One of the hottest football teams in the Illini Prairie Conference continued its upward trend on Friday (Oct. 15).

St. Joseph-Ogden posted its fifth consecutive victory, winning its Senior Night regular-season home finale, 29-6, against Rantoul at Dick Duval Field.

During the winning streak, the Spartans have limited three of those opponents to no more than three touchdowns.

Offensively, since the season’s third game, SJ-O is averaging 38.8 points per game.

“I could not be more proud of the steps we have taken every Friday,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “They play hard – that has never been an issue – and as they figured things out, they have continued to improve.

“In the first three weeks, we didn’t get in the end zone enough. As the season has progressed, we’ve moved the ball better.”

SJ-O senior Keaton Nolan rushed for a game-high 175 yards on 24 carries and has gained 406 yards on the ground in his last two games.

The Spartans didn’t have fumbles on any of their 37 running plays.

“That’s attention to detail from our backs and our snappers (center Conrad Miller and long-snappers Coby Miller and Rowan Musselman),” Skinner said. “That’s a compliment to how well our running backs, center and quarterback handled the exchanges.

“The conditions were miserable, but I was impressed how well the field held up.”

Quarterback Evan Ingram returned from an injury to complete 5 of 9 passes, three going for touchdowns.

“He really did some good things,” Skinner said.

He hooked up with Griffin Roesch, Alex Funk and Coby Miller on scoring strikes as well as a 37-yard pass play to Ramsey Primmer.

The victory makes the Spartans playoff-eligible following an 0-3 start to the season.

“That was the first step,” Skinner said. “Now we’re going to try to keep stacking them up.”

The Spartans will likely move forward without Coby Miller, who suffered a leg injury.

Miller is second on the team in scoring (eight TDs) and entered last week’s game first in tackles (51).

“He’s a ginormous part of what we do,” Skinner said. “He has had a phenomenal year on defense.

“He does a little of everything. Our hearts are broken, but our fingers are crossed (for a possible return).”

Skinner said this week will give the team time to fill the void.

“It will take multiple guys to fill in for him,” Skinner said. “Luckily, we have some time.”

Offensively, Miller’s 389 rushing yards are second on the team to Nolan’s 761 yards.

SJ-O forced three Rantoul turnovers, including an interception by Garrett Denhart, the eighth Spartan to pick off a pass this season.

“Our defense has been giving us the ball in advantageous positions,” Skinner said.

SJ-O returns to action on Friday (Oct. 22) at Paxton-Buckley-Loda in a showdown between two 5-3 teams. The winner could finish in a third-place tie in the 10-school Illini Prairie Conference.

“This is a great finale for us,” Skinner said. “PBL is so big and physical.

“They are one of the most physical teams I’ve seen.”

Under the tenure of third-year head coach Josh Pritchard, PBL has not lost a home game.

The post Spartans pick-up fifth-consecutive victory over Rantoul first appeared on SJO Daily.

The Spartans delighted their homecoming crowd on Friday (Oct. 1) with their best defensive performance of the season in a 33-0 win over Bloomington Central Catholic at Dick Duval Field.

SJ-O not only posted its first shutout of the season, but senior Ethan Vanliew returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown.

Coby Miller rushed for a game-high 178 yards, with 97 of those coming on a third-quarter TD romp.

SJ-O led, 12-0, at halftime.

“We were up 12-0 because of our special teams and defense,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “It was nice that Coach (Bob) Glazier (defensive coordinator) was able to get a shutout in his last homecoming.”

Glazier is retiring at season’s end after 34 years on staff.

Quarterback Evan Ingram scored the game’s first touchdown when SJ-O took over on a short field following a snap that went over the head of the BCC punter.

Vanliew almost wasn’t able to be on the field for his heroics.

“On the play before, Isaiah Moore made a phenomenal play, knocking it away, otherwise they would have scored,” Skinner said.

Moore’s play in the secondary set up fourth-and-long for the Saints and enabled Vanliew to be in position for the interception.

“Our defensive backs are playing at a high level,” Skinner said. “Our defense has the attitude that they can score when they get the ball.”

And they have found their way to the end zone multiple times. In previous games, Moore had a pick-six and Miller returned a fumble for a TD.

Against BCC, Tyler Burch and Rowan Musselman picked off passes and Ramsey Primmer recovered a fumble.

The Spartans’ offense did good things in the second half, even when the end result wasn’t a TD.

“We opened the third quarter with an 8-minute drive and to take eight minutes off the clock was important,” Skinner said. “Our offense is continuing to play clean, moving the football and not making critical errors.”

Making the offensive play in Week 6 more impressive is that SJ-O was obligated to make changes on the offensive line. Junior Bryson Helfrich suffered a season-ending ACL injury in Week 5 against Stanford Olympia.

The Spartans shifted tight end Aidan McCorkle to tackle. Peyton Sarver moved from tackle to guard and Jett Morris went from guard to tackle. Spencer Fitch is the other guard.

It resulted in an offense that generated 378 yards of offense against BCC.

“Jett Morris and Conrad Miller (center) are seniors who have done a good job helping those guys,” Skinner said. “Here we are at Week 7 and still playing musical chairs with the offensive line.”

Ingram passed for 63 yards, completing 8 of 17 passes.

Besides Miller and Ingram, other TDs scored by the offense last week were by Justice Wertz and Alex Funk. Wertz finished with 63 yards rushing.

SJ-O (3-3) returns to action on Friday (Oct. 8) at Pontiac, trying to extend its winning streak to four games.

Skinner said the team stayed together in spite of an 0-3 start (to teams which currently have a combined 17-1 record).

“It’s a credit to our kids and the coaching staff that they never got down,” Skinner said. “There was never any panic, just a sense that we will get better.

“There was never a moment where our kids were making excuses or looking backward. We said we won’t be defined by those first three games.”

As for the game at Pontiac, there’s more at stake than the chance to rise above the .500 mark for the season.

“We have never won at Pontiac in the history of the varsity program,” Skinner said. “We have an opportunity to do something no other team has done before.”

The post Spartan football reaches .500 first appeared on SJO Daily.

Seniors Keaton Nolan and Coby Miller each scored three touchdowns on Friday (Sept. 24) as St. Joseph-Ogden scored a season’s high in points during a 60-36 romp at Stanford Olympia.

Quarterback Evan Ingram completed 14 of 15 passes for 180 yards and five TDs. He hooked up with Miller twice and also hit aerial scoring strikes to Nolan, Griffin Roesch and Tyler Burch.

Nolan rushed for a game-high 193 yards and two TDs. Isaiah Moore and Miller each rushed for one touchdown.

Nolan scored the game’s first touchdown 51 seconds into the game, staking SJ-O into a lead it never relinquished.

“We had a pretty good idea we could do things in the passing game,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said, “but they are big upfront and we were pleasantly surprised by the running game.

