ARMSTRONG — Boys and girls athletes at Armstrong Township High School have been getting back in shape in recent weeks, prepping for the seasons they hope will happen.
CHAMPAIGN — The prospects of high school sports taking place in the fall improved during an IHSA visit to tout Champaign- Urbana’s winning bid for the boys’ basketball state finals.
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RANTOUL — No matter that Major League Baseball owners and players can’t come to an agreement to begin the season. Rantoul Youth League players and organizers are saying, “Play ball!”
Fisher head boys basketball coach John Fisher said he hasn’t had to tell one athlete to stay focused as they have been allowed to return to school for workouts during the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Eastern Illinois Baseball League games will begin next month with four teams.
A chat with a high school athlete preparing for a fall sports season amid the coronavirus pandemic. Today, Rantoul football player COLIN WILKERSON, who will be a senior next season.
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‘I’m just excited that I have the opportunity’
JAKE PALMER‘s last two seasons running Fisher football have been some of the Bunnies’ best ever, resulting in a pair of 8-3 records and two postseason victories. He chatted with us heading into his fifth year on the sideline:
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GIFFORD — Three members of the Eastern Illinois Baseball League, including Gifford-Flatville, will not play in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three of the Sangamon Valley Conference’s longest-standing members will join the Vermilion Valley Conference when the 2021-22 school year commences.
RANTOUL — Tom Wilks guided three boys golfers out of a 2019 Class 2A regional and helped one of them to a state appearance. The Willow Pond Golf Course general manager talks about his upcoming fourth season leading the Eagles:
ARMSTRONG — Wade Rogers had visions of this day when he was a youngster watching Armstrong Township High School basketball.
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RANTOUL — Don’t tell Deon Mennenga you can’t go home again. Mennenga has.
RANTOUL — Youth league baseball and softball won’t be played in Rantoul this summer — at least the start of the season.
RANTOUL — Rantoul’s American Legion baseball program has canceled the 2020 season.
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FISHER — Jake Palmer didn’t quite exactly know what to do the first time he tried to press the new Fisher logo that he was holding in his hands onto a black football helmet.
FISHER — John Fisher and Ross Harden are receiving an opportunity to show they have the chops to coach basketball at the high school level.
Luke Zech:
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What for some time seemed inevitable is now official.IHSA officials on Tuesday canceled all spring sports state series, following the organization's April Board of Directors meeting via video conference.The decision comes on the heels of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker last Friday putting an…
The lights at the football fields at Rantoul and Fisher high schools were lit up Friday night as schools across the state stand together through the difficult time the COVID-19 pandemic has brought.
A month ago, when March Madness got canceled, I thought that it couldn’t get any worse. I was wrong, and now this has turned into my worst nightmare.
I have never wanted to answer the question, What is life like with out sports? But unfortunately I and every other sports fan has had to over the last four weeks.
RANTOUL — Just like almost every sporting event in the country, the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation’s state tournament was canceled last month.
PAXTON — Thirty-one years.
RANTOUL — My old high school track and cross country coach, Wesclin’s Keith Hall, used to tell the team, “if in your mind, you can conceive it and in your heart you can believe it, then you can achieve it”.
I was doing OK.
RANTOUL — The season may not start for a while, but that doesn’t mean the Rantoul Township High School baseball team won’t be ready.
CHAMPAIGN – Former Fisher High School basketball star Zach Griffith said the injury he suffered while a member of the University of Illinois basketball team is healing.
RANTOUL — Like all high school athletes Rantoul’s girls track team is just waiting for word from J.B. Pritzker, the Governor of the State of Illinois.
ARMSTRONG – The Armstrong-Potomac softball team was ready to roll into the season when it had its two weeks of good practices halted by COVID-19. Head coach Gary Duden said he was pleased with his team so far.
FISHER – The Fisher baseball team went through a major change last year. That change only lasted one year. Longtime head coach Milt Kelly stepped away and was watching from afar but is now back in the Bunnies dugout. Fisher thought they had found a replacement for Kelly which ended up not wo…
How do you go about living when the entire world is in a panic? Up until a week or two ago this was a question that you would only see answered in movies.
As if there was anything else to write about this week, of course I’m going to talk about the impact coronavirus has had on sports. And by now I’m sure you have read 1,000 stories about this. But I feel like my story with this is unique and now I have to go at least a month or two without sports.
PAXTON — It wouldn’t have been the least bit unusual earlier this century to see Paxton-Buckley-Loda’s athletic teams squaring off against those of St. Joseph-Ogden and St. Thomas More.
ARMSTRONG — The Armstrong-Potomac Trojans baseball team is under new direction this year.
RANTOUL – Although the season will not start until atleast April 4, the Rantoul Eagles softball team will have a shot at having a big season.
FISHER — For the last seven years local 1A softball has been dominated by the Fisher Bunnies.
RANTOUL — One of the worst seasons in the history of the Rantoul Township High School basketball team has come to an end.
Fresh off its lowest win total since 2009-2010, most of the talk around the Rantoul boys basketball team might be negative. For me this season was not a total loss.
RANTOUL — When Verdell Jones Jr. brought his Urbana boys’ basketball team into the 2019 Class 3A postseason, the Tigers were seeking to end a 30-year regional championship drought.
CHAMPAIGN — The Rantoul Eagle 800-meter relay team on Saturday ran the fastest indoor time in the last 15 years.
Rantoul’s Arizona and Pitt fifth and sixth-grade rec league teams made it to the Mahomet rec championship with Arizona winning 35-23. Both teams went undeafeded against the four Mahomet teams throughout the season. Arizona defeated VSI Photography 40-31 in one semifinal and Pitt beat Menold …
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FISHER — Ken Ingold has been on the Fisher sidelines for either boys or girls basketball since 1984. That is now going to change starting next season.
RANTOUL — Jermale Young’s mind was made up Wednesday night once the clock dipped below 20 seconds.Below 15. Below 10. Below 5. “I wasn’t passing that at all,” the Urbana junior said with a smile.His Tigers boys’ basketball teammates wouldn’t have it any other way.Young played hero for the se…
RANTOUL — Social media has a way of making competitive banter — trash talk, to some — much easier to hear heading into an important athletic showcase.High school kids know this as well as anyone. The latest example transpired ahead of Tuesday night’s Class 3A Rantoul Regional boys’ basketbal…
Anyone who knew me before I started working for the Rantoul Press knew how much I loved sports.
ONARGA — The Fisher Bunnies shocked the Milford Bearcats last Tuesday when the 14th-seeded Bunnies took down the sixth-seeded Bearcats 66-58.
ONARGA — After pulling off the upset over Milford in the first round Cinderella lost its shoe when Fisher fell to Cissna Park 73-64 in regional semifinal.
DANVILLE – The Rantoul Eagles boys basketball team lost its final two regular season games leading up to the postseason.
BOURBONNAIS — For most people, track is a spring sport or a summer sport if you are so inclined to watch the Olympics.
CHAMPAIGN — Cale Horsch did not make the medal stand at the Illinois High School Association Class 1A State Championships at State Farm Center on the campus of University of Illinois.
