Matt Schuckman
QUINCY — The sideways glances. The whispers. The feeling of being judged. The general uneasiness of being in public and knowing your character is in question. Brian Holzgrafe felt it all. For too long. Far too often. For no fault of his own. That’s what a false accusation does to a person. It tears them…
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QUINCY — Seated at a table just a few feet from the dais, Whitey Herzog looked across the room at legendary St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Rick Hummel and pointed out the Quincy native was more than likely the smartest person in the room. The Hall of Fame manager then leaned forward and said, “But…
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QUINCY — The challenge facing the next Quincy University men’s basketball coach is three-fold. One, replenish the roster. Two, put fans in the stands. Three, win games. All three are intertwined. Prior to Steve Hawkins resigning Monday to pursue another coaching opportunity, four QU players had entered the transfer portal, although two of which are…
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QUINCY — The changes are subtle, probably unnoticeable to many. For those who see them, follow them, abide by them and trust them, the payoff should be substantial, at least that’s what the Quincy University football players need to be thinking. The transition to a new head coach with new standards and ideals to go…
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QUINCY — As Quincy Notre Dame athletic director Bill Connell begins the search for the school’s next boys basketball coach, he first must look in the mirror. That’s where he will see the direction he needs to go. In the fall of 1992, with one season as a collegiate assistant coach under his belt and…
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QUINCY — Random thoughts on another rainy day … • The greatest stretch on the sports calendar is nearly here. Over an eight-day span, three champions will be crowned, baseball gives us a glimpse of which teams are trending upward and the final playoff push in the NHL takes place. It begins this Sunday with…
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QUINCY — Welcome to the newest podcast on the Muddy River Sports platform. Each week, Muddy River Sports Editor Matt Schuckman and a guest will tackle a top-10 list on a topic related to the sports realm. This week, with the University of Illinois men’s basketball team in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament,…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Mathew Kirby’s caring, compassionate and friendly disposition can only be rivaled by his passion for his hometown and his hobby. Yet, to call his photography a hobby might be a disservice. The time, effort and detail he puts into capturing the moments that highlight Hannibal High School athletics and community events is…
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QUINCY — The first time I told my co-workers I was going home to cuddle up to something warm and fuzzy, they flashed that “you did not just say that” look at me and assumed I was making some sort of sarcastic reference to my wife. They soon learned who I meant every time I…
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QUINCY — Tears were expected Friday afternoon, but the smiles elicited by the memories of Tucker Tollerton and the embrace his family received balanced everything out. That was as much of a tribute to Tollerton as seeing his jersey number retired. Anyone who accompanied the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team on last season’s record-setting journey…
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QUINCY — Follow the bouncing ball as the high school basketball season enters its final week … • The shot clock is coming to Illinois and the Illinois High School Association appears to have a target date for implementing it into the state tournament series. Kurt Gibson, the IHSA associate executive director who oversees basketball,…
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QUINCY — Adversity doesn’t build character. It reveals it. That adage, originally coined by 19th century American novelist James Lane Allen, and variations of it have been used endlessly. But as I sat here mulling over what already has transpired this basketball postseason, that adage kept coming to mind. The toughest moments have shown us…
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QUINCY — Over the past 20 years, the Quincy High School athletic department has been led by four different directors who each previously had been a coach at some level within the school district. Will the next athletic director have a similar background? Wednesday night, the Quincy School Board approved Superintendent Todd Pettit’s recommendation that…
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QUINCY — Is the Illinois High School Association postseason basketball series flawed? You be the judge. While scouring brackets and planning our coverage of this week’s boys basketball regionals, I ran across a number of scenarios that made me question the equitable nature of the setup. Because the Quincy schools are at the heart of…