“Keaton got hot early, and we kept going to him. It was a good job by the offensive line.”

The lead at halftime grew to 34-6, thanks to a TD six seconds before intermission. Evans connected with Burch on a 26-yard scoring strike.

One advantage the Spartans have on offense is versatility with some players.

“You can’t pigeon-hole our guys on offense,” Skinner said. “They have multiple positions.

“Griffin (Roesch) might be a tight end or a wide receiver. Coby (Miller) goes from fullback to tailback to slot.

“It’s fun for our kids to line up in different places.”

The Spartans’ lead grew to 40-6 when SJ-O scored three plays into the second half, before Skinner began substituting, getting some younger players varsity experience against Olympia’s first unit.

“They scored one TD on our top-line defense,” Skinner said. “Our starting defense was fantastic, forcing two turnovers.”

Among the SJ-O standouts were defensive lineman Owen Birt and Mark Miller, outside linebackers Nolan, Roesch and Conrad Miller along with cornerbacks Burch and Moore.

“It was a total defensive effort,” Skinner said.

SJ-O (2-3) returns to action on Friday (Oct. 1) at home against Bloomington Central Catholic (3-2), which has lost two straight games.

“They’ve been in the fire and we have a lot of work to do to prepare for them,” Skinner said. “It will be a challenge to see how we respond to a different style defense.”

The post Nolan, Miller lead Spartans in win over Olympia first appeared on SJO Daily.

St. Joseph-Ogden’s football team broke into the win column in a big way on Friday (Sept. 17), building a 35-point halftime lead en route to a 48-7 Illini Prairie Conference triumph at home over Chillicothe IVC.

Spartan coach Shawn Skinner praised the leadership of five seniors – Coby  Miller, Griffin Roesch, Conrad Miller, Jett Morris and Keaton Nolan – in helping the squad get through its rough start to the season.

“I never sensed any panic,” Skinner said, ”just a sense of urgency, focus and wanting to get back.”

Evan Ingram completed all five of his first-half passes, including two for touchdowns in the opening period. Roesch and Nolan hauled in the scoring strikes to stake the Spartans to a 14-0 lead after one quarter.

Sophomore Joe Frasca, in his first game as the placekicker, made six consecutive extra-point conversion kicks. Miller is the long-snapper and Roesch served as the holder for the attempts.

SJ-O had its top offensive performance of the year, amassing 317 total yards.

The Spartans had rushing TDs from Nolan, Isaiah Moore and Justice Wertz.

The defense got into the scoring column as well. Moore returned an interception for a Pick Six and Miller – who rushed for a game-high 66 yards – returned a recovered fumble for a score. Tyler Burch also had an interception.

Skinner said Miller’s defensive score came on a special play for the middle linebacker.

“He blitzed, knocked the ball out (of the quarterback’s hands) and then returned it 33 yards for a score,” Skinner said.

Ingram completed 5 of 7 passes for 105 yards.

For the third straight game, SJ-O allowed fewer yards than it did the previous week. IVC was limited to 177 yards.

Skinner wasn’t surprised by the Spartans’ performance.

“We felt like we were going in the right direction (the previous two games),” Skinner said. “It started with our preparation. We had our best week of practice. The attention to detail was good.

“In the game, it was a combination of all three phases contributing in a lot of ways.”

That was evident in the game’s opening minutes.

With Frasca kicking off to start the game, IVC took possession on its own 20-yard line. The SJ-O defense then forced a punt after three plays weren’t able to gain 10 yards.

“Four plays later, we struck gold,” Skinner said, referring to the quick score.

The process was then repeated.

The next Frasca kickoff resulted in IVC taking over at its own 24. Another punt was forthcoming, followed by a TD on the Spartans’ second possession, set up by an Ingram-to-Nolan pass near the goal line.

The defense came up big on the third IVC possession. After the Grey Ghosts drove downfield, Burch intercepted a pass in the end zone.

“That was a significant play in the game,” Skinner said.

SJ-O (1-3) returns to action on Friday (Sept. 24) at Stanford Olympia (1-3).

SJ-O can’t afford any letdowns in its preparations.

“Olympia has had periods where they’ve looked good,” Skinner said. “If you don’t play assignment football, they can expose you real quickly.

“They’ve come up short against some good teams.”

Olympia’s losses have been to still-unbeaten teams from Monticello and Unity as well as to a one-loss Paxton-Buckley-Loda squad.

The post St. Joseph-Ogden football picks up first win over Chillicothe IVC first appeared on SJO Daily.

fred@mahometnews.com

Some perspective is needed for the St. Joseph-Ogden football team after the Spartans’ season record dropped to 0-3 following a Friday (Sept. 10) 34-28 loss at home to Prairie Central.

The first three SJ-O opponents have a combined 8-1 record.

“We haven’t played three teams that aren’t good, solid football teams,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “Through three games, we’ve seen improvement.

“We haven’t regressed.”

That progress has occurred even though a variety of SJ-O players have been missing – up to six for some games – during the first one-third of the season.

“We’re getting healthier every week,” Skinner said. “All of a sudden, the roster we anticipated having, in Week 4 potentially we will have our full arsenal of players.”

Against Prairie Central, Evan Ingram completed 15 of 23 passes for 203 yards. He threw three touchdown passes, two to Keaton Nolan and one to Griffin Roesch.

Nolan had 87 receiving yards and Roesch turned his receptions into gains of 81 yards.

Coby Miller had one rushing TD.

“There’s an awful lot of good things that our kids are doing,” Skinner said. “We found a way to throw the ball. We didn’t have a turnover for the second straight game and we had just five flags.”

Significantly, the four SJ-O touchdowns came on the team’s final four possessions.

“In our first two games, we scored early and as the game went on, we struggled to find ways to move the ball in the second half,” Skinner said.

Skinner credited assistant coach Dalton Walsh, who had a press box view of the game and “was seeing things that were open and calling the plays.”

After managing 16 total points through two games, SJ-O put up 28 in Week 3.

Defensively, the Spartans made it tough on the Hawks.

“They were 7-for-8 on fourth-down conversions,” Skinner said. “That’s not a negative reflection on what our kids did, but more a positive reflection on what Prairie Central did.

“Credit our kids for forcing those eight fourth downs. We made Prairie Central earn everything. They only had three splash plays, gains of 20 or more yards.”

SJ-O (0-3) returns to action on Friday (Sept.  17) at home against Chillicothe IVC (0-3).

“We’re home again and there’s a lot to be excited about,” Skinner said. “Everything we want to do is right in front of us.”

The post SJ-O football continues to show improvement first appeared on SJO Daily.

For the second game in a row, the St. Joseph-Ogden football team got on the scoreboard early and held an 8-0 first-quarter lead.

Also for the second game in a row, that turned out to be the team’s final point total as SJ-O dropped a 33-8 decision on Friday (Sept. 3) at state-ranked Tolono Unity.

