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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Monticello senior Maddux Quick is The News-Gazette’s All-Area Boys’ Golfer of the Year for the 2024 season.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Today’s edition features the first two of nine All-Area packages — boys’ golf and girls’ golf — we’ll run this month looking back at the high school fall sports season. Next up: girls’ tennis on Saturday, followed by boys’ and girls’ cross-country on Dec. 12, boys’ soccer on Dec. 14, girls’ swimming and diving on Dec. 19, volleyball on Dec. 21 and football on Dec. 28.
➜ 2. Our Faces of the Fall ends this week, with plans to start highlighting more than 250 athletes from 40-plus area high schools in our Faces of the Winter next week.
➜ 3. Thank you to all the area high school coaches who report results on a daily basis. Not seeing your team included in our prep highlights? Email scores@news-gazette.com.
Teammates — like Christina Martinez Mundo, left — have gotten used to celebrating kills from Raina Terry as the Illinois outside hitter’s 2,120 career kills are the most in program history. The Illini start NCAA tournament play on Friday against Northern Iowa in Louisville, Ky.
Numbers game: 2,120
career kills Raina Terry has for Illinois volleyball going into Friday’s first-round NCAA volleyball tournament match against Northern Iowa in Louisville, Ky. On Wednesday, Terry earned her third All-Big Ten First Team honor — this one a unanimous choice — with the Illini. Her kills at Illinois, albeit in five seasons, are No. 1 in program history and 148 more than previous record-holder Jocelynn Birks.
From left, Ben Humrichous, Tomislav Ivisic, Kasparas Jakucionis and Kylan Boswell will have a key role on Friday night for the Illinois men’s basketball team when the Illini play at Northwestern to open Big Ten play.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Illinois at Northwestern men’s basketball. Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli average 20.2 and 20.1 points, respectively for the Wildcats. The No. 19 Illini will have to contend with the duo Friday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston.
➜ 2. Illinois vs. Indiana wrestling. The unbeaten Illini (5-0) tangle with the unbeaten Hoosiers (4-0) at 4 p.m. Friday in Indianapolis, part of the Big Ten Fan Fest ahead of Saturday night’s Big Ten football championship game.
➜ 3. Illinois vs. Northern Iowa volleyball. Louisville (25-5) or Chicago State (19-9) awaits Saturday in the second round of the NCAA tournament if the Illini (18-12) can beat the Panthers (25-7) on Friday.
Steve Snider and his 2-year-old son, Carter.
Coach’s corner
Three questions with Arcola football coach Steve Snider:
âžœ 1. My favorite sports team is … the Cleveland Browns.
âžœ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … Bill Belichick, Tubby Raymond and Lucien Laurin. Belichick is my vote for best football coach of all-time, and he’s just an all-around interesting guy. I love watching him on the ManningCast on ‘Monday Night Football.’ Raymond was the long-time Delaware football coach who popularized the Delaware wing-T offense while winning three national championships. And Laurin was Secretariat’s trainer, so he was kind of a coach. Everything has always made him out to be kind of a quirky guy that was an ultimate competitor and he wound up, through some crazy circumstances, training the best racehorse to ever live.
âžœ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … being late.