By Bobby Narang November is normally a special time of the season in high school sports. The weather turns chilly, leaves start to fall, and the football season is reaching a high point with the start of the playoffs. With basketball practices heating up and the State cross country meet,
By Woodrow Carroll The visiting Purdue University football team played Illinois in Champaign Saturday, which figured to be interesting with the unsettling and hovering nature of COVID-19 hovering. The nasty virus played its unfriendly and unsettling part. The game, the Illini home opener, proved to be better than expected. Illinois
Northern Illinois University senior punter Matt Ference is on pace to set school records. Northern Illinois University football photo
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met for a special board meeting Wednesday, Oct. 28, where the Board provided the latest information on the IHSA’s Winter sports season. The Board voted to move the sport of wrestling from the Winter season to the Summer season, which will
By Bobby Narang The future looks bright for the St. Charles North High School girls swimming team. But the present shines as well. The North Stars concluded their season in style, by scoring 228 points to win the St. Charles North Sectional championship Saturday afternoon. St. Charles East managed to
By Woodrow Carroll The Big Ten Conference made this season’s football debut Friday evening in Madison, Wis. with the University of Illinois at Wisconsin. The season opener was not pretty for Illinois. Wisconsin had things pretty much under control from start in a 45-7 victory. Illinois will seek to get
Compacting news and thoughts into limited space with other important and relevant items: • The Los Angeles Dodgers were a youthful and talented team in 2016 when the Chicago Cubs advanced past the Dodgers on the way to the World Series championship. This year was the Dodgers’ third trip to
By Bobby Narang In a normal year, the majority of the State would be preparing for an exciting blend of State competitions and playoff football. Not this season. Normal is not Fall State series following the Illinois High School Association’s (IHSA) decision not to take any risks due to the
Metea Valley High School’s Meera Baid uses a forehand return in the Class 2A West Aurora Sectional singles tournament Saturday at the Vaughan Athletic Center in Aurora.
By Woodrow Carroll Earlier this year there was considerable concern for Major League Baseball’s (MLB) getting off the ground this season. It was in jeopardy with the COVID-19 scare making life miserable. The MLB played this season, albeit in truncated form. For those of us used to a 162-game season,
Life lessons with the COVID-19 extend to sports: What can be done, how, and for how long. It is true for high school sports, top division college sports, and the professional ranks. Major League Baseball’s World Series survives and will provide a sense of normality with a seven-game World Series,
By Bobby Narang For most of last week, Nicolas Dovalovsky thought he might miss one of the biggest cross country runs of the season. The Neuqua Valley High School senior struggled with his sleep due to chest pains, putting in doubt his ability to compete at a high level for
By Woodrow Carroll The Mid-American Conference (MAC) was the first conference among the 10 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) conferences to postpone football prior to this season because of COVID-19. The MAC will be the last to get back into the fray. Unless things change dramatically, it will be a bare-bones
The Rosary High School girls golf team celebrates last week following the school’s first Illinois High School Association (IHSA) regional tournament championship.
Sports are at once lasting and fleeting. Lasting: We savor high-level sports memories: Top players, special championships, stellar performances. We have seen more than a few of our former sports stars die in recent months. Too many to enumerate. Start with Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears, Lou Brock of
By Bobby Narang The Northern Illinois University football team returned to the practice field Monday morning. In another twist to the football season, and sports world in general, the Huskies restarted their season after the Mid-American Conference officials reversed course and elected to have a shortened season. Northern Illinois head
By Woodrow Carroll Postseason Major League Baseball (MLB): October 5, 2004, the Minnesota Twins defeated the New York Yankees, 2-0, in an American League Division Series game. It was the opening playoff game of the postseason for both clubs. It was the last time the Twins won a postseason game.
Remarkable memories often take a focus on the unusual. The staggered start of college football by conference from early September to early November 2020 qualifies as highly unusual. All of sports, high schools to the professional ranks, therefore qualify as unusual. There is no high school football in Illinois this
By Bobby Narang In many ways, the saying fits perfectly: The Return of the MAC. In this case, it’s in regards to football in the Mid-American Conference. September 25, the Mid-American Conference Council of Presidents voted to resume the Fall football season. A six-game schedule will start November 4, plus