The Rockets held a 13-8 halftime lead and had only expanded the margin to 20-8 until the game’s final 6 minutes.

“We saw our kids take steps in the direction we want to, steps in the right direction,” Spartans’ coach Shawn Skinner said. “Now we simply need to put four quarters together.

“We felt we had about 1 ½ good quarters in the first game, and this week, we put three decent quarters together. Of their first two scores, one came on a big play and on the other, a big pass play set them up.

“In the third quarter, we had some significant plays on the defensive side.”

Coby Miller lifted SJ-O into an early lead, scoring a touchdown and then adding the two-point conversion.

Miller led the Spartans in rushing with 60 yards on 18 carries. Keaton Nolan gained 45 yards on 12 attempts.

Evan Ingram completed 5 of 14 passes for 32 yards. Nolan and Griffin Roesch each had two receptions.

Skinner saw improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.

“Pre-snap, we did things better which allowed our kids to play faster and better,” Skinner said. “From an offensive line standpoint, they did a better job keeping their blocks.

“We gave a challenge to the offensive line and they lived up to it.”

SJ-O’s opening game was played one day after former head coach Dick Duval passed away. The second game was played four days after Jim Cotter – who had a son on the team – passed away.

Senior Austin Cotter not only suited up, but was also a defensive line starter against Tolono Unity.

“In the first game, he played the best football game of his life and earned the opportunity to start,” Skinner said. “What stood out on film was that he did his assignment on every play. He played well throughout (at Unity).”

Another SJ-O standout in Week 2 was punter Tyler Burch, who was called upon seven times.

“He did a fantastic job of punting and flipping the field a couple of times,” Skinner said.

Among Burch’s punts were ones for 50 and 42 yards.

SJ-O (0-2) returns to action on Friday (Sept. 10) at home against Prairie Central.

“It should be a good game to see if we’ve made the strides we think we have,” Skinner said. “The things we do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday translates into how we play on Friday.

“We’re trying to get all 67 kids in the program to buy into that.”

The post Skinner sees Spartan football take steps in the right direction first appeared on SJO Daily.

fred@mahometnews.com

Twenty eight years.

Three hundred and twenty six games.

Those are some of the numbers in Dick Duval’s football coaching career at St. Joseph-Ogden.

His tenure, which ended with his retirement following the 2015 season, included spending approximately 2,600 days at the football field, whether for games or practices.

If that is put in terms of years, it’s a little more than seven.

Duval, who has been battling pancreatic cancer since April, 2020, is no longer coaching, but his presence at SJ-O will still be felt. And recognized.

Nearly 15 months after the St. Joseph-Ogden Board of Education voted to name the football grounds as Dick Duval Field, the official ceremony took place in front of a packed house on Friday night (Aug. 20) before the current Spartans’ squad conducted a preseason intrasquad scrimmage.

“As good of coach as Dick was, he is a better man and that’s something we all aspire to,” said football assistant Marshall Schacht, who worked on Duval’s staff for 23 years. “It’s appropriate they named the field that way.”

Current SJ-O football coach Shawn Skinner was convinced for years that his former coach would receive this honor.

“It wasn’t a matter of if they would do it, but when,” Skinner said.

***

Dick Duval wasn’t the first choice to be football coach at SJ-O when the search was on in 1988.

“They hired a man from Ohio to be the coach,” recalled a former player who was about to start his sophomore season at SJ-O, Shawn Skinner, “but he quit two weeks before the season.”

Duval was then offered the job, one which started so quickly after his hiring that for weeks he had to commute to the school from his home in the Kankakee area.

St. Joseph-Oden, an eastside Champaign County high school, didn’t have a reputation as a football hotbed at the time. In 14 of the previous 16 seasons leading up to 1988, the football team had a sub-.500 record.

There was one postseason playoff appearance in school history and that was only achieved the year before Duval arrived.

“Coach Duval came in under less-than-ideal circumstances,” Skinner said.

Some assistant coaches, upset with the ouster of the previous coach, chose not to return.

One of the first-year assistants who began working with Duval in August, 1988, was Bob Glazier.

Glazier worked with linebackers and wide receivers.

It’s the same Bob Glazier who, in 2021, is still coaching linebackers and wide receivers at SJ-O in his 34^th – and final – year on staff.

He learned quickly some of the special attributes that Duval brought to the program.

“He was very organized and had a tremendous attention to detail,” Glazier said. “He knew what he wanted to do, and he stuck with it.

“So many times now, guys go for the flavor of the day. People knew (when playing the Spartans) they were going to get a heavy dose of the tailback and play action.”

The transition into one of the state’s premier football programs didn’t happen overnight at SJ-O.

“His first year, for the first game, we had something like six plays (in the playbook),” Glazier said. “We were trying to figure things out and get something started.”

History showed how that worked out.

In the second year that Duval coached at SJ-O, the 1989 Spartans played in the Class 2A state championship game.

As he worked to build the football program, he aimed at something more. Duval wanted to see success across the board for all athletic programs at SJ-O.

“He truly believed you were not just a football player, but you could be a track star or a basketball or baseball player,” Glazier said. “That’s what turned things around for St. Joe.

“Athletes were doing more than one sport.”

Skinner – then a teen-ager who is now in his fifth year as football head coach at his alma mater – picked up on that mindset.

“It was the right time,” Skinner said. “I think kids and parents wanted that kind of leadership and guidance.

“There were not two- and three-sport athletes walking around the halls. He said, ‘If you’re good enough to play football, you should be doing other sports. You’re not just a football player.’”

Duval led by example. For 16 years, he also was the head baseball coach at SJ-O. His first 13 teams had winning records.

“And when the basketball team won state (in 2016), he was so proud because a lot of those kids were football players,” Schacht said.

***

The respect for the job Duval was doing, taking over a football program that Glazier said, “was floundering,” was noticed beyond the school district where he taught mathematics and coached.

In the fall of 1994, Tolono Unity hired a young football coach who found himself in a situation similar to what Duval faced the previous decade when he arrived at SJ-O.

Prior to Scott Hamilton’s coaching stint at Unity, the school had endured sub-.500 seasons in nine of the previous 12 years.

The southside Champaign County school had three playoff appearances on its resume.

“When I came here, it was very easy to tell the respect Dick had from everyone,” Hamilton said. “He was the face of the conference, the guy everyone looked up to.

“There are two ways you can go about things. You can sit and find excuses or you can find out what they are doing to be successful and try to do as many of those things as you can.

“When I started in ’94, it was the veteran against the young guy trying to get things turned around.”

Much like Duval, Hamilton got things rolling almost immediately.

His first Unity team made the playoffs as did the next 23 teams he coached at the school. Hamilton has guided five of his teams into state championship games.

When Unity and SJ-O met on the field, it was a fierce rivalry between neighboring schools.

The two coaches, however, became friends, which is how Hamilton describes their relationship.

