Matt Schuckman, Sports Editor
QUINCY — Spencer Walker tried to keep everything the Davenport baseball team hit in the ballpark despite winds blowing out to the short porch in right field. The rest of the Quincy University pitching staff didn’t have as much luck doing the same thing. After Walker tossed a seven-inning complete game and led the Hawks…
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QUINCY — The suggestion that having her long blonde hair pulled into a bulb atop her head was reminiscent of the Flintstones’ character Pebbles gave Lia Quintero the opening to explain what the hairstyle actually is. “It’s the gearshift,” she said. Varying levels of power come with it. “It’s good for speed, too,” said Quintero,…
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The news came as a surprise on many fronts when it was released late last Friday afternoon that Danielle Surprenant was resigning as the Western Illinois University athletic director. “We thank Danielle for her service to the University and for her leadership in Leatherneck athletics,” WIU President Guiyou Huang said in a press release. “We…
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BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Luke Guthrie is back on the PGA Tour, at least for one week. After shooting a 4-under 68 in Monday’s qualifier for the Valspar Championship, the Quincy native found himself in a three-way tie for fourth with only the top four scores earning the chance to tee it up in this week’s…
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QUINCY — Jeremiah Talton’s senior season ranks as one of the best produced by a Quincy High School boys basketball player in the last quarter century. It’s fitting then he is only the second player in that span to receive first-team all-state honors. The 6-foot-6 Talton, who led the Blue Devils to a 28-6 season,…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The arena entrance was breath-taking, and the postgame exit was humbling. Yet, the welcome the Liberty boys basketball team received in its own gym from a community that raced home from the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center following Saturday’s Class 1A state championship game made the experience complete. “I wasn’t expecting…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Logan Robbins embraces playing defense. Actually, he enjoys it quite a bit. “It’s another way to impact the game,” said Robbins, a 6-foot-5 senior forward on the Liberty boys basketball team. “And if you can get the guy your guarding frustrated, it’s going to give you an edge.” It helps explain why…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Alex Altmix harbors dreams of eventually being a head coach and running his own high school basketball program. Should his brother, Jordan, want the same thing, neither will have to search far to find a blueprint for success. It’s been in front of them since the day either picked up a whistle.…
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LIBERTY, Ill. — When the two-lane state highway without a shoulder snakes past the farms and fields and reaches the eastern border of Liberty, a sign looms large on the right side of the road. “Give me Liberty” it reads, and it lists the population of this Adams County village as 600. There may be…
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QUINCY — Steve Hawkins isn’t shy about his appreciation for quality cuisine. He is loyal to the restaurants he finds reliable and appetizing. So it came as no surprise Wednesday morning, hours before he was to be introduced as the new Quincy University men’s basketball coach, Hawkins ate breakfast at the Coach House, a longstanding…
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The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Greg Altmix was agitated, and he had no problem telling his Liberty boys basketball team why. The veteran head coach scanned the Class 1A all-state teams released Wednesday by the Associated Press and didn’t see any of his players on the first or second team despite their upcoming appearance in the final…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Part of the wisdom Liberty boys basketball coach Greg Altmix has tried to impart on his players from his more than two decades on the bench is to enjoy the journey, not just the end result. So sitting in the lobby of the team hotel Thursday afternoon, while taking time to catch…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Breiton Klingele’s hairstyle came down to a choice. Not a bet. Not a dare. Not anything other than a conscious decision to let it grow. “I just decided it one day, so I started growing it,” Klingele said. “No other reason. I just wanted a mullet.” The Liberty senior’s long, curly locks…
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QUINCY — Steve Hawkins made the 430-mile drive from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Quincy by himself Tuesday night, but he was hardly alone. “Word started to seep out the last couple of days in the coaching world,” said Hawkins, who was introduced Wednesday as the next Quincy University men’s basketball coach. “My phone … well, it…
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QUINCY — Jeremiah Talton’s impact on the Quincy High School boys basketball team’s success went far beyond points scored and 3-pointers made. Every coach in the Western Big 6 Conference felt that. It made it easy for them to vote for Talton, the 6-foot-6 senior swingman, as the WB6 most valuable player, the first season…
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JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — The fans of the Liberty and Southeastern boys basketball teams filled the Jacksonville Bowl on Monday night for a titanic matchup in the Class 1A Jacksonville Super-Sectional. Photographer Steve Davis captured the moments from start to finish. Below is a gallery of Davis’ images.
