There is still time to register for the 36th annual Siberian Express on the Wild Wilderness Trail in Kickapoo State Park on Jan. 4, 2020.

The 7.45 mile trail run is the first 2020 event of the Kennekuk Grand Slam sponsored by the Kennekuk Road Runners.

Online registration is now closed, but Race Day Registration and bib number pick up starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Kickapoo Park Maintenance Garage.

The race starts at 11 a.m. with a 2-hour time limit. 

Runners who finish under the 2-hour time limit will get an award, and medals will be awarded to the top 175 finishers.

Participants are invited to a post-race party at Exit 210 Saloon in Oakwood beginning at 12:30 p.m. Free snacks and drinks or an Italian Beef dinner with chips and dessert for $10.

A limited supply of Siberian Express dry-core shirts and other merchandise for sale at the party.

The post Still time to register for Kennekuk Road Runners’ Siberian Express first appeared on SJO Daily.

Don Archer has had a few passions in his life: his family, his work, golfing, and pottery.

Archer began making pottery close to 30 years ago. 

“My wife and I always loved pottery, and when we were on vacations we’d stop at a pottery place if we’d see one. About 30 years ago, we decided we’d take a pottery class at the Champaign Park District.” 

Turns out, Archer had a natural talent for it. 

“My stuff kinda came up, and hers came up and fell in. She quit, but I kept going.” 

“I took a couple more classes, then I joined a potter’s club. Eventually, I got my own wheel and kiln and started doing stuff at home.”

For a long time, pottery was just a side hobby while Archer worked in the housing industry and then for both the City of Champaign and the City of Urbana.

“I was a fourth-generation house builder. I used to build houses in St. Joe.”

“Then housing slowed down, and I was the building inspector at the City of Urbana for a while. Then housing picked back up and I went back to it, then it slowed again, and I got a job in the Engineering Department at the City of Champaign. I stayed there until I retired.”

While working a full-time job, he also had another full-time job as the Golf Pro at Blue Needles Golf Course. Now that he is retired, he has more time to spend golfing and working on pottery. 

Archer used to live in St. Joseph, but it looked a little different when they lived there. 

“We used to live on 8th Street, when 8th Street was the last street on the edge of town.”

Currently, he lives outside of Oakwood, near Kickapoo State Park, and that’s where his shop is.

“We moved out here about 12 years ago, and I had this barn built,” he said. “I told my wife I’m gonna start doing pottery. I’m only open one weekend a month as my little retirement gig. I’m only open nine weekends a month the whole year, so it’s only 18 days the entire year.”

Archer’s pottery is mostly functional pieces that can be used every day. 

“My stuff is stuff that you use every day to eat, drink, cook, bake food in. It’s microwave, oven and dishwasher safe.”

“Everything can be put in the oven. Not everything you would put in the oven though. There’s some colanders, some batter bowls, luminaries, yarn bowls. All different sizes and shapes of cups and plates.”

Every month, Archer is making new pieces to replace the ones he sold. There is always something new to see.

“I make 30-40 brand new pieces a month. I try to keep an inventory around 700 pieces.”

“There’s always something new. Always something different.”

Archer also does pieces in Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue colors for sports fans. And he even does special orders.

“I do special orders, if you wanted something for a wedding or a birthday, or Christmas, you come pick out a piece, then I can remake it and put a custom message on the bottom.”

Archer has glazes in 21 different colors, and some of them he even makes himself. And he cuts designs in some of the pieces by hand. 

Kickapoo Pottery is open the first full weekend of every month, or by appointment. Archer decided to open a shop on his property rather than travel to art shows and festivals due to the labor of transporting his products and the fragility of those products.

“I thought I would go do a couple of shows to help people find out about my stuff. I went to an art show over in Danville. Clothing or jewelry isn’t too bad [to transport], but pottery is hard. I broke a couple pieces hauling the stuff to Danville and back.” 

“That was when I first opened, and I was still doing radio and newspaper advertising. I was having pretty good traffic in the pottery shop. I was selling three times more in a weekend than what I made in one weekend at the art show.”

Archer doesn’t do any radio or TV advertising now, so he relies mainly on word of mouth to bring people in. He does have an email list, and once a month before the weekend he is going to open the shop he sends out a coupon to his email subscribers. 

“Business has slowed down quite a bit since when I first started, about 8 years ago. It takes new people coming to see the pottery.”

Archer keeps himself busy and active. He still golfs regularly, sometimes five days a week if he can, and he walks every day with his dog, Emma. 

He has a big family: four kids and fourteen grandkids.

His wife never got into the pottery after that first class. 

Archer said, with a laugh, “She likes coming out to pick stuff out to give to people, but other than that she doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

Archer says he plans to be open as long as he physically can. 

“Probably as long as I can throw pots, and get to the barn physically. At my age, that may not be a long time.”

“I’ll be 75 next month. I’ve lived three-quarters of a century.”

Kickapoo Pottery will be open December 5th-8th as a part of the Little Country Tour. After that, the next official open weekend is in April of 2020. However, Archer will open up by appointment. More information on how to contact him and more pictures of his work are available on the Kickapoo Pottery website. 

The post Archer still finds joy in Kickapoo Pottery first appeared on SJO Daily.

St. Joseph-Ogden completed a unique three-match homestand in three nights on Wednesday with its third two-game sweep in as many days.

The Spartans (13-3) turned back Danville 25-13, 25-13 on Wednesday.

Katelyn Berry had 10 digs, Kennedi Burnett had eight digs and Rylee Stahl had six digs.

Burnett and Lacey Kaiser each swatted six kills. Bigger handed out 16 assists to go with two service aces.

