Category Archives: Sports Section

ALAH Knights Returning Lettermen Drive Team Forward

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•August 28, 2019•
By Jason Brown
NP Sports Editor

In his first year as Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond varsity football coach, Ryan Jefferson’s squad finished the season with an overall record of 2-7.
In his second year, Jefferson hopes to utilize his team’s speed, including 12 returning letter winners, to push for a playoff berth.
“Our goals are to be competitive in the conference and to make playoffs,” Jefferson said. “If a conference championship is a realistic possibility later in the season, that’s great. But we want to be consistently competitive, and we’re hopeful that if we are, it will translate to a playoff berth from five or six wins.”
In practice and Friday’s scrimmage, Jefferson has been stressing the importance of the little things, including simple alignment on defense and sharpness with our offensive execution.
“We lacked in both areas last year, and I believe we have already made huge improvements there,” he said. Read More

Blue Dolphin Achieves Amazing Three Weeks of Competition

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Blue Dolphin family with Ethan Schmohe.

•August 28, 2019•
By Jamie Crosier
for The Blue Dolphins

Sullivan Blue Dolphin Ethan Schmohe finished out the summer swim season with three major weekends of swimming.
Head coach Jason Drury said, “Illinois swimming is one of the hardest states. Ethan started his three-week accomplishments at Peoria where he swam at the Regional Time Qualifying Meet. He has been working hard at practice and I knew he had the ability to hit his goals.”
At Regionals, he competed in four events. He had more qualifying events, but his goal was to get a state cut in all four. This is a lofty goal, but he came in focused and achieved the additional State cuts to advance to the State Meet with a full load of events. Schmohe not only got the needed cuts, he dropped time in all four events and took first and second in these four. Read More

Sullivan Golfers Place at Course

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•August 28, 2019•
The Sullivan golf team placed ninth with a score of 352 in the John Macek Invitational at the University of Illinois Orange Course Monday.
Hillsboro won the Champaign Centennial hosted tournament with a score of 321.
Layton Ellis recorded the Redskins’ best score at 83 and finished 15th. Read More

A Host of New Coaches in Position for Sullivan Teams

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•August 28, 2019•
By Jason Brown
NP Sports Editor

The Sullivan High School has shuffled a few coaching positions around in preparation for the new school year.
The Redskins will have new coaches in football, baseball, volleyball, softball and cross country.
For fall sports, Sullivan alumnus Nathan Becker has taken over the football team and stepped down as baseball coach, and Christy Molzen has taken over for her third stint as the volleyball coach.
Tabitha Davis was hired as the softball coach, and Jason Badman is taking over for Becker as the baseball coach.
Nathan Becker
Football coach Nathan Becker wants to bring stability to his high school football team. Becker, a 2004 Sullivan graduate, replaces Jeff Myers as football coach. Becker had been an assistant football coach for seven years at Sullivan and had seen himself as a head football coach in the future. Read More

Windsor Harvest Picnic 5K

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Windsor Harvest Picnic
The Windsor Harvest Picnic was held last weekend with music and entertainment filling the air. In spite of a heavy downpour on Saturday these folks braved the weather for the annual Windsor 5K.

Sullivan Golf Team Returns With Top Performers

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File photo
Sullivan’s golf team was sectional champs last season. Team leader Caden Ellis and Leighton Burcham graduated. Coach Ben Richter has several returning golfers expecting a strong season. From last year from left: Drew Rogers, Logan Westjohn, Aiden Short, Ellis, Burcham, Tim Lawyer, Leyton Ellis and Coach Richter.

•August 21, 2019•
By Jason Brown
NP Sports Editor

The Sullivan boys’ golf team returns several top performers from last season but will missing its top player.
Last year, with Cade Ellis leading the way, the Redskins achieved nearly every season accomplishes they had set out.
In the Class 1A state golf meet at Prairie Vista Golf Course in Bloomington, Sullivan placed fifth with a score of 337, and Ellis earned all-state honors with a tie for third place with a score of 76.
“We started the season at the practice green at the country club,” said Sullivan coach Ben Richter, “and we said what were our goals. It was, ‘We need to go undefeated.’ It was, ‘We need to win the conference.’ And then it was, ‘Win the regional, win sectional and go to state.’ They achieved all of their goals so I am really proud of them.”
This year he hopes for more of the same. Read More

Blue Dolphins Swim at Regionals 2019

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Photo courtesy Jamie Crosier
Blue Dolphins Swim at Regionals
Sullivan Blue Dolphins Swim Team attended the Summer Regional Championship meet in Peoria this past weekend. First through eighth place swimmers made the podium. Pictured left to right are: Alivia Melvin: 1st place 100 fly, 200 IM and 200 Free, 2nd place 50 back and 100 IM, 3rd place 50 free and 100 free, 5th place 50 fly. Gabrielle Spain: 2nd place 100 fly and 1650 free (mile), 4th place 200 back, 5th place 200 IM, 6th place 100 back, 7th place 50 free, 8th place 500 free. Matthew Wesselman 2nd place 500 free, 6th place 200 free, 8th place 100 free. Emerson Risley: 7th place 50 back. Johnathan Iacobazzi: 3rd place 100 breast, 4th place 100 back, 7th place 200IM, 8th place 500 free and 50 back. Ryan Schodlatz represented SBD with a 50 free open division. Mackenzie Erixon: 1st place 200 back, 3rd place 100 back, 5th place 200 free, 6th place 100 free. Ethan Schmohe: 1st place 200 free and 100 free, 2nd place 400IM and 200 IM.

Blue Dolphin Makes Wisconsin Cut

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Photo by Jamie Crosier
Blue Dolphin Makes Wisconsin Cut
The Sullivan Blue Dolphin swim team competed at the Senior Championship meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Pictured) Gabrielle Spain of Shelbyville represented the Sullivan Blue Dolphins at the 2019 Senior Championship. The Senior Championship meet is an open competition for swimmers aged 15 and older. Spain qualified in the 200 Butterfly. Head Coach Jason Drury noted, “Many people do not realize swimming is not a division sport, it is all in for the whole state. Spain making the cut is a representation of the effort and hard work she consistently does.”

National Championship for Sullivan Tumbler

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National Championship for Sullivan Tumbler
Seven-year-old Sylvia Dawkins of Sullivan won the National Championship on Floor Pass at the 2019 USTA Nationals.
The national event held in Charleston, West Virginia over the course of a week earlier in June had Sylvia competing in five different flights with nine girls in each flight.
Sylvia will be in second grade at Sullivan Elementary School in the fall. Competing since she was four years old, she is a student at Prairieland Tumble and Trampoline in Lovington. She is the daughter of Alice and Bret Dawkins of Sullivan.

New Table Tennis Club Plays at Sullivan Civic Center

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Photo by Ellen Ferrera
Bryce King (L) and Greg Brandt prepare for a game of table tennis.

•June 26, 2019•
By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Greg Brandt is forming a table tennis club at the Sullivan Civic Center. The club is open to ages 16 and above and meets on Tuesday evenings at 5:30 in the racquet ball court.
“The goal of the club,” Brandt began, “is to develop leagues at all ages and skill levels, hopefully, with some of the businesses forming teams.”
The league and teams would compete in intercity competitions.
Brandt grew up in West Salem and has been playing table tennis (or ping pong as it is known in the U.S.) since sixth grade.
“I played intramural at Ohio State and in city leagues there. I have always enjoyed playing,” he said of the game.
He pointed out some of the health benefits of playing table tennis:
1. Develops mental acuity. Practiced players are highly skilled in both creating and solving puzzles. Read More