Muddy River Sports top 10 stories of 2024: Emotional goodbyes, interesting columns fill list

QUINCY — The stories Muddy River Sports viewers clicked on the most during 2024 dealt with the emotions athletes, coaches and fans endure, be it during a single game or an entire season.

There’s frustration and heartache, jubilation and joy, tears and hugs.

It serves as a reminder how much heart and soul go into the games we play.

Listed below are this year’s top stories, as determined by Muddy River Sports analytics.

1. Mike Dade was attending the game as he has a daughter on the QHS team. After his daughter was injured on a play in the fourth quarter, Dade expressed his displeasure verbally to one of game’s three referees, Todd Reichert. 

Minutes later, Reichert was standing in front of Dade on the baseline when Dade kicked Reichert in the small of the back, pushing him onto the court. Reichert turned and ejected Dade, who rose from his seat and approached Reichert before officials from both schools intervened.

Quincy Public Schools take action against parent following incident at girls basketball game

2. The Illinois men’s basketball program, fresh off an appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, got a boost with the signing of Will Riley, a five-star small forward and the ninth-ranked prospect in the Class of 2025, per 247Sports. 

The Athletic reported the 6-foot-8 Riley picked Illinois over Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky and others. He is the highest-ranked prospect to commit to the Illini in the Brad Underwood era. A Canadian, he played high school basketball for The Phelps School in Malvern, Pa., and is considered one of the best scorers in the country, averaging 26.5 points and six rebounds per game last season.

Crim: Illini land significant addition to men’s basketball recruiting class

3. You can look at the numbers he posted — 14.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game as a senior at QHS, and then 1,139 points and 693 rebounds in a four-year career at QU — to see 6-foot-9 Tom Lepper earned his Hall of Fame honors. He was inducted into the QU Hall of Fame last winter.

Basketball paved the way for his education and opened doors for him to make an impact on future generations, but basketball was only part of his story.

Lepper was a big guy with a big heart, a big laugh and a big personality.

Schuckman: Lepper was big man with big heart, big laugh and big personality

4. The Culver-Stockton College football coaches and administration have decided the best way to pay tribute to freshman quarterback Tony Wrobel, who was killed in a motor vehicle crash Tuesday night, is by fighting for one more victory.

So the Wildcats have every intention of playing Saturday’s home and regular-season finale against Clarke University at Ellison Poulton Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.

C-SC football team to play Saturday to honor freshman QB killed in motor vehicle crash

5. Is the Illinois High School Association postseason basketball series flawed?

You be the judge.

Schuckman: Logic seems flawed with setup of IHSA postseason basketball brackets

6. Aaron Britton developed a mathematical formula that takes into consideration a team’s winning percentage, the winning percentage of opponents and the winning percentage of their opponents, along with good wins and good losses, to come up with a strength of schedule ranking and the Nesto Power Index.

Each Monday morning, Britton releases his rankings of the top 25 teams in each of the four classes.

Crim: Britton turns high school hoops passion into information superhighway for fans

7. Lucas Loos played his final season at Eastern Illinois University, earning all-region honors as a shortstop as he set the EIU single season record with 23 home runs while posting the second-most doubles in a season. He finished the season with a .372 batting average, 77 hits, 56 runs scored, 61 RBIs and an .821 slugging percentage.

Should Loos get drafted, he could become the fourth Payson product to get to the big leagues.

Schuckman: Should Loos get draft call, it would be historic moment for Payson, Adams County

8. However, the Ironmen didn’t allow for the baseline inbounds play with 4.3 seconds left to be simple for the Quincy High School boys basketball team. A turnover led to a game-winning dunk for the Ironmen and a 44-43 setback for the Blue Devils in the Class 4A Sectional at Dawson Hawkins Gymnasium on Friday night.

Reviewing the game’s ending won’t help make sense of the miracle that occurred, but it will explain how it happened.

Breaking down the final four seconds of the Quincy High School vs. Normal Community Class 4A sectional final

9. The Raiders completed a grueling five-games-in-five days sojourn with a dominating 52-25 victory Saturday night at The Pit over defending Class 1A state champ Okawville during the American Family Insurance-KHQA Superfan Shootout.

“After a long week, it’s nice to know we now have a couple of days off,” said QND coach Eric Orne, whose No. 4-ranked Class 3A club outscored Okawville 43-9 over the final three quarters and held heralded guard Alayna Kraus to 8 points — about 13 below her average and all in the first half.

QND girls dominate final three quarters 43-9 to blow out defending Class 1A state champions

10. When opportunity knocked, Steve Hawkins needed to listen. He owed that to his family. After discussing with his wife, Kelly, an offer to join an NCAA Division I coaching staff, the Quincy University men’s basketball coach knew the time was right to make a move.

Monday, he officially resigned as the Hawks’ coach, two seasons into his second stint at the helm. Hawkins informed his team of the decision during an afternoon meeting, and QU athletic director Josh Rabe confirmed Hawkins had tendered his resignation.

‘There were a lot of tears’: Hawkins resigns as QU men’s basketball coach after two seasons at helm