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QUINCY — Over the span of 32 hours and 13 games, the players, teams and coaches who participated in the sixth Quincy Shootout put on quite a show in Blue Devil Gym. Here are some of the best things I witnessed: Best player: Wasatch Academy point guard John Mobley Jr. has signed with Ohio State…
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QUINCY — Aaron Britton fell in love with basketball growing up on a dairy farm in southern Illinois. He remembers watching tape-delayed television broadcasts of University of Kentucky games in the 1990s when Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith were guiding the Wildcats to national championships. He was a member of the Mounds Meridian High School…
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QUINCY — The rumble, roar and electricity created by a Blue Devil Gym crowd is something easily felt in heightened moments of most Western Big 6 Conference boys basketball games. The intensity grows when you’re actually on the court. “It’s really like no other,” Quincy High School senior guard Seth Rupert said. “I don’t think…
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QUINCY — Someday, right? That’s what I keep telling myself. Following Michigan’s victory in Monday night’s national championship game, several colleagues and friends who are devout Wolverines fans took to social media to celebrate. It had been 27 years since Michigan, the winningest program in college football history, had captured a crown. So jump, shout,…
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QUINCY — The trend needs to end. The only way to do that is to take losing personal. So the Quincy University men’s basketball team’s coaching staff slapped those words across the dry-erase board in the locker room following last Wednesday’s 80-66 loss at Rockhurst. “It’s been on the board all week,” sophomore point guard…
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COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Rick Hummel’s career as a Hall of Fame baseball writer didn’t afford the Quincy native many opportunities to be nothing more than a fan. Christmas always did. That’s when Hummel spent hours upon hours at the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic, watching some of the Metro East’s top prep basketball talent. More…
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QUINCY — Roots run deep in the Killday family, where the family farm outside of Winchester, Ill., remains the beacon that draws everyone home. Josh Rabe wants Quincy University to have the same magnetism. So for the second time this calendar year, when faced with having to hire a head coach for a high-profile program,…
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QUINCY — Wilson Rigg has lived in Texas long enough his family can hear it in his voice. “I’m starting to get an accent and everything,” he said with a chuckle. He’s also been there long enough to finally live out a dream. An All-Clarence Cannon Conference lineman from Palmyra who was an Academic All-American…
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QUINCY — Tyler Sprick is a blue blood in the sense he bleeds Blue Devil blue. Having grown up playing in the Lil’ Devils program and attending games at Blue Devil Gym, the senior guard on the Quincy High School boys basketball program is well versed in the program’s tradition. So he knows how meaningful…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — All roads led here. From Mendon and Mount Sterling. From Pike and Calhoun counties. From near. From far. From in between. They came to see the best football teams in the Western Illinois Valley Conference collide. They came out of the deer stands and the fields to be here on time.…
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QUINCY — The fans arrived early to tailgate, stayed late to commiserate and created a sea of blue that filled Flinn Stadium. The final score of Saturday’s Class 7A state quarterfinal game against top-ranked Chicago Mount Carmel didn’t change the community-wide support for the Quincy High School football program or deter the overflowing crowd from…
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QUINCY — The best seat in the house doesn’t always provide the best view. Let me explain. Throughout this historic season the Quincy High School football team has engineered, I have sat in the west end zone during every home game. The spot was chosen strategically so the setting sun on Friday nights or the…
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CHILLICOTHE, Ill. — All Cory Hynek could do was laugh. In the days leading up to Wednesday’s Class 1A Chillicothe Sectional championship against defending state champion Quincy Notre Dame, the Peoria Christian boys soccer coach was approached by teachers within the school asking why the players had rocks on their desks. “I knew our guys…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — Playoff week is in full swing, which brings a new intensity and vibe to the Camp Point Central football team’s weekly preparations. The Panthers open the Class 1A playoffs at 2 p.m. Saturday at home against Bridgeport Red Hill. Central finished the regular season 9-0 and is the No. 1-seeded team…
