Storm Lake St. Mary’s players help Remsen St. Mary’s reach state tournament
Three Storm Lake St. Mary’s players are headed to state with Remsen St. Mary’s after the Hawks beat Newell-Fonda 10-4, extending a five-appearance run in six years.
Three Storm Lake St. Mary’s students found a summer roster spot with Remsen St. Mary’s, and Ruby Phelps, Kielee Larson and Neely Bacon are headed to the state softball tournament because of it. Storm Lake St. Mary’s did not field a team this season after it could not hire a coach and had only nine girls interested, leaving the three Panthers to keep playing in a different uniform.
Remsen St. Mary’s secured the berth Monday night with a 10-4 win over Newell-Fonda in a Class 1A regional final at Fonda. The Hawks set the tone with three runs in the top of the first inning and never trailed, sending them to state for the fifth time in six years and keeping Bacon, Phelps and Larson on the field for the season’s final week.
The arrangement is a familiar one in small-school softball across northwest Iowa, where programs often survive by sharing opportunities and giving athletes a place to play when numbers run thin at home. For Buena Vista County readers, the connection runs through Storm Lake, where the three St. Mary’s students stayed active instead of sitting out the summer and became part of a Remsen program that already had the experience to make another deep run.
Remsen St. Mary’s has also had to carry more than the pressure of a regional bracket. Head coach Erika Bates pointed to the team’s resilience after a difficult school year that included a November bus accident involving the girls basketball team, in which Grace Galles was significantly injured. That backdrop gives the Hawks’ latest advance added weight as they head toward Fort Dodge.
The 2026 Iowa girls state softball tournament is scheduled for July 20-24 at Rogers Park in Fort Dodge. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union says softball has been sanctioned in Iowa since 1955, that Iowa is the only state with girls high school softball in the summer, and that 2026 is the first year of the double-elimination format. For Phelps, Larson and Bacon, the bracket now offers one more week of games and one more chance to keep Buena Vista County names in the state tournament conversation.
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