“Two really good friends in a heated rivalry,” he said. “Up towards the end of his career, we’d do 7-on-7s and then go to Old Orchard for pizza and sit for hours talking football.

“More important than talking football, we talked about fun things we’ve experienced while working in Central Illinois.”

Hamilton believes the naming of Dick Duval Field was a natural choice.

“He changed the culture in this area when it came to football,” Hamilton said. “He demanded excellence, and he set the bar high.

“He’s probably as deserving as anybody.”

While Duval’s won-loss record was outstanding (251-75), Hamilton believes the recognition reflects more than his football coaching.

“He not only had good teams, but they were disciplined and did things the way you’re supposed to do things,” Hamilton said. “I believe he was rewarded equally for all of those things as much as the 250-plus wins.

“It’s for what he has done for so many people, not just at St. Joe, but for coaches and athletic directors around the area.”

**

For those looking for one word to describe Duval, Skinner offers his selection: “Consistent.”

Not only was Skinner a three-year player for Duval, he was an assistant on his staff the final four years that he coached.

“My oldest son (Shane) was a member of his last team that went to the Final Four (in 2013),” Shawn Skinner said. “The things he was saying before the Bloomington Central Catholic game (in the quarterfinals) and the Unity game (in the semifinals), he said to me as a junior in 1989.

“That’s because those lessons and those concepts don’t go out of style. That’s why he was able to endure. Those things don’t expire. They are universal.

“No matter the school or the sport you’re doing, they are truths.”

Duval helped make the playing experience so enjoyable that his former players want to help the tradition continue.

Among the current staff members for Skinner are former Spartans Nick Bialeschki, Ben Gorman, Dylan Koss and Dalton Walsh.

“We are molded in his philosophies, ideals and beliefs,” Skinner said.

Schacht points the finger directly at one person for the willingness of former players to return as coaches.

“The love and desire to come back is amazing,” Schacht said. “There truly is this family, and it all starts with Dick.

“Without Dick, it doesn’t go that way.”

Bialeschki teaches History at Danville High School and coaches the offensive and defensive lineman at SJ-O.

The 2006 graduate joined the Spartans’ coaching staff in 2012.

“A lot of the reasons I’m doing what I do are because of what he did for me,” Bialeschki said. “I love him more than he knows.”

Duval always had an emphasis on community and it was not a concept he merely gave lip service.

“When I came back (to coach), my wife and I had just started dating,” Bialeschki said. “In the football season, you are always busy.

“He showed me how to work through things as a husband and a father.”

In particular, Duval insisted that family time was of vital importance, even during the season.

“He always respected our family life and included family in his football functions,” Schacht said.

“A lot of programs have a lot of expectations, but there are a lot of sacrifices during the football season. Here, family was a priority. Every coach’s child has sat on Dick’s lap (at staff football functions).

“I don’t know if other coaching staffs have that because I have only coached here, but some of my friends in the coaching profession don’t understand that aspect.”

Schacht was schooled in Champaign and graduated from Central. His first connection to SJ-O was when he was assigned to do his student teaching there in the spring of 1994.

“I was a volunteer assistant in the baseball program for Dick and Bob (Glazier),” Schacht said. “They made me feel like family right away.

“Because of Dick and Bob, I participated in something special, and I haven’t left.”

While Duval’s players learned about football – and life – the assistants felt his teaching guidance as well.

“I became addicted to coaching with him,” Schacht said. “I learned about being a coach. I learned about being a man.

“He became like a second father.”

Schacht especially appreciated Duval’s management style.

“He never over-coached or over-reached into the different positions,” Schacht said.

***

St. Joseph-Ogden enjoyed unparalleled success during Duval’s tenure.

The football team never had a losing record in his 28 years on the sidelines. His teams won more than three-fourths of their games and he directed 25 consecutive teams into the postseason.

He coached teams into state championship games in four different decades. And, he is tied for 14^th on the all-time IHSA list for football coaching wins at one school with 251.

As the success mounted, so did Duval’s image.

Dalton Walsh – a current assistant coach – remembers entering high school in the fall of 2010 knowing that his football head coach was already enshrined in the state Hall of Fame.

“Coming in, I’d heard a lot of people say they were nervous, scared and intimidated (by Duval),” Walsh said. “I had those feelings as a freshman.”

Walsh soon gained a different perspective.

“He cares about his players,” Walsh said. “He pushed me to be a better player and a better person every single day.

“I’ve gotten to know him as a person the past few years and it’s cool to see that side.”

That side has little similarity to the image Walsh had pictured.

“As his kids say, he’s kind of a big teddy bear,” Walsh said. “The most special part for me is to know that side of him.”

Skinner said that Duval’s caring nature wasn’t reserved for those involved in athletics.

“He was easily one of the best teachers I’ve ever been around,” Skinner said. “If the best you could do was a C-plus, then you got a C-plus.

“If you were an A student and had a C-plus – if you were not living up to your potential – he sought you out and wanted to know why.

“He established expectations at the beginning, of doing things the right way. Some things he said in the middle of geometry were the same things he said on the field.”

Though intense on the field, Duval was fun-loving away from the game.

“On the field, he was all business,” Glazier said. “Away from the field, he liked to joke around and have fun.

“If anyone was having a problem, he’d be the first to step up and say, ‘How can I help?’ He’s a good guy who would go out of his way to make you feel welcome.”

Skinner said one lesson that Duval preached has remained with him throughout the decades.

“He taught me if you’re five minutes early, you’re late,” he said. “Get there 15 minutes early and show you’re invested and locked in.

“You know your expectations. Do your job, do what’s right whether it’s in math or on the football field.”

When that path is followed, Duval was confident that the end result would be positive.

“He really made school or life or sports that simple: ‘If you do the basic stuff well, you can’t ask for any more and most of the time, it will work out.’”

Duval remained committed to his players even following their graduations.

“One of the proudest moments in my life was as a senior in college (at MacMurray), he came to watch me play,” Skinner said. “I had one of the best games I had in college.

“He knows how much that meant to me.”

The football field at SJ-O is part of a bigger athletic area that – thanks to the urging of Duval – was named the Glenn Fisher Complex in honor of the school’s long-time janitor who cared for many of the facilities.

Now that Dick Duval Field has been officially christened, it’s up to the players to continue the football legacy.

Among the possible players in the future are three young boys whose grandfather is the person for whom the field has been named.

The post St. Joseph-Ogden names football field after Dick Duval first appeared on SJO Daily.

fred@mahometnews.com

Area high schools are in the process of preparing their athletes to return to competition.

The IHSA permitted limited participation last week, allowing districts to conduct conditioning, agility and strength training exercises in small groups.

Oakwood chose to wait until this week in order to get its plan in place.

“We are taking a cautious approach for right now,” Oakwood football coach Al Craig said. “We are making sure all the ducks are in a row before we start.

