11/23/2023
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - The Pinckneyville Panthers made the most of their chances in the postseason last February and March.

Nearly all of them at least.

Coach Bob Waggoner and his crew looked anything but a championship caliber team when they dropped their final three regular season games before the Sparta Regional started.

But this club rallied together and produced four consecutive wins over Freeburg, Columbia, Massac County and Breese Central to take home regional and sectional championships.

The season was halted by Teutopolis, 42-40 in overtime, at the SIU Carbondale Super-sectional as the Panthers ended up 28-7.

Coach Waggoner left Pinckneyville for a superintendent position at Martinsville after 16-years as the head coach.

Matt Laur, who most recently coached at Freeburg, takes over a program that has 2,050 total victories in 107 years of boy's basketball.

Nashville had a new head coach last season as Stote Reeder took over for Patrick Weathers.

Weathers coached just one season as head coach of the Hornets and he made the most of it with a state championship.

Reeder's club struggled early in the season, sitting at 7-9 at one point before finishing 20-12.

Du Quoin has a new head coach (Webster McGuire) with some talented kids returning who all got minutes last winter for the Indians.

Anna-Jonesboro head coach Mike Chamness is looking for a more consistent season from his four returning starters after not posting a conference victory last winter.

Mississippi Division champs Carterville will have a lot of minutes and points to replace from a sectional team from last season for Coach Shane Hawkins.

With a league shake up, the Lions are now in the Ohio while Benton and West Frankfort cross over to the Mississippi.

The Rangers ended up losing to Murphysboro in the regional semifinals at home to close out the season for Coach Ron Winemiller.

Coach Josh Sertich will continue to try and get things going at West Frankfort, a program that had just a 5-24 mark last winter.

In the Ohio Division, Herrin and head coach Sayler Shurtz are looking for consecutive league titles for the first time since the Tigers joined the SIRR when it began back in 1993-94.

Massac County has won two straight regional titles and 17 overall for the program.

Fourteen of the regional crowns came with head coach Joe Hosman on the bench.

Howman enters his 38th season coaching the Patriots.

Coach Daryl Murphy will have a late start for his season as the Murphysboro Red Devils' football squad made it to the 4A playoff semifinals.

As per usual, by the time the season gets going into December and January, this mentor will have his team in contention for hardware.

This will be the second season for Coach Andy Fehrenbacher at Harrisburg after an 11-18 mark in 2022-23.

There is a new head coach in place at Pinckneyville with Matt Laur taking over for Bob Waggoner and he inherits not only one of the top programs in the state but also a squad of veterans who experienced a near Final Four run last March.

Coach Laur is all too familiar with the Panthers' program having coached against Pinckneyville in stints at both Freeburg and Steeleville.

There isn't much to say that hasn't been said about the historic run of great teams from this part of Perry County with multiple state tournament and regular season trophies gathered in its long history.

The Panthers will have three returning starters back from the Elite Eight team for Coach Laur to work with as they look to continue the winning.

Karsen Konkel, a 6-6 senior post player returns for the Panthers.

Konkel was an ABV 2A first team selection last winter and he is going to help lead the club this season before he heads to Champaign-Urbana to play football next season at the University of Illinois.

While some D-I signees opt out of playing their senior year, Konkel is going to suit up with a chance to get to the state finals in the town in which he will be playing in college.

Hunter Smith is a 5-11 senior guard who helped out in the backcourt last winters for Pinckneyville sharing point guard duties with graduated senior Pearson Launius.

The other senior starter, Reid Harriss, is also gone along with key reserves Kellen Scott, Asher Jausel and Isaac Queen.

The third starter from a season ago is 6-4 junior swing-man AJ Keith.

Keith transferred in from Mayfield (KY.) and made an impact as a sophomore.

Coach Laur has plenty of other kids ready to provide support and fill the vacancies.

A pair of juniors; 5-9 Brady Conway and 6-5 Riley Bauersachs should step up along with 6-1 sophomore guard Kolton Smith.

Isaac Teel is a player with limited experience on the hardwood but is a runner who finished second in the state this past fall in cross country.

Ty Laur, a 6-5 sophomore center, is the coaches' son who played as a freshman last winter at Freeburg.

Six-foot senior Marshawn Fisher, one of the top football Panthers in the fall, is a key reserve along with 5-9 junior guard Wyatt Bird and 6-0 junior Lucas Lietz.

