Being able to play basketball has been a means to something bigger for St. Joseph-Ogden‘s Payton Cain: building connections.

Cain started playing sports as a young boy with his dad and brother.

“(My dad) passed that love for all sports down to me and my brother,” Cain said. “(Basketball) just grew to be one of my favorite sports. I just stuck with it since I was a kid.”

Growing up with the same group of guys who thoroughly enjoy being around each other helped feed that love.

“It’s been fun,” he said. “Just growing the connections between each friend and the connections that we’ve built through basketball, going to tournaments every weekend with each other, it’s been awesome.

“It seems like we are always hanging out with each other. High school made us a little busy, but whenever we have a chance, we all try to hang out with each other. We do the most random stuff. We are all very close.”

That closeness has helped the Spartans come together for one common goal this season: taking everything day-by-day.

“This year we determined that we are not going to focus on long-term goals yet, we’re going to build day-by-day,” he said.

“We are going to set a goal individually each day, and a team goal each day, and when we complete each team goal every day, it will help us build towards the higher, bigger goals.”

Cain has been doing his part.

As the Spartans enter Friday’s home matchup against Prairie Central with a 13-6 overall record, Cain is hitting his stride.

The senior led the Spartans in scoring with 15 points as they collected their 13th win on Tuesday over Tolono Unity. Cain also matched Ty Pence’s 23-points in a recent 66-45 win over St. Thomas More.

While Cain has added to the total score throughout the 2019-20 season, his efforts on the boards have also been noted. Cain has led the Spartans in rebounds in six games.

But for the 6-foot senior, what he can do in the Spartans’ last 10 games leading up to postseason play is most important.

After all, seasons are built day-by-day.

The post Payton Cain has his vision set on day-by-day first appeared on SJO Daily.

fred@mahometnews.com

The Spartans zipped into an 18-1 lead after one quarter and doubled up Olympia 61-30 on Friday night in Stanford.

Ty Pence tallied a team-high 15 points and knocked down three three-point shots.

Chance Izard followed with a 13-point performance. Jordan Kelly scored nine points and Payton Cain added eight points to go with nine rebounds.

Drew Coursey grabbed seven rebounds and Pence totaled five. Cain had two assists.

The Spartans (12-6) return to action on Tuesday at Tolono Unity.

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The Spartans went 4-4 in the Illini Prairie Conference dual-meet series, which ended on Saturday at Pontiac, and placed fifth in the nine-team event.

Individually, two SJ-O athletes compiled 7-1 records during the two-day competition.

A.J. Wagner (113 pounds) won all but one of his bouts, including four by pin. His fastest fall was 37 seconds.

Isaiah Moore (126 pounds) was also 7-1 at the league meet. He posted three pins, including one in 23 seconds.

Overall, 12 SJ-O athletes competed at the IPC meet and all 12 won at least one match. Eight squad members had pins.

Brodie Sullivan (182 pounds) was 5-2 with two pins. His quickest pin was 56 seconds. Trevon Carr (170 pounds) was 5-3 with three pins. His fastest fall was in 1:03. Max Shonkwiler (195 pounds) was 5-3 with three pins, including one in 55 seconds.

Owen Birt (220 pounds) was 4-3 and Isaiah Immke (138 pounds) was 4-4. Immke had two pins, including a fast fall of 1:53.

Chase Chapman (132 pounds) was 3-3 with a pin in 4:37. Conrad Miller (145 pounds) was 3-5 with two pins, including one in 35 seconds.

Other Spartan competitors were Austin Kofoot (120 pounds), who was 2-4; A.J. Wells (285 pounds), who was 1-2; and Austin Cotter (285 pounds), who was 1-4.

The Spartans’ conference team wins were 46-4 over St.  Thomas More, 54-18 over Olympia, 47-21 over Rantoul and 42-39 over Chillicothe IVC.

The team’s losses were to eventual champion Unity 65-5, eventual runner-up Prairie Central 62-18, eventual third-place finisher Pontiac 48-32 and eventual fourth-place finisher Monticello, 50-24.

The lone SJ-O winner against Unity was Immke, who collected a 19-3 technical fall triumph. Wagner, Moore and Chapman were the winners against Prairie Central.

SJ-O returns to action on Thursday at El Paso in a meet that also includes Clinton.

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St. Joseph-Ogden was held to one third-quarter field goal on Monday and suffered a 49-40 Illini Prairie Conference girls’ basketball loss at Unity.

Alyssa Hamilton hit the lone Spartan basket in the third quarter. Teammate Ashlyn Lannert’s two free throws accounted for the other SJ-O points in the stanza.

Unity expanded a 26-23 halftime lead into a 38-27 cushion after three quarters.