“We have been meeting with the athletes once a week on Zoom and going over things we would have normally gone over. It has gone well.”

Craig fears the repercussions of doing too much too soon.

“I am just concerned with health and safety,” he said. “I don’t ever want our student-athletes or coaches in danger.

 “I’m also worried that too much at the beginning gets everything closed down again, then we lose August. We don’t want that. Nobody wants that.”

St. Joseph-Ogden and Villa Grove/Heritage began the process of restarting workouts last week.

Throughout the area, slow steps are the norm.

“Right now, they are student-athletes who we haven’t seen for multiple weeks,” SJ-O football coach Shawn Skinner said. “We are working on getting them in shape.

“Their core, legs and lungs are what we want to ensure are getting ready as we progress at this time.”

SJ-O athletes are at the school in shifts, taking advantage of the weight room.

“We have eight groups and those groups have six to eight kids,” Skinner said. “We have some groups going at 7 a.m., another set at 11 a.m. and another round at 5 p.m.

“Prior to working out, we have to check the kids in with a series of questions and we record their temperatures. We will do that every time we work out, at least during this stage of our return-to-play plan.

“We have essentially created small weight rooms outside on and around our track and sports fields. The workouts incorporate speed improvement, flexibility, strength and conditioning.”

The workout takes about an hour and the athletes remain with the same group every day. Sixty-five Spartan football prospects, from freshmen through seniors, worked out last week.

Skinner said his program is not far behind where he originally expected to be by mid-June.

“Our summer plan was to always be in the weight room three days a week, so from that standpoint we are moving forward with that plan,” Skinner said. “We have lost only about two weeks of summer workouts, so we are trying to stay positive from that standpoint.”

He said the school’s staff is doing everything possible to not put anyone at risk.

“Obviously we want everyone to be as safe and healthy as can be,” Skinner said, “so we’re being cognizant of spacing and what we touch; wiping down and cleaning equipment after every athlete uses that.

“For the athletes, we want to avoid over-taxing them early. Some of them have been working out at home, but several of them have not. It’s not a race to get back in shape in one week.

“This will be a process and we have to ensure we avoid injuries, especially soft tissue injuries, as that could linger all season.”

Unless athletes were working out on their own, most had been away from regimented practices for more than 80 days. Skinner didn’t know what level of conditioning and fitness to expect from his returnees.

“I was really concerned with what shape we would be in,” he said. “Honestly, it’s better than I thought. It’s not good, but it’s not bad either.”

Villa Grove/Heritage football coach Heath Wilson has about 50 potential football players working out.

“At this point, I am just excited,” Wilson said. “Excited to get to start working with the players and coaches.

“A lot of our players are out of shape due to the stay-at-home order, so it’s time to do the work and get ready for the season.”

The staff at VG/Heritage is adhering to recommendations.

“First and foremost, we are making sure we understand and implement the guidelines appropriately,” Wilson said. “The safety of these athletes is very important. We have worked quickly to survey our players, break them into groups and get them in the weight room. 

“With seven coaches, we are able to divide and conquer. We have six groups that are working out three days a week. During this phase, we are focused on lifting and conditioning.”

The emphasis is not the same for coaches in cross-country and soccer as it is in football.

“The great thing about our sport, although it’s better to be together, it can be done solo,” SJ-O cross-country coach Jason Retz said. “Every athlete has the same ability to improve.

“We are simply going to control what we can control and enjoy each day as it comes.”

Retz expects a turnout between 40 and 50, including both the boys’ and girls’ programs.

“We meet once a week and have four groups right now,” Retz said. “They already have their own schedules they are working off, so we get together and they get it done.”

Bill DeJarnette is returning to the SJ-O soccer program he helped to implement. He has about 15 potential players thus far and they are divided into two groups.

“We plan to continue to add (groups) as we expand our recruitment,” DeJarnette said. “The workouts will vary within cycles.

“Cycle examples are Plyo, Long Slow, Intervals, fast twitch, strength and visualization, with constant evaluation of strengths and weaknesses so we can tune the workouts to address issues as needed.”

Conditioning is generally not an activity that teen-agers look forward to. This month could be an exception.

“We are excited to be back together, even if only for conditioning,” Villa Grove coach Jeanine Block said. “The girls are excited to see one another and are anxious for the next phase.”

Oakwood volleyball coach Lynn Anderson said the starting point is to make clear that the guidelines in place must be followed.

“My main concern is getting the players to understand we have regulations we have to follow,” Anderson said. “That is foreign to them, in a sense, especially with the sport.”

Block said she tries to keep things fresh and not repeat the same routine.

“Kids get bored without sport-specific activities,” Block said. “We are doing our best to make the workouts ‘competitive,’ but these girls are anxious to play volleyball.”

The unexpected break, which was mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic, took away from the ongoing changes around the SJ-O facilities.

“Prior to the virus shutting everything down, we were having a very good offseason,” Skinner said. “We had really built up some momentum in our weight room.

“Casey Hug, our athletic trainer, has assisted us in changing our strength and conditioning program and you could really see the kids’ bodies starting to change.”

A booster support group was helping to implement other additions and improvements,

“Our SJO Fan Club had purchased new equipment and Mr. Hug had updated our weight room,” Skinner said. “If we had returned from Spring Break, it would have been an entirely new facility for our kids.

“I can’t wait to get to use it in the manner we really want to soon. We hope that happens in early July as we enter the next stage in the return-to-play.”

The coaches have mixed feelings about what is in store in the weeks and months ahead.

“We will plan and work with the assumption that the fall season is a go,” DeJarnette said. “Even if not, there are no downsides to working together as a team every opportunity you get.”

Added Retz: “The opportunity to help student-athletes grow will continue to happen regardless of what the season looks like.

“Our goal is to help make better people. That will happen regardless if we get to race against other schools or not.”

Craig sees many issues that need to be resolved before games can again take place. He isn’t convinced that everything can fall into place.

“I would love to say I’m really confident, but I’m not,” Craig said. “I would say I’m somewhere between pessimist and optimist.

“I just need to see the logistics of games and locker room usage before I can become really confident.”

Block said now is the time to plan for the possibilities of what a new-normal may look like.

“I can see us playing, with precautions and possibly no fans,” she said. “We are looking at options to live stream games in case the parents/fans are not allowed to attend games.”

Anderson, too, wonders what athletic competition will look like once the games resume.

“My concern is whether we can just relax and play eventually,” Anderson said. “If we have to wear masks, wipe down balls, not touch each other, etc.

“Where is the consistency of just playing, when we have to worry with everything else? Hopefully, it won’t come to that. How confident about whether we have a season or not depends on the day and who I listen to.”

Skinner said this is a time of many questions, but few answers.

“Obviously, the threat of the virus is going to remain and it’s not going to change anytime soon,” he said. “What do we do if one of our players or coaches gets it? What will that look like? Also, how do we advance the workouts in the best/safest way; safe from a physical and spacial standpoint, but also an emotional and mental standpoint?

