November 10, 2024
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The top 10 local sports stories for 2020

By Kevin Hieronymus

Princeton was primed to make a run at the state championship last fall, but was sacked by the pandemic.

The pandemic forced a shutdown of schools statewide in March and all sports activities, starting with the IHSA Boys State Basketball Tournament as well as all spring events from track and field to baseball and softball.

The shutout of sports, with the exception of a few fall sports, continued into the 2020-21 school year and remains ongoing into the New Year.

1) Sports shutout: Spring sports practices started, but outside of an indoor track meet or two, each of those seasons were shut down before games began. The shutdown continued into the fall sports season with the IHSA forced to revamp its entire calendar year. The IHSA adopted a four-season calendar with football, boys soccer and volleyball moved to the new early spring season and traditional spring sports of baseball, softball, track and field and girls soccer shifted to the new summer season along with wrestling from the winter.

2) March Sadness: The first IHSA event to fall was the state’s crown jewel, the boys state basketball tournament in Peoria. The Class 1-2A state games were set to go the day before tip off with the IHSA announcing it would limit the number of spectators. By the end of the day, however, the state tournament was canceled along with the remaining 3-4 State Series.

3) IHSA vs. the governor: Practice for high school boys and girls basketball was scheduled to begin Nov. 15 in Illinois. Governor JB Pritzker put a fullcourt press on those plans, reclassifying basketball as a “high-risk” sport, effectively shutting down the season. The governor said the basketball season would be moved to the spring. The IHSA announced it would stick to the Nov. 15 start date, and while a few schools signed on, a majority opted out due fearing legal ramifications should they go against IDPH guidelines. The IHSA has attempted more than once to meet with officials from the IDPH and governor’s office to make plans to no avail.

4) Tigers stun Boilermakers: Princeton, the No. 7 send, upset top-seeded and No. 7 state-ranked Kewanee 60-56 in the IVC Class 2A boys regional semifinals. Kewanee beat PHS soundly in two previous encounters. The Tigers (16-15) would go on to fall to Fieldcrest 78-65 in the regional finals.

Princeton was primed to make a run at the state championship last fall, but was sacked by the pandemic.

5) Sacked for no gain: Princeton reached the state semifinals in 2019, falling to Byron 7-3. The Tigers were primed with a strong cast of returning talent to take the next step to play for the state championship in 2020, but like all the teams around the state, were thrown for a loss due to the pandemic. Whether or not they get to line up for the rescheduled season this season remains to be seen.

6) No Holiday hoops: Long-standing holiday basketball tournaments such as Hall’s Colmone Classic, the Lady Bruins Classic at St. Bede and the Plano Christmas Classic, along with the Marseilles Holiday Tournament, were all canceled as area teams around the state await their fate.

7) Athletes of Year: Hall senior Hanah Hart and Princeton senior Wyatt Davis were named as the BCR Athletes of the Year. Hart was the BCR Girls Basketball Player of the Year and reigning Softball Player of the Year, but had no season to repeat. She will be playing softball for Illinois State University. Davis moved back to Princeton and was a standout on the Tiger football (all-state receiver) and basketball (All-BCR Second Team) teams. He is now playing football with his brother, Drake, at Northern Michigan University.

8) Hart to Hart: The 1980s mystery series “Hart to Hart” had nothing on the brother and sister act of Paul and Hanah Hart, who were both named as BCR Basketball Players of the Year. Paul had a breakout sophomore season for St. Bede Academy, averaging 24.1 points and 9.8 rebounds with 18 double-doubles. He is playing this season in Arkansas. Hanah averaged 18.5 points and 10.5 rebounds, finishing as Hall’s No. 2 all-time scorer with 1,434 career points. Both were unanimous TRAC East All-Conference and received All-State recognition.

9) Tieman retires at Hall

Randy Tieman retired after eight years as Hall’s head football coach. He led the Red Devils back to prominence with six playoff appearances, posting a 45-39 record.

10) Only show in town

The only sports to be played in Bureau County this school year were the fall sports classified as “low-risk,” golf and cross country at the high school level and IESA baseball, softball and cross country.

In other 2020 headlines, BCR honors from 2020 went to Princeton sophomore Matthew Harris (Wrestler of the Year), cousins Brock Loftus of Ohio and Jenna Loftus of Princeton, along with Lexi Bohms of Princeton (Cross Country Runners of the Year) and St. Bede senior Nathan Potthoff and junior Ally Mendoza (Golfers of the Year).