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QUINCY — Quincy High School football coach Rick Little’s biggest chore and most constant worry isn’t prepping the Blue Devils for the playoffs. It’s filling a potential open week on the 2024 schedule. Last January, Rock Island Alleman informed Western Big 6 Conference principals and officials it would not field a varsity football team during…
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QUINCY — Jack Mettemeyer found the end zone in his final regular-season game at Flinn Stadium, helping the Quincy High School football team put a stamp on a dominant fourth quarter and a 56-33 victory over Mahomet-Seymour on Friday night. The victory pushed QHS’s record to 9-0, marking just the second undefeated regular season in…
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QUINCY — A 3-0 loss to Collinsville in the Class 3A regional semifinals Tuesday night brought the Quincy High School boys soccer team’s season to an end one game into the postseason. If only Mundelein Carmel could have been so lucky. The Corsairs are watching the postseason unfold instead of playing in it. Had things…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — The Hannibal girls golf team is making history one event after another. Come Monday, when the Pirates tee it up at Crown Pointe Golf Club in Farmington, Mo., in the Class 3 state tournament, it will be the first time in program history they will play at state as a team. The…
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QUINCY — From a movie made before any of the Quincy High School football players were born comes a line that resonates with what the Blue Devils are trying to achieve. They are chasing perfection, the same way the T.C. Williams Titans were. In the closing sequence of “Remember the Titans,” a movie released in…
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QUINCY — It’s been 2 1/2 years since Muddy River News launched and a little more than two years since Muddy River Sports joined the party, and MRN publisher Bob Gough continues to guide the ever-growing media outlet forward. Heading into a busy weekend, with a new sponsor for “Schuck on a Truck” in tow,…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — Royce Gracie’s engaging personality and genuine love for his students, his family and his craft made for an entertaining 15 minutes sitting on the tailgate of my pickup discussing his mixed martial arts career. If only technology had been as accommodating. Gracie, world renowned for his jiu-jitsu career and a Ultimate Fighting…
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QUINCY — The third time proved to be the charm. With Quincy Notre Dame boys soccer coach Greg Reis sitting on 399 career victories, the Raiders suffered back-to-back losses to quality teams in John Burroughs and Rochester. Saturday, a team that traditionally has given the Raiders fits visited Advance Physical Therapy Field, and it brought…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — The wives of the Camp Point Central football coaches are a staff unto themselves. Each week, prior to Friday night, they game plan how to wrangle kids, pack enough juice boxes and gear to survive a three hours and make arrangements for postgame festivities. It’s done to allow their husbands to…
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QUINCY — Logistically, it didn’t make sense. Tom Izzo didn’t care. Steve Hawkins needed the right person to headline the Quincy University men’s basketball program’s first tip-off banquet, and the Michigan State Hall of Fame coach willingly obliged, despite the whirlwind schedule it created. Izzo boarded a plane from East Lansing, Mich., to Quincy early…
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MACOMB, Ill. — Nothing is easy about saying goodbye. Tanner Horrell needed the Macomb football players to understand that. So the Bombers coach made it known if the grief associated with losing a teammate — freshman Landon Cromer died Tuesday from injuries sustained in a car accident — interrupted practice, it was OK. Step away.…
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QUINCY — The only way to truly understand how the Quincy University football coaches handled a situation none of them enjoyed would have been to be one of the few on the sidelines or in the coaches’ booth wearing a headset. Without being privy to those conversations, it’s difficult to claim the Hawks chose to…
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QUINCY — Waking up Monday morning, I realized there is one undeniable truth in life. The world is a better place when there is a weekend filled with football. Here’s why: Football is about connections more than it is collisions. Friday night, with my pickup truck parked next to the fence wrapped around the Airstrip…
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Schuckman: Brock's black eye brought on by gambling probe will fade and his true character will show
QUINCY — A number of questions have been tossed around since the news broke Thursday that former Quincy High School football standout Jirehl Brock faces charges related to the gambling probe centered on Iowa State University and University of Iowa student-athletes. The most common query has been this: Did you ever have an error in…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — The beauty of baseball can be its simplicity. Pitch, catch, swing and hit. That’s the game at its most rudimentary level. The complexity of it can be just as alluring. Hit-and-runs, double switches, righty-lefty matchups and squeeze plays. The game makes you think, strategize and second guess, often all at the same…
