An update on winter sports at both the junior high and high school level was presented to members of the Fairbury Rotary Club Tuesday afternoon.
Stephen Hartke, junior high dean and athletic director, described the winter activities including cheerleading, wrestling, volleyball and basketball which is approaching regional time.
Travis Johnson is the eighth-grade boys basketball coach while Todd Cheek coaches seventh graders. This year, 15 students tried out for the seventh-grade team which received third in the conference tourney.
The eighth-grade team is 16-5, winning the county tourney and conference tournament. This team saw 17 try out.
“They’ve been working hard,” said Johnson.
Sandy Ropp coaches seventh grade volleyball. They held tryouts in December and just started play last week. Ropp has a really deep bench and they have a few home games coming up.
Shannon Brown coaches the eighth graders who won against St. Mary’s and Tri-Point. An upcoming “pink out” event is planned with Cornell in February.
Tyler Webster coaches junior high wrestling with 30 kids on the team this year.
“We are making progress,” Webster noted.
They host the regional this year on Feb. 22 and have six teams in that.
Austin Wenger is in his fifth year at Prairie Central High School as athletic director. He describes a good group of “hard-working coaches” at the high school currently.
PCHS wrestling coach Scott Ziller is in his 11th year coaching wrestling in the district. He grew up and wrestled here. There are 19 kids on the team with quite a few girls.
“We are progressing a lot,” stated Ziller.
On the young wrestling team, 11 of the 19 are in their first or second year of wrestling.
Trevin McCulloh is head boys basketball coach at PCHS. It is his second year at the helm after serving as an assistant previously. The varsity team includes four seniors and five juniors.
“They’re really growing into their spots and learning how to be leaders,” explained McCulloh.
There are 11 freshman this year and the JV team got second in the Tri-Valley Thanksgiving Tournament. McCulloh looks for good things from this group in the future. At the varsity level, PC received fourth in the GCMS Thanksgiving Tournament and experienced ups and downs in non-conference games so far.
The Williamsville Tournament held after Christmas is a good team bonding event, according to McCulloh. The Hawks went 1-2 there.
“We’ve got to figure out how to play four quarters,” added McCulloh.
Jeana Forsyth is the winter cheer coach for PC and notes competition is much different than it used to be. PC just finished its fourth competition. They received fourth at gameday in Pontiac and fifth place at Peoria.
“They cheered their hearts out,” said Forsyth.
Cheer sectionals will be in Farmington. They have a young squad with only four returning to the mats from last year.
Gabby Zeedyk is the varsity girls basketball coach in her fourth year. She brought Barry Corbin back to the coaching staff and Hannah Miller coaches junior varsity. She said the program is growing in numbers at the high school with 19 players total. Several are freshman and Zeedyk considers this a very talented group.
She starts one junior, one sophomore and three freshman. The girls had a four-game winning streak until Monday. They got hit with the injury bug during the Ottawa Holiday Tournament and now look ahead to Thursday’s rivalry game with Pontiac.
