Sectionals loss in overtime to Morton. T.Young hit three from half-court to send game to overtime. This was arguable the hardest shot of all listed, and my last memory as a Streaks broadcaster. If the Streaks would have won in overtime, this shot would be ranked better!
9. 1997 DeKalb Supersectionals. Right before halftime, Molly Watson took a full court pass, and shot a turnaround jumper to beat the buzzer. A special player hit a great shot and the Streaks rolled! Molly showed how strong she was with this shot.
8. 1996 Dixon Supersectional. Sara Wood 6 fts in the last two minutes to ice the game. They were clutch shots, but I had no doubt the Streaks were going to win!
7. 1997 State Farm. J. Howard hit a three to win the game. Maybe the most fun we had in broadcasting a game. Sophomore Jaque Howard hit a three to win the tournament and beat a very good Mendota team in the process. The score was 77-74. I love high scoring games!
6. 1995 Galesburg Sect vs Quincy. Stef Mitchell hit a three in the last two minutes to give Galesburg the lead and then the win. Stefanie was a three point machine that season, and this one was the biggest shot of her career!
5. 1999 State win over Lincoln. Sarah Larson hit two big ft's in last seconds. This was one of the most exciting wins ever! Sara was a clutch free throw shooter.
4. 2000 Streator Sect win in OT over Moline. Michele Flaar rebound to Megan Pacheco, who hit three to send game into OT. Megan had a great post-season run. This was her best game. She had 25 in the game, 15 of those points came in the fourth quarter and overtime. Galesburg was beat until this shot went in!
3. 1999 DeKalb Supersectional. Rachel Bicego hit Sarah Pacheco for an open game winner to beat Harlem. This was a crazy game. I remember this shot well, but this was sophomore Sarah Pacheco, who hit the game winner, not the all-time leading scorer in Streaks history, senior Sarah Larson. Pacheco scored 7, but none bigger than the last shot. Larson had 24.
2. 1996 Ottawa Sectional vs Freeport. Molly Watson went coast to coast in the last second to give Galesburg the lead. I would call this the most important shot in Streaks history. Does the run ever happen without this shot? Streaks ended the season in third place, but almost lost the sectional semi!
1. 1999 State win over Loyola. Jenny Zolper tips it to Sarah Larson for game winner. You win a quarter final at the buzzer. You beat the two-time champs, you do it in front of one of the largest crowds at state ever and on TV. This was huge! Sarah was an undersized post and hit this inside shot against two players much taller than her.
What are your memories about the last second shot vs. Loyola?
That’s a funny question because we didn’t really see all of it. The downside of sitting courtside is sometimes you get an official standing right in front of you. I didn’t see how Sarah got the ball, I thought she may have stolen it, but I wasn’t sure. All I knew was she was shooting it at the buzzer. You can tell this if you hear my call; we didn’t know until later that Zolper tipped it to her. This is why I much prefer to broadcast a little higher up. Television announcers have monitors. Wish we had them on this day.
When people think about this era, immediately they think of Larson, Watson, Megan Pacheco. Who are some of the less heralded players who you felt were maybe unsung heroes or a lot better than people realized?
And of the three you mentioned, Megan didn’t really have great stats, but she had the “IT factor” She was a match up nightmare and hit some clutch shots. Now to answer your question. I started in 1990. We only did a few games in those early years, but you had some great ones. Tiffany Sibley could score with the best of them, and Ann Henderson was a player who could get you triple doubles and I think a quad double once? Bonnie Apsey worked so hard and improved so much.
As we got into the state years, Molly Watson got a lot of well-deserved credit, but Sara Wood and Ami Pendry were both special guards. Sarah Larson got a lot of help from Jenny Zolper. Jenny wasn’t that big, but worked so hard underneath.
Speaking of post players, how about Ashley Shephard. She and Sarah Pacheco were great together. And, no one worked harder than Annie Parkin. Shannon Williams was special, but Annie did so many little things.
I enjoyed your one on one with Shannel Jackson recently, and she was without any doubt one of my favorites. She was another player who did little things and played great defense. Jenna Bicego ran a great point and had Amanda Gunther, who scored a lot of points her senior year.
A great scoring machine was Latoya Wright. She scored a ton of points in the paint, despite not being that tall. I’d also like to mention Breanna Saline, who was a nice offensive player. That’s a lot of players, and I believe I skipped many great ones, but no program in state history has had such a successful run over this many years.
If you were going to pick an all-tough starting five, who would you have picked?
This is a great question and it gives me an opportunity to mention players that may not always get mentioned. But with that said, how do you not start off with the Pacheco sisters? Sarah Wood has to be a point guard on this team. I’ll team her up with Annie Parkin and how about we add in Latoya Wright. For her size, she could battle with the best of them!
You saw a lot of shooters during this time. Who are three players you would pick to take the last shot of a game?
Got to start with Molly Watson. How about Ami Pendry. Maybe she didn’t get in the last second shot list above, but she was a clutch shooter. And in my era, if I needed a three, I would have to have Stefanie Mitchel on the floor.
Is this going to be the year for the White Sox?
Are we going to have baseball? No, it won’t be the year for the Sox, but this team is about ready to have several really great years! The Sox still have two starting pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery. Let’s give this group another year, but watch out baseball, because the Sox are going to dominate over the next several years and I can’t wait!!
This was fun. I found all of my old scorebooks, which really helped jog my memory. I wish I could have seen some of the great players to have come through the program since I left Galesburg in 2007.
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