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NORMAL, Ill. — If you took time to actually measure the measurables — the height of the rim, the distance to the 3-point stripe, the length and width of the court — you’re bound to find both ends of the Redbird Arena court meet the same specifications.. The Quincy High School boys basketball players might…
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NORMAL, Ill. — Restless nights tend to accompany the calendar flip, when January rolls into February and high school basketball coaches worry about how to prepare for and sustain postseason success. When the nights grow shorter and sleep is a struggle in the middle of October rather than the middle of the season, something other…
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NORMAL, Ill. — Muddy River Sports Editor Matt Schuckman captured some of the action, reaction and atmosphere in photos during Monday night’s Class 4A Normal Super-Sectional between the Quincy High School and Bolingbrook boys basketball teams. Check out a gallery of his images below.
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QUINCY — Tanner Stuckman’s basketball career has been built around hard work, determination and an unwillingness to be told he couldn’t succeed. That’s why professional opportunities are coming his way. A graduate of Quincy Notre Dame and Quincy University, the 6-foot-9 Stuckman is currently playing in the National Basketball League of Canada for the Windsor…
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Jarvis Jennings struggled with the words that could accurately depict all the emotions tugging at his heart and soul. He didn’t need to speak. His eyes said everything. Glassed over by tears and saddened by the finality of it all, Jennings and the John Wood Community College men’s basketball team fought like…
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A somber thought crossed Jarvis Jennings’ mind in the locker room Sunday afternoon. His John Wood Community College basketball career was finished. “It didn’t really hit me until I had to take my jersey off one last time,” Jennings said. “But that’s life. You take it to the chin and you have…
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NORMAL, Ill. — Blair Eftink looked down at the state championship medal hanging around her neck and shook her head from side to side, almost in disbelief. “It’s crazy,” she said. Eftink then glanced around at her Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball teammates, who were milling about in the hallway outside the media room in…
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NORMAL, Ill. — Friday morning, the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball players filed into St. Augustine Catholic Church, the quaint centerpiece of a devout congregation in their coach’s hometown of Ashland. Their mission was two-fold. Say a solemn goodbye to Mary Sue Orne, the mother of Raiders coach Eric Orne who passed away in the…
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NORMAL, Ill. — The pain of slightly spraining her right ankle hobbled Abbey Schreacke for a short stretch of the second quarter Saturday. Yet, it was getting poked in the eye that brought her tears. “Once I got poked in the eye, I forgot about the feeling in the ankle, too,” Schreacke said. No one…
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STANFORD, Ill. — When Cole Certa caught the ball two steps beyond the volleyball spike line and almost nonchalantly dribbled forward, concern immediately spread up and down the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team’s bench. “We were talking and saying, ‘He’s pulling it, he’s pulling it,’” Raiders coach Kevin Meyer said. “Sure enough he does.”…
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NORMAL, Ill. — Redbird Arena can’t exactly be called cavernous, but the shooting background can create a need for an adjustment. Blair Eftink didn’t seem to mind, especially when 3-pointer after 3-pointer kept falling during warmups. “Abbey (Schreacke) was telling me the depth perception was a lot different than where we normally play,” Eftink said.…
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NORMAL, Ill. — The ball ending up in Abbey Schreacke’s hands with the seconds ticking away didn’t come as a surprise. Neither did the fact she made the shot. Well, the first one wasn’t a shocker. The second made those inside Redbird Arena either jump for joy or drop their head into their hands. Schreacke,…
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