“We return three starters from our Elite Eight team. Those three played major roles on last year's team and will again this year on both ends of the floor. I also anticipate juniors Brady Conway, Riley Bauersachs and Wyatt Bird will get a lot of playing time and could break into the starting line up for us this season,” said Coach Laur. “Laur and Smith will both see a fair share of playing time as well as Ty brings more height and post skill to our already big team and Kolton is a very skilled athletic young man. Isaac Teel is a senior that is a tremendous athlete that is playing for us this year and will give us a lot of energy and athleticism. Lucas Lietz and Marshawn Fisher are both guards that are fantastic defenders that will be in our rotation as well. We will be a big team with four players 6-4 or better so we plan to attack from the inside out. We also have a plethora of shooters from beyond the arc. We will be disciplined on defense and will look to push the ball on offense. I am really excited about our team. We have a great group of players that are even better young men that I can't wait to mentor.”

Last season the Anna-Jonesboro Wildcats longest winning streak was two games.

Coach Mike Chamness' club won consecutive games against Hamilton County and Johnston City in the Goreville Invitational Tournament on December 2nd and 3rd.

In other words consistency wasn't there for a club that ended up 11-19, 0-8 in the Mississippi Division.

A-J played some teams tough with a few single digit defeats (six) but they had a rough stretch against SIRR clubs from both divisions.

One of the close losses (Carmi-White County at the Eldorado Holiday Tournament) wasn't close the next time the teams played.

The Bulldogs eliminated the 'Cats, 60-40 at the Harrisburg Regional.

Four starters who survived the gambit of games from 2022-23 return for a mentor who is just 19 wins from passing Mike Crews for the all-time wins list at A-J.

Five-ten senior guard Dylan Harvel is a multi-year starter for the Wildcats.

Harvel paced the Wildcats with 16.2 points a game as a junior.

Coach Chamness also has two other guards returning; 5-8 senior Evan Hall and 5-9 senior Drew Page.

Six-three senior forward JJ Gerardi is also back for A-J.

Page added 8.1 points a game for A-J while Hall and Gerardi added numbers on offense.

Some kids on the pine from last season look to get more playing time in prime time this winter.

Six-five senior Noah Cavins is back for the Wildcats as is junior Taj Hodges, a 5-11 guard.

Two 6-0 sophomores; Aidan McFadden and Dawson Nicholas are in the mix along with Foster Needing, a 6-3 sophomore forward.

The only senior from last season; 6-2 guard Dawson Trammel, will be missed but the ones back look to be improved.

“We return nine of our top ten guys from last season. We lost our second leading scorer, Dawson Trammel, to graduation but we had a good summer. Our guys have played together quite bit over the past two years,” said Coach Chamness, the ABV 2A Coach of the Year in 2017-18. “All of the kids played some minutes last year and will hopefully take another step this year in playing more meaningful minutes. We hope our experience will pay off as we have a lot of guys who played a lot of minutes last year returning.”

Things were cruising along at Benton last winter before and injury to one of the top players affected the rest of the season.

Coach Ron Winemiller had his club sitting at 12-2 at the beginning of January but the loss of 6-7 sophomore dampened the rest of the season which ended at 22-10 overall, 4-6 in the SIRR Ohio.

Benton will be competing in the Mississippi Division and with the returning players they should be a factor in the league race with a healthy 6-7 junior forward Docker Tedeschi back and healthy.

Coach Winemiller has two other starters and a key reserve from last season returning.

Isaac Billington, a 6-1 senior guard, was a starter a season ago as was Luke Melvin, also a 6-1 senior.

Six-two senior guard Evan Munoz also started a year ago.

Trey Severin, a 6-2 junior guard, 6-2 junior forward Grant Owens, 5-10 junior guard Jackson Zettler, 6-2 junior guard Kyle Thomas and 6-5 sophomore Nolan Schafer earned varsity letters last winter.

“We return a strong group of our core players that were off to a very successful start to the season before Docker got hurt. I think that our two returning guards are a key to our success this season. Evan Munoz might be our sleeper to the team as he has really put in the time in the gym this off-season. I expect him to also have a successful year,” said Coach Winemiller. “We have to stay healthy and keep our guys on the floor. Docker is back and is healthy and for us to be as good as we think we can be has to be on the floor for us. We have a strong JR class that we will rely on heavily for their toughness and ability to help out our returners in scoring.”

Du Quoin will turn to one of its former players to lead the Indians' basketball program in 2023-24 as Webster McGuire takes over from Jason James.