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QUINCY — Each hug said goodbye. For now, not forever. Each “thank you” was earned. Not just now, but over the course of forever. Each story came with a smile. Nan Ryan tried to relish them now, but she’ll hold onto them forever. The 50th annual Pepsi Little People’s Golf Championships wasn’t just a tournament.…
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QUINCY — Something unusual took place Saturday morning. I woke up with nothing to do. Well, that’s not entirely true. There’s a list of household chores I’ve ignored far too long, and Buster, my still rambunctious 13-year-old cheagle, was going to get a bulk of my attention. Plus, I’ve decided to replace my grill, so…
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The bird took its perch atop the light standard in left-center field in the bottom of the first inning Monday evening, and other than moving from one end of the row of lights to the other, it watched the next three innings of the Class 2A super-sectional baseball game unfold. Little by…
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QUINCY — Tucker Tollerton’s final hit wasn’t squared up on the barrel of the bat. It wasn’t laced into one of the outfield gaps where he’d have the chance to run like a gazelle. It wasn’t driven over the fence to display his increasing bat speed and power. He simply tucked it into a spot…
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QUINCY — Things go awry even with the best-laid plans. Rick Hummel and I laughed about that a couple of times. Last December, with the weather unseasonably warm on the second day of the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic, Hummel and I planned to record an episode of “Schuck on a Truck” following one of…
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QUINCY — Jay Hammel wrestled with the decision. Should he stay or should he go? Last May, Hammel graduated from Quincy University with a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies. He also fashioned a 9-2 record as a right-handed starter for the QU baseball team, helping the Hawks get within one victory of a…
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QUINCY — Where Mother’s Day is positioned on the calendar makes sense. The beauty of spring and the breath of fresh air May brings plays hand-in-hand with the love and nurturing we receive from our mothers. Florists love it, too, because moms love receiving fresh bouquets as much as love giving them. Yet, the one…
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QUINCY — The overlapping exodus of Kaci Bailey and arrival of Courtney Boyd made for an emotionally challenging 36 hours for the Quincy University women’s basketball players. “Definitely a little stressful, a little overwhelming,” freshman guard Rylee Denbow said. Mix in plenty of uncertainty. “There are a lot of unknowns up in the air right…
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QUINCY — Kaci Bailey never intended to leave Quincy University as abruptly as she did. “Obviously, I wouldn’t have bought a house,” she said. Bailey never sold it as a lifelong commitment to coach women’s basketball here either. “As I told (QU athletic director Josh Rabe), QU has never been in the mix to be…
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QUINCY — Doubt comes when confidence wanes. Everything Jay Hammel experienced in the first six weeks of the Quincy University baseball team’s season could have created doubt in himself, his ability to contribute on a nationally ranked team, and his decision to return for a final year of eligibility. Never once has he doubted any…
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QUINCY — Being insulated by the borders of the Quincy University campus gives the men’s basketball players a sense of security, but it doesn’t offer many opportunities to embrace those who embrace the Hawks’ success. Those are things they long to do. “We’ve wanted to be more involved in the community,” junior guard Zion Richardson…
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QUINCY — Through the course of two January days and 13 games played at Blue Devil Gym during the fifth Quincy Shootout, some of the best prep basketball talent regionally and nationally was on display. But as those teams left with more than a month remaining in each of their seasons, a lingering question existed.…
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QUINCY — There are two rules of thumb I try to follow when filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket. One, never write the name of the school to the west of Missouri on any sheet. Two, try not to pick with your heart. The first one I always accomplish. The second? I failed miserably this…
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QUINCY — The high five was perfectly unscripted and unabashedly enthusiastic. The hug and the fist bump were, too. As the Moline boys basketball team soaked in the moment Monday night — the Maroons had just beaten Oswego East 59-55 to win the Class 4A Normal Super-Sectional and advance to the state final four for…
