Kankakee suffered a heartbreaking 61-48 loss to Morton in the IHSA Class 3A Ottawa Sectional championship on Friday, March 6, 2026.

With a pair of 2,000-point scorers in Addison Lucht and Dierks Neukomm, and a pair of 1,000-point scorers in Lauryn Hamrick and Seth Walder, the Cissna Park basketball class of 2026 made their way into school record books.

This spring, we at Friday Night Drive will start looking ahead to the fall with players we are keeping our eye on. Who are some of the top players to watch in 2026? We will start with the quarterbacks.

Kankakee erased a late 10-point deficit to beat East Peoria 59-53 in Wednesday's IHSA Class 3A Ottawa Sectional semifinal, advancing to the championship game against Morton on Friday.

Kankakee's headed to the sectional championship round after defeating East Peoria 59-53 in the IHSA Class 3A Ottawa Sectional semifinals Wednesday, March 4, 2026.

Bishop McNamara's boys basketball team held Wilmington to a season-low 24 points and turned 17 offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points in Tuesday's Class 2A Seneca Sectional semifinal win.

Bishop McNamara defeated Wilmington 61-24 in the IHSA Class 2A Seneca Sectional semifinals on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

An entire lineup of nine standouts return to the diamond from last year's Daily Journal All-Area softball team.

Meet this week's Daily Journal Athlete of the Week, Coal City wrestler Aidan Kenney.