CEDAR FALLS - NU High will be rewarded for a combination of academic and athletic excellence tonight prior to the Panthers' 7 p.m. home football game against Riceville.

The Iowa High School Sports Network and Bank Iowa will present NU High with a check for $800 during a 6:45 p.m. ceremony at the UNI-Dome as Class 1A's winner of the 2008-09 Traveling Challenge Cup.

"It's just a great honor to not only all our athletic teams and the kids and coaches, but also the teachers," first-year NU High activities director Joe Smeins said. "Academics come first here at NU, and it's really a student-athlete award and that's what we're so pleased about."

The Traveling Challenge Cup awards schools points for advancing in postseason play, along with achieving a team GPA higher than 3.0.

With state titles in basketball and golf, the Panthers surged toward the top of the Cup standings in 2007-08 when they finished second to Wapsie Valley by just seven points. This year Wapsie Valley finished second to NU High by 45 points.

"To be able to get second and then to get first obviously is a great accomplishment for the kids," said football coach Kody Asmus, who stepped down as the school's activities director last spring to finish up post-graduate classes.

One of the keys to securing the Cup this year was academic standing. Thirteen of the school's 14 sports received academic points. The boys' and girls' cross country teams were tops within the department with a GPA of 3.6.

Athletically, the Panthers received points for the basketball, baseball and golf teams advancing in postseason play, along with individual state qualifiers in boys' and girls' track, and boys' and girls' cross country.

Smeins sees the award as something positive his athletic programs can continue to pursue.

"The next year, they'll want to improve on how we did the year before in every sport, not only athletically but academically," he said. "I just think that having something to shoot for as an overall athletic department brings our coaches together and our kids together from female to male for the common goal of winning this award."

This fall, the NU High football team hopes to help earn some points for its school by advancing to postseason play for the first time since 1988. The Panthers (3-0) have come within a game of the postseason each of the past two years.

"A lot of guys on this year's team played in those two seasons," Asmus said. "They saw the areas that we struggled - things that didn't push us forward where we weren't able to win those big games.

"I just think, yeah, it made them hungry. A lot of them were also on the basketball, baseball and golf teams that had success. It's a transition from the success in those sports to doing it in football."

Milder's milestone

Coach Steve Milder has been through it all during his 32-year tenure at West Central High in Maynard. The 1973 University of Northern Iowa graduate is in his 125th season of coaching football (38), basketball (31), track (30) and baseball (26).

Last Friday, Milder reached another milestone as West Central's win over East Central improved his career football coaching record to 200-119.

"No one gets to this level, 200 wins, without a couple of things in place," Milder said. "One, you've got to have good assistants, and I've been blessed over the years with good assistants. On my current staff right now, Daryl Ruff has been with me for 18 years. The second thing, you have to have kids who are willing to listen. Those are things that lead to coaches' longevity."

Milder said he feels blessed with the support he's received at West Central, where he's coached for 32 or his 38 years. He had a losing record after his first 10 years, and the community remained supportive through a 19-game losing streak and a 23-game winning streak.

Still today, the four-sport coach displays a passion for working with youth.

"I think, when coaches first get into coaching they think they can extend their playing career by working with young athletes," said Milder, who played baseball and football at UNI. "If you talk to more older coaches, I get so much satisfaction out of seeing some kid get better - whether they're a guy who's going to play a lot on Friday night or not.

"I love seeing young people work hard and develop skills. So often in athletics, it's not the teams with great athletes that you remember, it's the teams with the good work habits and character that lets them succeed. …

"In a long career like mine, those are the kids that you always remember. Maybe they weren't the fastest or the strongest, but they were sure smart and they were able to use the talents that they had to the best of their ability."