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NORMAL, Ill. — Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball coach Eric Orne listened intently as senior guard Abbey Schreacke discussed how the Raiders needed to regroup following a gut-punch loss Thursday in the Class 2A state semifinals and play the third-place game two hours later. “We’re going to have to find something deeper inside of us…
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QUINCY — A casual question on a walk along one of the tree-lined fairways at Westview Golf Course sparked a conversation that had a continual flow no matter where it ended or when it happened to be picked up again. I can’t wait to start that conversation again someday. Six years ago, when Alex McCulla…
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QUINCY — What transpires over the next three weeks will help define how the 2022-23 prep basketball season in the Gem City is remembered. Already it’s been historic. It could become legendary. The Quincy High School and Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball teams open regional play Wednesday, both harboring high hopes while knowing significant hurdles…
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QUINCY — Mike Dade’s passionate plea to the Quincy School board last week asking for equal treatment for the boys and girls basketball programs succeeded in one important regard. It created conversation, opinion and debate. His speech also missed the mark in one very important aspect. He wasn’t a true voice for the players themselves.…
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QUINCY — Eric Stratman’s excitement is understandable. For the last 12 months, since the day after the fourth Quincy Shootout ended, Stratman has been tirelessly working to assemble another stellar field. A former Quincy High School athlete and coach with a passion for community events, Stratman’s role as event organizer can be challenging and stressful.…
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QUINCY — The commitment needed to prepare the Quincy High School wrestlers for a post-Christmas trip to Florida extended far beyond the wrestling room. That made the realization the Blue Devils’ flights on Southwest Airlines on December 26 had been canceled all the more disheartening. “It took the families, not just the parents but the…
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COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Shock. That’s what Dominique Clay’s expression screamed. He wasn’t alone in his jaw-dropping assessment. “I had the same look, too,” Camden Brown said. After the Quincy High School boys basketball team dispatched Collierville (Tenn.) 62-48 in Thursday’s quarterfinals of the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic, the Blue Devils were headed to the…
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QUINCY — Chris Duesdieker earned the right to sit and smile. As the 16th and final game of the 15th annual Rumble on the River headed to the fourth quarter Wednesday night with a pair of state-ranked teams — Southeastern, No. 1 in Illinois Class 1A, and Bunker, No. 3 in Missouri Class 1 —…
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The middle of December brings holiday gift ideas, All-American game goals and memories of a game played more than 30 years ago … Two venerable high school basketball gyms in Illinois and arguably the two most historic within the Western Big 6 Conference are being featured in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s 2023 Unique Gyms…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — As they worked their way past the long line of Decatur St. Teresa faithful waiting to enter Memorial Stadium, a group of Camp Point Central football fans were abruptly stopped by some curious Bulldogs fans. “Did you get it done?” one asked. The disappointment echoed in the tone of the response. “It…
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QUINCY — One final wave to say thank you to an adoring, enthusiastic crowd was the Quincy University women’s volleyball team’s way to say goodbye as well. The season that changed the Hawks’ program forever was over. Yet, the bond created amongst a group of student-athletes — “incredible young women” in the words of Quincy…
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QUINCY — Every version of the national anthem is unique and different. Singers with big, booming voices tend to drag out high notes, especially at the top of their vocal range. Nervous singers hurry through it, praying they don’t forget a word or miss a note and fight just to finish. Steve Hawkins would have…
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MACOMB, Ill. — Emily Horrell better get used to this if she hasn’t already. A few days before the Macomb football team played host to Murphysboro in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs, the wife of Bombers coach Tanner Horrell happened to be at a local retail store when two retirement-age women began…
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QUINCY — Cole Wagy saw beyond the jersey, the helmet and the foe and took note of a fellow football player’s heartache. At that moment, the Quincy High School offensive lineman walked over, knelt down and put his right arm around his ailing adversary. “I didn’t even know his name,” Wagy said. Names aren’t necessary…
