Last Friday night marked the end of the football season for the Iowa Falls-Alden Cadets. The Cadets finished with a 1-4 record in district play and 3-6 overall. This was the Cadets’ first year competing in a newly realigned district that included four playoff qualifiers and will remain unchanged for the 2026-27 season.
The Cadets were led by a core group of underclassmen. Junior quarterback Karson Kalous threw for 1,299 yards and 12 touchdowns, ranking among the top five in Class 3A District 2 in both categories. Junior Cade Olberding was Kalous’ top target, catching nine touchdown passes to lead the district. Junior Collin Pieper added 382 receiving yards and two scores.
On defense, junior Kyler Patton paced the Cadets with 48.5 tackles, including 29 solo stops. Junior Drake Sanders followed with 47.5 tackles, 37 of them solo, while junior Connor Kuker led the team with six tackles for loss.
Head Coach Eric Walkingstick said that while experience wasn’t always on the Cadets’ side this fall, the lessons learned should pay off moving forward.
“The interesting thing is most of the teams that we played were probably 80% senior dominant teams,” says Walkingstick. “And for us, we were probably more like 20% seniors. A lot of the teams that we saw were heavy senior teams. I think in the future with our juniors, some of our sophomores coming through, and then we’ve got some decent groups coming through, the junior high and freshman group. And I think that’s going to be really good for us in the future, depending on if we stay in 3A or not. I think we’re going to be in a good place in the future.”
The Cadets now turn their focus to building on this year’s growth heading into the 2026 season.
Full interview with Head Coach Eric Walkingstick;