“These are real concerns that we need to be aware of and observe. We have a tendency as Midwesterners to have a blue color, tough-it-out, mentality. I think that we need to really reflect on that.

“If you’re feeling sick, if you have a sore throat, cough, etc., then maybe stay home a day or two. That goes against our mentality, but maybe we need to take a step back and realize it’s OK to miss a day of work, school, practice, if that means in the long run you’re healthier for it.”

He realizes that is easier said than done.

“That would require a huge change in our perception, and I am probably as guilty of this attitude as anyone,” Skinner said. “But it may be time to acknowledge we can take better care of ourselves and in the process take better care of those around us.”

Like others, Skinner knows it’s merely speculation as to whether there will be a season and – if so – when it would start and how it will look different from previous years.

“What we know is that at this time there is a strong desire and intention for there to be a return to school in August and with that a fall-sport season,” he said. “I’m working with that in mind.

“That’s all I can do at this point. If/when that changes, we will adjust.”

Retz said in one respect this year will be like all others:  There will be a need to deal with the unexpected.

“Each year brings different challenges and it will be fun to take these on one day at a time,” Retz said. “Distance running takes time.

“We’ll deal with any bump in the road there may be, but those bumps only help us learn and grow.”

The key word, Wilson said, is optimism.

“I have to stay positive and say there will be a season,” Wilson said. “I can’t imagine a fall without football.”

If the green light is given for competition, Anderson knows one fact for certain.

“We will be ready to play,” she said. “All athletes just want to get started, which might be a positive out of this whole deal.

“They will not take for granted anymore that things just always happen how they want it to. They know their lives can change that quickly now.”

The post High school athletes return for team workouts with coronavirus guidelines in place first appeared on SJO Daily.

“Do you want fast or forever?”

When Shawn Skinner and Kelly Miller joined dating sites in 2006, they weren’t sure they were looking for either.

In fact, Shawn, who was recently divorced didn’t even want to join a dating site.

“One of my best friends decided that he was tired of me sitting in my house all alone, watching sports,” Shawn said. “So he bought me a membership to E-Harmony. He forced me to get on and that that was how I ended up there.

“I was not looking to get in a relationship at all.”

Shawn was a busy man, at the time.

The father of three sons all under the age of eight, Shawn also taught at Westville High School and coached three sports.

But even though he was working almost sun-up to sun-down, his friends could see that he would benefit from a little something more.

Reluctantly, Shawn went through the lengthy and thorough process of setting up his E-Harmony account, making sure that the only potential women he would meet would not live nearby.

“I was not searching for local people, but far enough away that I could travel and visit,” he said.

Kelly, a recently widowed woman with two children under the age of five was looking for something similar.

“My mom thought that I needed to date, and get out into the world,” Kelly said. “So, online dating sounded like the best bet.

“I was not looking for a committed relationship.

“It was really appealing to kind of look outside of my immediate town because I wanted to have my life, and then I wanted to have something on the side but not interfere with my regular life.”

While both Kelly and Shawn were looking for something casual, they both knew that their values and priorities were foundational in any relationship they entered into.

The rigorous process E-Harmony puts its registrants through helped both of them know that their matches had to be in it for something more than a hook-up.

“It was a lot about personality tests,” Kelly said. “It was more like core components and personality.

“It was really neat because you could really specify and really lock into certain values or religion or any of that stuff, whatever you believed in and valued, it was going to come through,” Shawn said.

“They matched you with other people that were compatible with you,” Kelly said. “But unlike other online dating sites, they wouldn’t show you a picture first, they would just show you areas that you were compatible.”

After going through the process, Shawn believed that whomever he was matched with would be telling the truth because E-Harmony put him through so much.

“I don’t know why you would have ever paid and not been honest for that service,” he said.

Once matched, the individuals have to go through a series of interactions before they could share their picture.

Shawn said his pickiness gave him the results he expected.

“I had like four matches in the world,” he said.

One of those matches was Kelly, but he didn’t pick her first. Kelly was 75 miles away from Westville in Plainfield, Ind. So, he chose someone closer.

When that didn’t work, he responded to Kelly.

“My buddy would check-in, ‘Did you email that girl’s today?’” he said.

Shawn would tell him yes, but he really didn’t engage in the conversation until they started talking about music.

“Music is really big to me,” he said. “I am an eclectic music person. I like everything.

“I was throwing out some randomness, and she knew the stuff.”

Kelly also knew a thing about football.

It was the middle of football season for Westville High School, and Kelly asked a random football question.

“Either she did a lot of googling or she really did like football,” Shawn said.

When Shawn replied, he also asked if she liked football.

“That’s when the floodgates opened because she was a Colts’ season ticket holder,” Shawn said.

Not only that, but Kelly had lived in Green Bay when the Packers won the Super Bowl and she lived in Pittsburgh when the Steelers, who Shawn loves, went to the playoffs. And she grew up in Philadephia and was an Eagles fan.

“She could quote all these players from the Steelers’ history.”

Shawn figured that if she was a football fan and had Colts’ season tickets, “it might not hurt to meet her,” he said.

Of course, he had to report back to his buddy.

“I was like, ‘She’s a Colt season ticket holder.’ And he just said, ‘Well, it’s been nice having you as a friend.’”

At this point, Kelly had seen a picture of Shawn, but Shawn did not give her a good picture of himself.

“It was him coaching softball,” Kelly remembered. “It was an overcast day, he had lost like 100 pounds, and so he was in that transition, but he had these big huge baggy clothes and a hat that covered up most of his face.

“It really wasn’t an attractive picture at all, but I really like his personality, so I thought that I was being very benevolent; looks don’t matter. I will be a bigger person. I don’t make judgements on appearance.”

Their regular phone calls turned into frequent phone calls, reaching a point where they talked on the phone almost every night.

Within a month, Kelly asked Shawn if he’d like to go to a Sunday afternoon Colts game with her.

The plan was for Shawn and Kelly to meet for brunch, go to the game, then that would be it.

Both had an ‘out’ though. Shawn’s buddy and mom, Martha, knew when to call and what to say in case things fell south. Kelly also had people lined up to check in on her throughout the day.

As Shawn arrived nervously for breakfast, he knew what Kelly looked like and who he was looking for.

“I could tell by her picture that she was beautiful, but that didn’t really matter to me,” he said.

Uncharacteristically, Kelly arrived to brunch early to wait for Shawn.

“Remember I’m going to be the bigger person; I really like this guy, but I’m not really sure how he looks. And so I’m sitting in the restaurant, and he walks in and to me, he was super cute and super hot. And I was like, ‘thank you.’”

They were almost immediately smitten.

Still, friends and parents called almost every hour to make sure everything was okay.

“I had legitimate outs,” Shawn said. “I think she had people concerned, but this was so far out of the norm for me.”