Four Spartans ended with six points apiece: Taylor Barnes, Katie Cramer, Atleigh Hamilton and Lannert.

SJ-O is 15-6 overall and will try to break a two-game losing skid tonight at home against Prairie Central. The Spartans are 2-2 in IPC games.

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There was a time in the late 1980s that St. Joseph-Ogden had a leg up on the competition and it had nothing to do with the quality of the boys’ basketball program.

The advantage was the timing for the school’s annual holiday tournament. It came after the multitude of events that marked Thanksgiving week and it preceded the plethora of tournaments that take place immediately after Christmas.

The Leader Classic was a community staple in mid-December, starting and finishing before the Christmas holidays.

The entry list was a literal list of Who’s Who in Central Illinois basketball.

Chrisman, which has more than 1,600 wins in its history, was a participant. So were storied programs such as Monticello, Tuscola and Cissna Park, each of which have at least 1,400 wins. State-ranked teams from Paxton-Buckley-Loda, Unity and Armstrong-Potomac had their turns in the event that made its debut in 1989.

And don’t forget the SJ-O Spartans, who have more tournament titles (17) than all opposing schools combined in the first 30 years of the extravaganza.

“It exploded,” said Randy Wolken, who was the school’s boys’ basketball coach when the tournament began.

“The best teams in the area wanted to be in.

“The first year, we had five teams and right away after that, we had eight. We had our pick of the litter. No one else was doing it.

“You wanted to attract the best schools because you wanted great competition.”

Several schools that wanted to compete couldn’t break existing contracts when the Leader Classic began and had to wait a year to join.

Wolken and long-time SJ-O athletic director Dale Doehring were instrumental in getting the tournament established.

It wasn’t difficult to sell school administrators on the idea.

“They pretty well went for it,” Wolken said, “and I liked it from the aspect that I got four more home games.”

At the outset, there was a secondary advantage for Wolken and his teams.

“We could sit back and relax at Christmas-time,” he said.

The time of holiday leisure was short-lived.

“After a few years, we couldn’t get another tourney (in January), so we got in at Monticello (the week after Christmas),” Wolken said.

SJ-O superintendent Brian Brooks – who coached basketball at the school for 15 years – is not surprised at the tournament’s longevity.

“It was a tradition that our community wrapped their arms around,” Brooks said. “A big part (of the success) is that people at the school, and The Leader (newspaper) committed to it.

“The Leader played a big part with its support.”

As the years passed, more than the basketball schedules were changing. A growing number of schools were arranging their academic calendars to complete first-semester final exams before the Christmas break.

A week-long basketball tournament that coincided with final exams was not a good combination.
Since 2016, the SJ-O event was reduced from eight to six teams with each school playing all of the others in a round-robin format.

In 2018, The Leader newspaper closed its doors and the title sponsor changed to Toyota of Danville.
This year, another change was introduced. The tournament dates were moved up two weeks. First-round games will take place on Dec. 3.

The final day, Saturday, Dec. 7, will be an opportunity for each school to be showcased twice.
Defending tournament champion Cissna Park returns, but there are three newcomers in the field: Georgetown-Ridge Farm, Notre Dame La Salette and Watseka.

Brooks is optimistic that more expansion will take place.

“The last few years, it was more difficult to get teams because there was so much going on,” he said. “It’s not that they were not interested in coming, but the timing of it.

“We’ve gotten good feedback and may be back to eight in the near future.”

This year’s list of tournament entries features schools all within a 75-mile radius of St. Joseph.

In recent years, the tournament included schools traveling from Chicago Longwood and Stanford Olympia. Longwood bowed out after last year’s event.

While some coaches enjoyed seeing schools and styles of play they might not otherwise see in the regular season, there was a flip side to the long-distance commuter teams.

“The one negative from that far away is that you don’t get many fans, and the bottom line is that you need people in the stands to support paying the officials and the scorekeepers,” Wolken said.

“If it can’t break even, it can’t go too many years.”

Three-plus decades into the tournament’s existence, the staying power has been confirmed.

Though SJ-O twice had streaks of at least five tournament championships in a row, Wolken insisted it wasn’t because of scheduling.

“We didn’t just get teams we could beat,” Wolken said. “We had the best we could get in the area.

“You don’t want one good team and five or six poor ones. You want competitive teams and competitive games.

It can be tough to get everything to fall into place.”

Spartan administrators are hopeful that by reinventing itself with a new name and a new time slot, the tournament will remain viable for years to come.

The Toyota of Danville Classic will be held at St. Joseph-Ogden High School from Dec. 3 to Dec. 7. Home teams are listed first.