McGuire is a 2002 DQ grad and multi-sport athlete from his prep years and has coaching stints with girl's basketball at Mounds Meridian, Carbondale and Murphysboro.

The Indians were 12-18 last season under James and this season the new coach will have some athletes that he coached in summer AAU playing for his team this winter.

Two starters and several experienced players will look on improving the won-loss mark and move up the ladder of a very difficult Mississippi Division.

Nine seniors are missing from the club that

Jaykri Whitfield, Malik Jones, Jakob Eaton, Kameron Hugya, Seth Howerton, Thomas Hanks, Gage Green, Nishan Woody and Owen Cornett gobbled up a bunch of the varsity minutes in a fast paced, Grinnel style offense and defense employed last season.

The two returning starters will need to lead by example this season.

Dwayne Wilmington, a 6-0 senior, and 6-1 senior Eli Maynor started some contests in 2022-23.

Two other seniors earned letters; 5-8 Trelin Smith and 5-10 Damarion Johnson.

Five-ten sophomore Jeremiah Jones also lettered as a freshman.

Coach McGuire also mentioned senior Conor Gross, a 6-3 forward, 5-9 junior Jayden Davis, 6-0 sophomore Johnathan Brown and 5-9 sophomore Amir Grant will be in the running for minutes.

“The program has hovered below/around .500 for a few years. The previous regime did a great job, but every night is tough one in the River-to-River Conference,” said Coach McGuire. “Our approach will be simple: Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together. These pillars will be consistent across all levels of our program, our coaching staff, and will also include all phases on the court. All our guys are important to our club, but seeing as we only have a couple of returning starters from last season, they will likely be guys that we lean on for leadership and to be an extension of the coaching staff, both on and off the court.”

When the West Frankfort Redbirds take the court this season they will do so without six seniors that departed last spring for head coach Josh Sertich.

Cole Buckingham, Jack Hogg, Preston King, Gage Agnitsch, Lucas Whittington and Hudson Melvin are gone from a team that lost 16 of its final 17 contests, including a season-ending 51-34 loss to Murphysboro at the Benton Regional.

The Redbirds were just 5-24 overall, 0-10 in the Ohio Division.

Coach Sertich and Company have switched divisions to the Mississippi, which is the equivalent of “out of the frying pan and into the fire” in terms of talent as it won't be any easier with the new conference opponents.

Three seniors are a good place to start as they have the most experience from last winter.

Five-eleven Brady Melvin returns for West Frankfort this season and, according to Coach Sertich, was the best player for most of the season.

Melvin is an all-around athlete as he was quite a leader on the football field in the fall.

Keagon Bowers, a 6-2 senior forward, was also on the field in the fall and is one of the leaders for WF in the court.

These two vets are going to have to play well if the club is going to compete against a tough schedule.

Another senior, 6-2 forward DT Thomas, also returns.

Thomas will have to play against some taller players in the lane with the schedule ahead.

The young group remaining will have their chances.

One letter-winner is back; 6-0 junior guard Eli Tyson, got into a lot of action as a sophomore.

Travion Johnson, a 5-9 junior, along with Melvin are as athletic as you will find in this conference.

Johnson was also a factor for the WF football team and will be the Redbirds' point guard.

Five-nine junior guard Jack Herrell, 5-11 junior guard Nathan Sanders and 6-1 sophomore forward Quentin Osburn will need to kick it up a notch as everyone involved will be needed to turn things around.

“We will have to do a much better job taking care of the ball and rebounding if we want to have any success this year,” said Coach Sertich.

11/23/2023
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - Heading into the 2023-24 season the Herrin Tigers have a key player from last season's team missing after graduation.

Six-two forward Haydon Mayer was one of the top players in southern Illinois last winter for the 3A Tigers who fell to Mt. Vernon at the Mt. Vernon Regional final, 54-51.

The Rams were a team that Herrin defeated, 64-57 at home back on January 14.

Coach Sayler Shurtz lost some other seniors to graduation.

Six-four forward Fox Connor and 5-11 guard Reese Billingsley played minutes for the Tigers last winter.

The ones returning for Herrin have some goals to reach, including a regional title, which will be the first since 2018-19.

The Tigers went 27-5 last winter, 9-1 in the Ohio Division with the lone league defeat coming against Massac County on the road.

Two key players from last season are expected to be even better.

Five-eleven junior guard Kyrese Lukens is a scorer and ballhandler for the Tigers and has started since his freshman season.

He was a 12.2 point scorer and dished out over three assists a contest.