His best friend called 40 minutes after the game, as planned. But Shawn wasn’t ready to leave. They both wanted to get dinner. And then they wanted to take a walk. And then they wanted to make out.

By this time, Shawn’s mom was legitimately worried not because her son wasn’t having fun, but because he had to teach in the morning.

The work week went by, and the following weekend, Kelly and Shawn met up again in Crawfordsville.

“We kind of had the discussion there,” Shawn said. “What are we going to do with this?”

They decided that they weren’t ready to introduce each other to their kids, so when Shawn’s ex-wife had the boys, they would hang out.

By the time Kelly went on the second date with Shawn, she new something was there.

“I dated multiple other people, but he was the first person that I had been really interested in after my first husband died,” she said. “And I don’t know that I was ready to be in love or in a committed relationship, but there was definitely an attraction.”

Kelly decided to take a leap. She asked Shawn to go to a wedding with her.

That prompted a December discussion of how they were serious about being in the relationship.

“I think we both kind of agreed that we’re, I don’t know that I would call it soulmates, but I think we’re meant for each other,” she said. “I think we complement each other. I think we’re just really good together.”

Shawn said neither he nor Kelly regret their first marriage.

“We are sorry for they way they ended,” he said. “Obviously, neither one of them ended the way you would want a marriage to end.

“The decision to go into a second marriage for both of us was not going to be something that was done, even if it feels right, it wasn’t going to be something that was done lightly.”

Both attribute the process E-Harmony put them through to their compatibility.

“If I didn’t believe that she supported me 100-percent, if she didn’t know how much I believe in and was committed to her, then this wasn’t gonna work,” he continued.

“We have super strong values and self awareness about the kind of people that we are and what we want out of the world and what we want out of life,” Kelly said.

Their previous circumstances led the couple to talking honestly about what might work and what wouldn’t.

“If I’m going to take this step with you, then you got to know this about me and you got to know this is how I’m going to be and this is what I’m going to do and this is what I believe in,” Shawn said. “If you can’t, if you can’t get on board with that, then that’s fine.”

Every time Shawn revealed something to Kelly that he thought might be a deal-breaker, Kelly said she agreed or felt the same way. Every time Kelly told something to Shawn that she thought would turn him the other way, he responded with affirmation.

“Then it got to the point where you don’t want to be disagreement, you don’t want to disagree,” Shawn said.

By May, they were engaged.

“She didn’t know that I bought a ring,” Shawn said. “But I was at a softball game in Milford, and I texted her and I told her to meet me. And she’s like, ‘Where?’ and I said ‘You know where.’”

They met in the same spot as their first date ended in Downtown Indianapolis.

“I asked her on that Friday to marry me,” he said.

And by September the answer to E-Harmony’s question became that they wanted fast and forever.

Looking back, the Skinners admit that maybe getting married in September at the height of the IHSA football season wasn’t the best idea.

The year was also 2007, and the beginning of the real estate collapse and a recession. Kelly still owned her home in Plainfield, and Shawn still owned his home in Westville, so for the first year of their marriage, they lived apart.

Shawn also wasn’t able to find a job in Indiana, so Kelly began talking to her employer about working from home, and traveling to Indiana a couple days a week.

The couple bought a home in St. Joseph. Because Shawn was still working and coaching three sports in Westville, and because Kelly was in Indiana Tuesday and Wednesday, they hired a nanny to help with the five kids and two dogs after school. They were also lucky enough to have grandparents nearby.

“I don’t know how we did it,” Shawn said.

“Strength of will,” Kelly replied.

“I mean it was the Brady Bunch,” he said.

“Without Alice,” Kelly replied.

“There were times that we would throw ourselves on the floor and act like two-year-olds, but we did it with a lot of love and support,” Kelly said.

Kelly added that because of their “committed” personalities, there has never been a moment of “let’s quit” for either of them.

“We both have an optimistic sense of the world,” Kelly said. “Even when things are bad, we try to lift each other up and always try to make each other better.”

As the oldest kids got into junior high, the demand for nanny care subsided a bit, but with extra-curriculars and kids needing to be here or there, the dynamic changed. Shawn gave up some coaching responsibilities while still teaching in Westville.

By 2012, he was brought into the St. Joseph-Ogden football program as an assistant. When he got a teaching job at St. Joseph-Ogden High School in 2016, he also became the head coach of the football program.

Like with nearly any family with children, the Skinner’s kids had times when they struggled, but blending the families together was something that both Shawn and Kelly now see the fruits of.

“They really care for each other,” Shawn said.

“We’ve been really lucky,” Kelly said. “They’re good kids.”

Bringing Kelly and Shawn’s parents on board was fairly easy, too.

“They just saw how natural it was and they saw the true love that was between us,” Shawn said. “And once they saw that, it was easy to embrace and get behind and support.”

“When you have a blended family. It’s not just us, and the way that we parent, there’s another parent involved, there’s other family members involved there’s other influences on the kids lives that sometimes run counter to the things that we believe and the things that we value,” Kelly said.

“So the hardest part for me was negotiating that, mitigating it or managing it. It’s not just two, it’s three and four and five and six perspectives.”

The perspectives that Kelly and Shawn have brought to each other is what will help their whirlwind romance last forever, though.

Shawn, a very structured and regimented man said that Kelly has helped him expand his view of self, others and the world.

“It’s opened up my eyes to realize that there’s not just my way or it can’t be done,” Shawn said. “That has manifested itself and everything: my parenting style, how I teach or how I coach, how I cook, how I eat, some of my political and religious views.

“She’s just really good at opening up my world, and I’m a better person for that. I’m a better person, because she pushes me to be better. And she has from the very beginning.”

Kelly loves the support system that the two of them have created for each other.

With a new business, Soul Care, Kelly is putting her world view and experiences into practice and giving others the opportunity to connect with their spirituality, too.

“I just have the most wonderful supportive partner who does believe in me and believes in everything I am, and has helped me have a really safe space to become the person that I’m meant to be,” she said. “Whether it’s learning better ways to communicate, or learning how to speak up, or learning to be vulnerable or learning to get rid of perfectionism … it would have been a whole lot harder to do those things without Shawn by my side.”

The Skinners don’t know what the next steps are. With just one of the five children still at home, they are adjusting to the reality that in a couple years they will be empty nesters.

“I think we’re in a transition stage,” Shawn said. “This is a new.

“She’s a business owner and she’ll be working,” he continued. “I mean that’s that’s a 24/7 gig for her that’s a new experience for her and she loves it. It’s good.”

Shawn said soon, for the first time in his life, he will be blessed with some free time.

“Right now, I love what I do. I get to teach I get to coach. You know football coaching can go year-round if it needs to.

“If she calls me and says she needs help doing something at Soul Care, I can help.”

Kelly said that because they have had so much change in their lives they usually don’t look farther down the road than three to six months.