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EAST PEORIA, Ill. — Be phenomenal or be forgotten. Such an easy choice. “No one wants to live their life forgotten,” said Jake Hoyt, a senior center back on the Quincy Notre Dame boys soccer team. “Doesn’t everyone want to be phenomenal?” When Raiders coach Greg Reis posed that challenge to his team on the…
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CARTHAGE, Ill. — On a field where history grows with every blade of grass, the Illini West football team was intent on keeping history from happening. For nearly eight minutes, that seemed possible. Then in a blink, it became clear history wouldn’t be denied. Facing undefeated, state-ranked Macomb in the regular-season finale Friday night at…
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QUINCY — The outcome matters. It has to, otherwise the sweat equity put into practice and the commitment to be at your best wouldn’t matter so much. Still, there are nights where the final score takes on secondary importance, where winners aren’t determined solely by the numbers on a scoreboard but more by the integrity,…
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QUINCY — A boy and a ball. That’s perfect symmetry. Hayden Hoskins’ job and his joy is to run around behind the goal at the northeast end of Flinn Stadium during Quincy High School boys soccer games and act as the ball boy. In reality, the 9-year-old just wants to play the way boys should.…
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QUINCY — Golf can humble you. Infuriate you. Exasperate you. Baffle you. And if you let it, the game can break your spirit. Ross Thompson wouldn’t allow that to happen. A freshman when he made the six-man lineup in 2019 and was part of the Quincy Notre Dame boys golf team’s second-place state finish, Thompson…
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MENDON, Ill. — When modern technology accents old-school charm, you wind up watching a prep football game in an environment artists pen songs about and screenwriters use as inspiration for movie scripts. Friday night, this Adams County village offered one of those backdrops. From the bonfire in the neighboring yard to a respected, celebrated old…
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QUINCY — It goes in the ledger as a loss, but in terms of progress being made — from Week 1 to Week 4 this season and over the course of the last 364 days — Saturday’s outcome needs to be viewed as a small step in the right direction for the Quincy University football…
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QUINCY — Saturday felt like a warm, welcoming hug. John Wood Community College opened its arms to the community, and Quincy embraced it. “Yeah, this is neat,” Trail Blazers athletic director Brad Hoyt said as he surveyed the meshing of JWCC athletes and personnel with fans and community members across a large swath of the…
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MOUNT STERLING, Ill. — The Nest deserved a little TLC. The Brown County football team hadn’t played at home since its Week 1 victory over Calhoun when it was one of the first teams in the state to take the field, opening on a Thursday night. In the three weeks since, the Hornets’ all-natural grass…
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QUINCY — I laughed. Dennis Guthrie didn’t. My mind immediately began thinking, “What’s wrong?” Seated together on a bench near the 18th green at Quincy Country Club as the Quincy High School and Quincy Notre Dame boys golf teams neared the end of their Ryder Cup match early in the 2007 season, Guthrie and I…
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QUINCY — Jirehl Brock patiently waited for his chance. Zack Aschemann decided to take another chance. Cody Schrader chased his chance. And Caden Selle earned a chance. Therein lies the beauty of college football. An opportunity always exists if you wholeheartedly pursue it. Brock, the former Quincy High School all-stater and all-time leading rusher, will…
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QUINCY — A game of two-hand touch played by a gaggle of kids wearing their Junior Raiders football jerseys unfolded beneath the large oak and blaze maple trees casting shade across the uneven grassy space near the tennis courts in South Park. Kickoff for the season-opening showdown between Quincy High School and Quincy Notre Dame…
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ROXANA, Del. — A glimmer of hope is all that was needed. When the Illinois District 17 softball team headed to the Central Regional in Michigan, advancing to the Senior League Softball World Series was still a pipedream, even if a spot in the 10-team field was only four victories away. “I think there were…
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LIBERTY, Ill. — The signs taped to the front doors of Liberty High School saying “Gym Closed” were a clear indication the administration didn’t want anyone coming around. Even if such warnings were ignored, no one was getting in the gym anyhow. Chains and padlocks on the doors ensured that. There was work to be…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — It started with a selfie and ended with a shower. Everything happening in between helped ensure Saturday night’s eighth installment of the Missouri vs. Illinois All-Star Game — the first since 2019 — became a full-tilt celebration of high school baseball. From bunts to bad hops, knee-bending curveballs to wild throws, and…
