Doug Rieder (left) receiving the Dan McCool Award. Photo courtesy of Jay Nelson

Raccoon Valley Radio sports announcer Doug Rieder received the Dan McCool Media Award on Saturday in Des Moines at the annual convention of the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association. The award is named after the late Dan McCool, a renowned authority and author about the sport of wrestling.

Rieder was recognized for covering and promoting wrestling going back to his first radio job in 1976 in Atlantic, Iowa. He’s been in Jefferson since 1979 and did radio play-by-play at the State Wrestling Tournament for the first time in 1980 on 1310 AM KDLS. Wrestling play-by-play on the radio wasn’t all that common back then, but for Rieder, State Wrestling Tournament play-by-play has always been special and it remains one of his broadcasting highlights every year. He also covered the sport from 1993-2012 as Sports Editor of the Jefferson Herald.

Raccoon Valley Radio now does play-by-play at the girls and boys State Wrestling Tournaments, covering every match of all of our area qualifiers with a team of announcers including Rieder, Raccoon Valley Radio’s Shawn Kenney, and others.