Tues., Dec. 3 @ 5p.m. Cissna Park vs. Notre Dame La Salette
Tues., Dec. 3 @ 6:30 p.m. SJO vs. Georgetown Ridge-Farm
Tues., Dec. 3 @ 8 p.m. Danville Schlarman vs. Watseka

Wed., Dec. 4 @ 5 p.m. Cissna Park vs. Watseka
Wed., Dec. 4 @ 6:30 p.m. Danville Schlarman vs. Georgetown Ridge-Farm
Wed., Dec. 4 @ 8 p.m. SJO vs. Notre Dame La Salette

Fri. Dec. 6 @ 5 p.m. Notre Dame La Salette vs. Danville Schlarman
Fri. Dec. 6 @ 6:30 p.m.Georgetown Ridge-Farm vs. Watseka
Fri. Dec. 6 @ 8 p.m. SJO vs. Cissna Park

Sat. Dec. 7 @ 10 a.m. Cissna Park vs. Georgetown Ridge-Farm
Sat. Dec. 7 @ 11:30 a.m. SJO vs. Danville Schlarman
Sat. Dec. 7 @ 1 p.m. Notre Dame La Salette vs. Watseka

Sat. Dec. 7 @ 4 p.m. Danville Schlarman vs. Cissna Park
Sat. Dec 7 @ 5:30 p.m. Georgetown Ridge-Farm vs. Notre Dame La Salettesjo
Sat. Dec. 7 @ 7 p.m. Watseka vs. SJO

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Dwight Colvin scored three first-half touchdowns as St. Joseph-Ogden overpowered visiting Unity 38-14 Friday night in an Illini Prairie Conference game.

Colvin rushed for a game-high 191 yards on 22 carries.

SJ-O is 4-0 for the season. Unity is 0-4.

Colvin scored the game’s first three TDs on runs of 2, 5 and 3 yards.

The Spartans led, 25-0, at halftime.

Also scoring TDs for SJ-O were Brayden Weaver, Jack Cook (on a pass from Keanen Swanson) and Sam Wesley (on an interception return).

Aiden Coon added two conversion kicks.

Weaver completed 7 of 14 passes for 37 yards. Cook had 19 receiving yards. Joel Orcutt hauled in two receptions.

Wesley was one of three Spartans with interceptions. Teammates who also picked off passes were Cook and Swanson.

Weaver led the defensive effort with 14 tackles, 10 of which were solos. Kaden Jacobs had nine stops, and one sack.

Head coach Shawn Skinner lauded the play of his defensive brigade.

“Our defense played a huge roll in our victory,” he said. “Up until the third quarter, Unity did not cross our 40-yard line.

“That’s a testimony to the job Coach (Bob) Glazier (31st-year assistant) and the entire defense did.”

SJ-O forced the Rockets into four turnovers.

Besides the interceptions, special teams player Jarrett Stevenson recovered a fumble.

“Brayden Weaver and Kaden Jacobs continued their great play in the middle of that defense and Jack Cook and Keanen Swanson both played very well at the cornerback spots,” Skinner said.

SJ-O plays another 4-0 opponent, Pontiac, at 7 p.m. on Friday in a road game.

“Pontiac will be a true test,” Skinner said. “A hostile environment, as we like to call it, and a long bus trip.

“Two similar teams. We want to establish the run, control thde line of scrimmage and time of possession.”

In some ways, the teams are mirror images.

“They are 4-0 for many of the same reasons we are,” Skinner added. “Solid special teams and really try not to beat themselves.

“They are physical, and tackle as well as any team we see in the conference.”

Oakwood 48, Hoopeston Area/Schlarman Academy/Armstrong-Potomac 21

Colby Smiley, Nick Grubb and Cody Hansbraugh combined for 542 rushing yards as the Comets posted their first football victory of the season in a Friday game played at Hoopeston.

Smiley gained 214 yards while Grubb’s 193-yard effort raised his season rushing total to a team-best 673 yards.

Oakwood returns to action on Friday at home against Iroquois West (0-4).

Soccer

Dawson Rogers broke the Oakwood/Salt Fork record for goals in a match, with six, as the Comets shut out Georgetown-Ridge Farm 7-0 on Thursday.

He had all four first-half goals as the Comets built a 4-0 lead.

Also scoring for Oakwood was Caleb Lashuay. He also had an assist.

Joe Lashuay had two assists while teammates Sam Howie and Ayden Hanson each had one.

Goalkeeper Chris Winkler had five saves.

Volleyball

Oakwood (11-6) won its third consecutive match, 25-23, 22-25, 25-18, over Georgetown-Ridge Farm on Thursday. Oakwood’s McKenzie Doan had 10 kills and nine assists.

Golf

Teammates Ryan Hicks (41) and Logan Hoshauer (43) swept the top two spots as Oakwood topped Danville, 191-214 in a Thursday dual meet at Turtle Run, in Danville.

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