On Tuesday, the Spartans secured a 2-0 sweep over visiting Paxton-Buckley-Loda.

Bigger handed out 26 assists and SJ-O displayed a potent and balanced offensive attack.

Kaiser landed nine kills while Berry and Burnett each delivered seven kills.

Burnett sparked a defense that produced 42 digs. She had nine.

Other team leaders were Berry (seven digs), Lindsey Aden (six digs), Kaiser (six digs), Berry (five digs) and Stahl (five digs).

Bigger had 16 assists and eight digs on Monday as the Spartans blitzed visiting Hoopeston Area, 25-5, 25-5.

Kaiser (six kills), Jenna Albrecht (five kills) and Burnett (five kills) were the offensive sparks.

Berry contributed a team-high 11 digs.

SJ-O (12-3) returns to action on Monday at Urbana.

SJ-O Boys’ cross-country

SJ-O runners were dominant on Tuesday in a non-scored dual meet against Monticello at Kickapoo State Park.

The Spartans swept the second through 10th positions.

SJ-O’s Brandon Mattsey was the meet’s runner-up, running the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 7 seconds.

The next six Spartan runners finished consecutively and were within 29 seconds of one another.

Eric Poe was third in 19:01, followed by Lukas Hutcherson (fourth in 19:04), Luke Stegall (fifth in 19:07), Logan Wolfersberger (sixth in 19:09), Braden Clampitt (seventh in 19:11) and Elijah Mock (eighth in 19:30).

Completing the top 10 were SJ-O’s Ethan Blackburn (ninth in 20:37) and Charlie Mabry (10th in 20:51).

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational.

SJ-O Girls’ cross-country

In a non-scored dual meet on Tuesday against Monticello at Kickapoo State Park, SJ-O runners swept all of the first five positions.

Jillian Plotner was the individual winner in 21 minutes, 15 seconds for the 3-mile course.

She was followed by Hannah Rajlich (second in 21:20), Ava Knap (third in 21:27), Ashlyn Lannert (fourth in 21:53) and Ally Monk (fifth in 22:07).

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational.

SJ-O Soccer

It was a different day, but the outcome was the same for the St. Joseph-Ogden soccer program.

Three days after losing to Monticello 5-0 in a tournament match at Hoopeston, the Spartans lost a 5-0 decision to Monticello on Tuesday at home.

Monticello is 10-0-1 for the season, SJ-O is 2-8-1 entering a match today at St. Thomas More (9-1-3).

The post Spartan Volleyball handles Danville and PBL, SJ-O CC sweeps Monticello first appeared on SJO Daily.

SJ-O boys’ cross country teammates Ethan Blackburn and Tad Pettit were the top two finishers on Tuesday in a three-team non-scored meet at Kickapoo State Park.

Due to the heat, the race was shortened from 3 miles to 2 miles.

Blackburn led the way, finishing the course in a time of 12 minutes, 53.66 seconds. Pettit’s time was 12:56.66.

Four other Spartans finished among the top 10. Brandon Mattsey was sixth (13:59.67) and Eric Poe was seventh (14:11.23).

In ninth was SJ-O’s Luke Stegall (14:17.83), who placed one position in front of Elijah Mock (14:18.53).

The Spartans were running against Armstrong-Potomac and Oakwood/Salt Fork.

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday at the First to Finish Invitational at Peoria’s Detweiler Park.

SJ-O Girls’ cross-country

Four Spartans finished within five seconds of one another on Tuesday in a 2-mile race at Kickapoo State Park.

The three-school meet was originally scheduled for 3 miles, but was reduced due to the day’s heat and humidity.

Leading the pack for SJ-O were Hannah Rajlich (16 minutes, 51.03 seconds), Jillian Plotner (16:51.65), Ashlyn Lannert (16:52.52) and Ava Knap (16:56.65).

Ally Monk (17:06.41), Hope Rajlich (17:13.76) and Kendra Riddle (17:15.56) were part of the Spartans’ next pack of runners.

Also featured in that group were Addi Allen (17:16.13), Hanna Eastin (17:16.89), Kailyn Ingram (17:17.67) and Taryn Sexton (17:22.19).

The Spartans return to action on Saturday at the First to Finish Invitational at Peoria’s Detweiler Park.

SJ-O Soccer

Freshman Hunter Ketchum had six saves on Tuesday for SJ-O, which was shut out for the third time this season, 2-0, in a loss at home against Fisher/GCMS.

The Spartans return to action on Friday in the Cornjerker Classic, in Hoopeston.

SJ-O Volleyball

Kennedi Burnett and Lacey Kaiser each reached double figures in digs – with 10 apiece – on Tuesday, but SJ-O suffered a 25-22, 25-20 loss to visiting Champaign Central.

Katelyn Berry had seven kills and Jenna Albrecht landed five kills. Emily Bigger handed out 23 assists.

Kaiser had a team-high three blocks.

On Wednesday, the Spartans made visiting Oakwood their sixth victim of a two-set sweep, 25-8, 25-10.

Bigger posted a double-double with 24 assists and 12 digs to go with a team-high three service aces.

Berry swatted 10 kills and Burnett had six kills as well as seven digs. Albrecht collected a team-high two blocks.

In the two-game sweep last Thursday at Teutopolis, Albrecht, Berry, Bigger and Burnett paced a balanced offensive attack with six kills apiece. Burnett and Kaiser each added seven digs.

SJ-O (6-2) returns to action on Saturday at the Mahomet-Seymour Invitational.

The post Blackburn, Pettit, Rajlich, Plotner, Lannert and Knap lead Spartans at Kickapoo State Park first appeared on SJO Daily.