Jon Harrison, a 6-5 senior forward, is one of the top defenders you will find in southern Illinois.

Harrison pitched in over eight points and grabbed five rebounds a game.

Look for both Lukens and Harrison to increase those numbers.

Coach Shurtz also mentioned 5-9 junior guard Exavier Williams as being his outside scoring threat along with Lukens in the backcourt.

Williams averaged 8.6 points a game along with a pair of assists and steals per outing.

Six-one sophomore Madox Billingsley improved as the season went on for Herrin last year.

Keegan Webber, a 6-3 senior, played his role last season and this year it should be more of the same for the Tiger.
Chance Estes, a 6-1 junior, will get some minutes according to Coach Shurtz.

There will be one Herrin player missing because of injury.

Six-four junior Grady Cox has a torn Meniscus/ACL, which is a huge loss for the program.

Coach Shurtz is optimistic that he may return in the second half of the season.

“Season ended with a chance to tie at the buzzer against Mt. Vernon in the Mt. Vernon Regional championship. It stung and it was a tough loss. So we made sure to schedule up even more this year. I think our non-conference is going to have us as battle tested than we’ve ever been. The goal like every year, is to win a 3A Regional Championship,” said Coach Shurtz.

Of all the teams in the SIRR Ohio Division, the one that lost the most via graduation is Carterville and head coach Shane Hawkins.

The Lions won the SIRR Mississippi Division championship last year, beating Pinckneyville, Du Quoin, Anna-Jonesboro and Nashville twice each to go 8-0.

Carterville topped things off with a regional championship win over Vienna at Harrisburg to nab the program's 13th regional championship.

The stay at the Pinckneyville Sectional was short as Breese Central eliminated them 56-33.

Missing from the squad is ABV 2A “Player of the Year” Caden Hawkins, a 6-0 senior guard who garnered some all-state recognition as well.

Hawkins was one of seven seniors graduating from the program.

Kade Lustenberger, Peyton Bittle, Adam Vanderzille, Blake Burkey, Brock Shasteen and Maddox Crain all played well for the eventual regional champs.

Coach Hawkins will turn to some youngsters to fill in the blanks moving into a new season and new division with the SIRR shift.

Braden Wakey, a 6-3 senior, is the lone Lion returning who started games.

However there are some who got varsity experience who return.

Six-foot junior guard Drew Barrington is back after filling in some important minutes as a sophomore.

Brandon Skelcher, a 6-0 senior, was the quarterback on the football team, which shows leadership skill that will be needed this winter.

Six-seven senior Xan Guthrie, 6-1 Parker Poole and 5-11 Josh Waller along with 6-0 senior
Lawrence Greer, should all get a look in preseason practice as Carterville prepares to open the season.

“Barrington will be the point guard, after that, we will have to figure some things out,” said Coach Hawkins. “Skelcher is a good shooter and good on-ball defender who as the quarterback this fall. Wakey played a major role for us last year and we have to continue to improve. Waller is a good shooter who plays really hard. Greer is coming off an injury that slowed him last season. Guthrie has provided great leadership so far in practice. Poole is an inside/outside threat.”

Seldom can you look at this program over the years where you see them get upset by smaller schools.

But it happened a couple of times in 2022-23.

The Red Devils lost to 1A Lovejoy at the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic and to 1A Wayne City on the road.

Lovejoy was a team they had defeated 59-38 early in the season.

But as things shaped up late in the season, Murphysboro won a pair of regional games at Benton, topping West Frankfort and the host Rangers before losing to Massac County, 55-40, closing the 21-10, 6-4 season.

Coach Murphy returns most of his team from last winter, however it might take a while to get things going.

The school's football team made it to the semifinals of the 4A playoffs before losing to Rochester last Saturday at home.

Karmelo Abernathy, a 6-1 senior guard, is back for the Red Devils.

Another senior returning is 5-10 guard Tucker Horstmann.

Coach Murphy has some important juniors.

Cade Brooks, a 6-1 guard, is back along with 6-5 forward AJ Boese.

Six-three junior Gibson Fager was the football teams' quarterback.

Kaden Shields, a 6-0 junior, is another of the 11th graders on the roster.

Murphy will have 6-1 sophomore Myles Guthman and 6-6 sophomore Kemmeon Hale.

“We will be trying to get to mid-season form after missing football team with their run at a state title,” said Coach Murphy who is approaching the 600-win milestone. “We bring back plenty of experience led by Karmelo and an experienced junior class.”