We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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The sad truth about being one of the only true medias left in our region is that people often try to manipulate me into writing a story to promote their personal cause – which quite often, is factually inaccurate. Normally, when the needed research is done, we find the flaw and don’t fall for the attempt, but on occasion we have been played (Can you say “Ron Fluegel?”). The latest attempt was emailed in by Jody Coss in regard to the Walnut Acres Nursing Home, and … well … here’s part of what...
The NCAA is getting close to announcing their tournament field, and the weather has been downright balmy to the point where my thoughts have already turned to the baseball season. And while I know my beloved Cubs fell into the toilet at the end of the season when they looked like a lock to make the post season, I have to admit … I’m looking forward to this year. I admit it, I’ve got baseball on the brain – Major League Baseball. I even joined an ESPN Fantasy Baseball league and am countin...
It wasn't supposed to be that close, but there again, Eastland wasn't supposed to turn the ball over more than 40 times in the game either. But the Cougars found themselves trailing to a fast and slappy Sterling Newman squad twice in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter. With 2:05 to play, the Cougars were down one 37-36 and needed an answer – they found it in the form of senior guard Lily Mullen who drove in and made a running short floater to give the lead back to Eastland at 38-37. But N...
The RR/SM Wildcats have used a full court press all season to help propel their offense. And Monday night in Mount Carroll, Polo was the latest team to witness first hand how the constant pressure never lets up – just always hustling, waiting for you to make a mistake which allows them to go on a defensive mini-run. The first strike hit at the 3:12 mark of the first period with the score 3-2 in Polo's favor. Laiken Haas hit a free throw to tie it, then a quick steal got the ball to Gwen M...
Twice before the Lena-Winslow Panthers had charged out to an 8-0 lead against the Pecatonica Indians, only to see the Indians charge back and claim the win. So, when once again Lena-Winslow opened the game with a quick 8-0 run, there was more than a few Rolaids being consumed as Pecatonica followed the same script. Elaina Rager is a star, anybody trying to deny that knows nothing about basketball, and with her team trailing 8-0, she put them on her back – tying the game at 13-13 on a three p...
Aquin had little trouble in blowing past the host Dakota Indians in the Regional semi-finals. To be fair, Dakota is incredibly young, with only one senior on the roster, while the Bulldogs start four of them. The end result, was a game that was over early. Aquin held a quick 8-0 lead before Dakota was even able to take a shot. The score climbed to 15-0 before Dakota finally scored. And if not for a last second floater at the end of the first quarter by Dakota's Finley Banks, it would have been...
The beauty of the IHSA post season is the excitement of winning a championship and battling for a chance to play at State. But the very painful element of the post season is that at some point ... every team but one is going to lose. The Aquin Bulldogs and Lena-Winslow Panthers are both very class acts – strong coaching of some excellent kids both on and off the court. So, when they squared off in the championship of the Dakota Regional ... someone was going to be heartbroken, but it took a l...
Wildcat fans were nervous. After all their RR/SM squad had just played the entire second quarter and only scored two points on a pair of free throws by Laiken Haas. They had not scored a single basket. In fact, they had turned the ball over more times than they actually shot the ball. "Well, they had picked up their defensive intensity and it was giving us some problems," said head coach David Wiegel. "But we were still playing well, I honestly wasn't concerned. I don't want to sound arrogant,...
I don't normally use my column as an advertising tool, so let me start by apologizing – but if you do read this, I think you'd agree there was a legitimate reason for it. (Unless you're a weird cat lady who hates dogs ... but I digress) Anyway, many people know our dog Bucky. He has played the role of Max the dog with the antler tied to his head as he walks with the Grinch in the last four Lena Christmas Parades, and the photo I am putting with this column was of him last summer walking in the L...
The Pearl City Wolves held a 12 point lead with 4:16 to play in the game, and looked like they were in complete control against the Oville/Aquin Broncos Wednesday night. The odds of a Bronco comeback were about as long as the odds of winning the Queen of Hearts drawing at Little John's Tap ... But then ... a perfect storm of events, some that seemed to defy logic, all combined to make what looked like a solid conference win, turn into an epic tragedy that the Wolves would rather forget. Credit h...
The Basketball game between the Lena-Winslow Panthers and Stockton Blackhawks was over pretty quickly. Stockton struggled against an aggressive 1-3-1 zone defense – turning the ball over repeatedly throughout the night which led to Panther transition baskets on a regular basis in a 66-28 blow out. What was a contest at halftime, with the Panthers only up 28-18, quickly got out of hand in the second half as Stockton only score ten points in the entire second half. Early on, Lena-Winslow made four...
“And you wonder why I don’t worry about the butter.” Now, that phrase may not mean much to you, but in my house it has become a simple comment that sums up the marriage my wife and I enjoy. You see, on most things, I am really pretty easy-going. I just don’t get too riled up over the daily trials and tribulations we see on a regular basis. “My car won’t start!” “Go ahead and use mine.” “The dog is acting funny.” “I think he ate a slipper, he’ll be fine after he poops it out.” “We’re out of mi...