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QUINCY — Has wiffle ball become the forgotten game? Quiet fields and empty side streets suggest so. Temperatures pushed toward 90 degrees Wednesday afternoon when three kids and two adults cast their lines into the ponds near R.J. Peters Drive running through South Park. Although they hadn’t caught any fish, they had been there for…
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QUINCY — The porch door casually swung open, the way it does five or six times per day or as many times as Buster gets the inkling to go outside. Only this time, our 12-year-old cheagle didn’t follow the swinging of the door by bounding down the three steps leading to the sidewalk. He froze.…
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QUINCY — Delaney Straus felt insulted. As the Missouri girls were milling around John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center ahead of Saturday’s Muddy River Showcase, the Marion County standout overheard a conversation in which a tongue-in-cheek prediction about the boys game was made. However, she thought the prediction of a 24-point Illinois victory was…
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PEORIA, Ill. — Disappointment lingered, but only for so long. By the time the Brown County baseball players cleaned up their dugout and made their way to the grassy berm in the right-field corner, the green-clad wave of Hornets fans who had invaded Dozer Park on Saturday were ready to fete their conquering heroes. The…
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QUINCY — Mark McDowell did his best Avery Keck impersonation Sunday afternoon. When opportunity struck, he delivered. The Quincy Notre Dame principal took advantage of the recent addition of a large video board on the west wall of The Pit by having a picture loaded and ready to loom large over everyone during the welcome…
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Muddy River Sports sets a record for most people in the bed of Matt Schuckman’s truck as Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer coach Mark Longo and the whole team join in following the sixth state title in program history.
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PLEASANT PLAINS, Ill. — Everybody likes bacon, right? That’s undoubtedly true of the Quincy Notre Dame baseball players’ parents, grandparents and fans. But if you’re thinking it’s the sizzle-in-the-frying-pan kind of pork product they are so enamored with, you’d be sorely mistaken. In this case, “Bacon” is their good luck charm, a 4-inch crocheted, stuffed…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — The kind of moments a hitter lives for can be the ones most taxing or debilitating when success eludes you. Lance Logsdon knows how true that can be. The Quincy University junior first baseman faced the opportunity to capitalize on a game-changing at-bat each of the past two weekends. Neither time he…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — Matt Schissel struggled for good reason to calculate whether the Quincy University baseball players were ready to rebound 40 minutes after a gut punch. “I’ll be honest,” the first-year Hawks coach said, “I wasn’t ready to go back and play.” Schissel took at least 25 minutes of that 40-minute gap between games…
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QUINCY — The hardware Kelsey Bockenfeld has collected in the past five weeks has made her trifecta of titles complete. State champion. National champion. World champion. That’s quite a resume. The Quincy native won an American Motocross Association ATV national championship during her days racing quads, but has since found a passion and a drive…
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Intimidating. It seems funny to say it, but that is the most apt description for how I viewed Don Crim the first time I walked into the Quincy Herald-Whig newsroom nearly 33 years ago. The sports editor’s desk, complete with stain rings from his coffee cup and an overflowing ashtray of cigarette butts, served as…
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Blessed and spoiled. There is no more apropos description for the fall of 1982. By then, my passion for baseball and complete love for the game was complete. I was blessed to watch my favorite team and my favorite player fight their way to the National League pennant, and I was spoiled to listen to…
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The Rock Island Alleman athletic department may finally have hit rock bottom, and it’s time for the Western Big 6 Conference to address it. Last week, the Pioneers informed the remainder of the WB6 they would not be fielding a girls softball team this spring. Dwindling numbers saw less than nine players attend the first…
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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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