But with friends getting ready to retire, she likes to dream about what retirement with Shawn will be like.

“Come back and interview us when we’re 100,” she said.

The post Skinners choose forever first appeared on SJO Daily.

The tradition continues with the St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ cross-country program.

By placing third in Saturday’s Effingham St. Anthony Class 1A Sectional, SJ-O advanced its entire girls’ team to state for the 13th consecutive year and for the 25th time in school history.

They did it by sticking together. The split between the team’s top five runners was 41 seconds. The gap between the second and fifth runners was seven seconds.

“They draw strength from one another on a daily basis,” SJ-O coach Jason Retz said.

In a field of 136 competitors, all seven of the Spartans’ sectional entries finished in the top one-third.  The five scoring runners were all among the top 27.

It didn’t start out that way.

“We got cut off early (starting from an outside position) and after 400 meters, it may have looked like we were out of it,” Retz said.

The schedule prepared the team for that type of challenge.

“No one panicked,” Retz said. “Some of the races we were in this year were big fields, with more than 60 schools.”

The Spartans worked their way back towards the front.

“We kept picking people off,” Retz said.

Senior Jillian Plotner was the team leader, placing 11th overall after completing the 3-mile course in 19 minutes, 33.75 seconds.

The next group of Spartans were closely bunched.

Sophomore Ashlyn Lannert was 23rd in 19:57.69, senior Hannah Rajlich was 24th in 19:58.97, sophomore Ava Knap was 25th in 19:59.21 and sophomore Malorie Sarnecki was 27th in 20:04.79.

“They kept their composure,” Retz said. “That’s one reason we try to race as many big meets as we can. If you get to the back of the field, you work your way back up.”

The other SJ-O sectional runners were sophomore Addie Allen (36th in 20:23.21) and senior Ally Monk (40th in 20:38.27).

In the final runnerspace.com Class 1A state poll, SJ-O’s girls were ranked sixth.

Two of the teams ranked ahead of them were also in front of them at the sectional. Meet champion Monticello (53 points) is ranked first in 1A and sectional runner-up Unity (66 points) is ranked fourth.

SJ-O finished third with 110 points, just in front of St. Thomas More (116 points). Fifth-place Urbana Uni High (132 points) also qualified its team for state, which will be Saturday, Nov. 9, at Detweiler Park, in Peoria.

The girls’ Class 1A race will start at 9 a.m.

Retz believes his team could be part of history while seeking its fifth state trophy in the past five seasons.

“We are on track to have five (runners) under 19 minutes,” he said. “No team has ever lost state with five under 19 minutes.

“This is the fastest team year (state-wide) that I have been a part of in seven years at St.  Joe. It’s a very competitive year.

‘We may do that (five under 19 minutes) and be sixth, seventh or eighth.”

The potential is there for more, however.

“If we move the pack forward, we could be top five and, on a great day, we could be top three,” Retz said. “Anything in the top eight would be a huge accomplishment.”

St. Joseph-Ogden Boys’ cross-country

After a year’s absence, SJ-O’s boys’ cross-country team is headed back to the state meet.

The Spartans, ranked 25th in the final runnerspace.com state poll, took third place in Saturday’s Effingham St. Anthony Class 1A Sectional.

The top five teams secured automatic advancement to state.

“One of the big keys was our preparation,” Spartan coach Jason Retz said. “We were ready for the course and the (wet) conditions.”

Junior Brandon Mattsey was the team-leader, clocking a 3-mile time of 16 minutes, 56.79 seconds. He finished 13th individually.

Senior Eric Poe came in 22nd in 17:16.29.

“Our third through sixth ran as a group and finished within a few seconds of each other,” Retz added.

The split between those four runners was 12 seconds.

Sophomore Charlie Mabry was 36th in 17:40.73, sophomore Elijah Mock was 42nd in 17:50.26, junior Logan Wolfersberger was 48th in 17:52.28 and sophomore Luke Stegall was 50th in 17:53.66.

In all, there were 148 participants at the sectional.

SJ-O’s other entry was junior Lukas Hutcherson (80th in 18:49.14).

With just one senior in the top seven, the program’s future is bright. Part of that future could arrive this week in the state finals at Detweiler Park, in Peoria.

The Class 1A boys’ race will be on Saturday, Nov. 2, starting at 10 a.m.

“At the beginning of the year, I thought we could be in the top 15,” Retz said. “After the last several weeks, I think they could be top 10.

“They put in a good summer and have continued to work hard.”

Last year’s near-miss served as motivation. SJ-O was within five points of advancing its team to state in 2018.

“Last year, four of our seven had never run a high school regional or sectional before,” Retz said.

There were no close calls when the points were tabulated on Saturday.

Meet champion Monticello had 42 points. Runner-up Urbana Uni High had 96. SJ-O came in third with 158 points. The other teams that moved on to state were fourth-place Unity (162 points) and fifth-place Robinson (173 points).

SJ-O teams have qualified for the boys’ state cross-country meet six of the last seven years and 22 times overall.

St. Joseph-Ogden Football

The Spartans gave up four first-quarter touchdowns on Saturday at top-ranked and unbeaten Williamsville and dropped a 54-26 Class 3A first-round decision.

Williamsville (10-0) accumulated 446 total yards, including 280 on the ground.

Crayton Burnett passed for 111 yards and two touchdowns to Ty Pence. The TD strikes were on plays of 3 and 44 yards. Burnett finished the year with 971 passing yards. Pence hauled in a team-best 19 passes and turned four into TDs.

In the season-finale, Pence totaled 86 yards on four catches. Coby Miller hauled in two receptions.

Keaton Nolan (91 yards rushing) and Jarrett Stevenson (51 yards rushing) each scored one touchdown against Williamsville. Stevenson also added a two-point conversion to raise his team-high point total to 70.

Stevenson led the team in rushing for the season with 601 yards. Nolan finished second with 364 yards on the ground.

Against Williamsville, SJ-O managed 141 rushing yards on 42 attempts.

Payton Cain intercepted a Williamsville pass, his team-leading third of the season.

For the second straight year and the third time in the past four years, the Spartans close with a 5-5 season record and a first-round playoff loss.

“Really enjoyed this group of kids and our senior class,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “What you want is to watch kids mature into good young men.

“This group gets it. They were a great group to coach all four years and they were just enjoyable to be with. Will miss them, but can’t wait to see how successful they are as they move on.”

SJ-O has a strong underclassmen nucleus returning, including quarterback Burnett, running back Nolan, receiving leaders Pence and Brady Buss as well as members of a junior varsity squad which compiled a 6-2 season record.

“We had a very successful JV campaign, but those athletes are going to need to spend a lot of time in the weight room if we want to get our program past 5-4 and first round of the playoffs that we are currently at,” Skinner added.

The post Tough schedule helps Spartans place at IHSA Sectionals, Skinner appreciative of senior class first appeared on SJO Daily.