At the special Freeport City Council meeting held Monday, February 5, the sole purpose of the early meeting at 5:00 was to deal with the road repair issues. At the previous COW (Committee of the Whole) meeting, Fehr Graham's Darin Stykel had given the Council members a "homework" assignment. They were each handed a street map of their respective ward, and asked to choose which streets in their ward they felt were the most desperate in need of repair. At Monday's meeting, a month later, the point...
Last week completed the Girl's Basketball regular season. And while Galena, Orangeville and Eastland all locked up their respective conference titles, some major upsets have thrown the post season outlook – that appeared set in stone a week ago – into some serious doubt. The biggest news was that the Orangeville Broncos, who had not lost to a 1A team all season, were not only beaten at Pecatonica by the Indians, but hammered 54-35 as Lauren Mellentine went off from behind the three point line an...
With 19.9 seconds remaining in the game, the Warren Warriors called time out with possession of the ball and the score tied at 36-36. Junior guard, Treyton Pafford had been hot, and led the Warriors on a furious rally back to knot up the score, and now they had a chance to take their first lead of the game – at the very end of it. "The play was for Trey to penetrate their zone and see if he could get to the basket," said head coach Troy Pafford. "Then I told everyone to crash the boards." After...
The Lena-Winslow Lady Panthers jumped out to a quick lead over the Pecatonica Indians as two different tactics were implemented. On defense, the Panthers ran a diamond and one, with four girls in a diamond zone, while Janessa Esser played straight man defense against Pecatonica's biggest three point shooting threat – Lauren Mellentine. "I am sick of the box and one defense," Mellentine admitted. "But I guess it does allow my teammates to get good looks, so ... I deal with it." On offense, the Pa...
The first time the Eastland Cougars beat Fulton 45-40, Fulton big man, Baylen Damhoff didn't play in the game. Thursday night in Lanark, he did .... And it made a huge difference. Damhoff dominated the contest – taking over in the second half when he drilled three straight long range bombs on back-to-back-to-back possessions that turned what had been a low scoring contest, into a Fulton run away 50-34. "I thought we did a good job on him defensively in the first half," said Eastland head c...
While many people might consider the Lena-Winslow football team as the area's biggest "dynasty", and Scales Mound Boys Basketball might be in the conversation – all of the region's sports programs pale in comparison to the dominance displayed by the Freeport Speech Team that won the Regional title for the 23rd time in 24 years. Unlike a regular meet, where points are awarded for how kids do in the preliminary rounds, at the Regional, the IHSA only awards team points for how well a student places...
Undoubtedly, the best comment about food that tastes bad came from George W. Bush when he said,” I don’t like broccoli, I’ve never liked broccoli, I’m President of the United States and I don’t have to eat broccoli ever again!” It was direct, to the point, and carried a ton of weight behind hit. Unfortunately, I’ve never held that kind of power - although I have uttered many comments about the food people have tried to force down my throat. My first one as a kid, or so I have been told, was whe...
In the first game of their season, the Lena-Winslow Panthers went into overtime against Durand – barely holding on for the two point win on Durand's home floor. That was in early December. Last Monday night, about five to six weeks later, those same two teams met in Lena for the completion of the conference home-and-home contest. In their defense, Durand had three players sitting out due to injury – two of them who started against Lena-Winslow in December. But even those players could not acc...
Maybe it was because the Broncos had blown out Lena-Winslow in their first meeting and looked past them. Maybe it was because the Panthers didn't have outside shooting threat Ava Vlasin in that first meeting. Or maybe, just maybe, the Panthers were primed for an ambush. Whatever the reason, when the two teams faced off for the conference rematch Wednesday night in Lena – everyone would swear that the Panthers were the second rated team in the state – not Orangeville. Lena-Winslow as almost fla...
With the Regional seeds being voted on February 1st by 4:00 pm, and the Stockton Blackhawks and East Dubuque Warriors not scheduled to meet again until February 8th, their meeting in Stockton Thursday night was ... big. "Oh, this was huge," said East Dubuque head coach Deann Petitgout. "The girls knew coming in here that this one was a must." And it's possible that the pressure was too much for both teams as the first quarter was, well, flat out ugly. Both teams had more turnovers than shots,...
"We've been working for this all week, all season," said Stockton senior Colby Tucker following the Blackhawks 50-39 win on the road in Warren. "Every time we'd be in this position, we got rattled and let things get away from us," said head coach John Hammann. "Tonight, it was like it all clicked. Our seniors led the way, Tucker wanted the ball down the stretch ... yeah, I think this was definitely a signature win." When the game opened, both teams struggled to get going on offense. When Bennett...
While most High School sports are allowed to compete against schools their size – the lone exception (And yes, I beat this dead horse a lot) is competitive speech. Schools as small as Stockton, River Ridge and Galena will be going straight up against Freeport, Sterling and Byron at this Saturday's Speech Regional. Each school can only pick one student (or team of two) to represent them in each of the 14 speech events, and only the top four will advance on to the Sectional competition to be h...
Growing up in Indiana, it was almost a requirement that you loved basketball. Now, I’ve never gotten into the pros. Our artist Thomas is a huge Bulls fan and knows the NBA like I know the NFL, but that was never my cup of tea. For me, I always preferred the college hoops. You could play zone defense, the stall used to be a part of the game, and there was just a lot more strategy involved and players weren’t going through the motions for a paycheck. Anyway, back in 1976, when I was only 13, I c...
