11/23/2025
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - In the Cahokia Conference last season, if you look at all three divisions of this long-standing league, you will find that only two of the 18 teams won postseason plaques.

Both Breese Central and Okawville took home regional championships.

The others took home nothing but dashed hopes.

None were more disappointed than Columbia.

The Eagles were ever so close to exercising one of them longtime demons, Breese Central, in the Carlyle 2A Regional title game.

But a steal and buzzer beating fast break layup by Cougars' junior Conlan Haar stuck a dagger through the hearts of Coach Mark Sandstrom's squad, 57-55 in double-overtime.

Central moved on and Columbia left Clinton County wondering “what if?”

Steeleville made it to a regional title game and hung right with state ranked Waltonville before running out of gas in a 54-51 loss.

Wesclin, Chester, Roxana and Red Bud all reached 2A semifinals but went 0-4.

Breese Central has won four consecutive regional championships.

However they have lost four straight sectional championship games.

Coach Jeremy Shubert would like to see the Cougars get back to a super-sectional for the first time since finishing third in the state in 2015-16.

The other four teams in the Mississippi Division, the largest of the three, were sub .500 overall, combining for a 37-90 overall mark.

Roxana head coach Mark Briggs has four seniors to replace but some talent coming back for the Shells' 2025-26 season.

Freeburg and second year head coach Dakota Street should have a better attitude heading into the season.

The Midgets dropped from 3A to 2A for the postseason for the first time since 2022-23.

Coach Street has some kids to work with to try and improve.

Salem head coach Pete Colclasure will have one more season in the Cahokia before the school shifts leagues to the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference beginning in 2026-27.

East Alton-Wood River has yet another head coach stepping in with Coach Billy Sullivan taking on the challenge of rebuilding a program that has posted two-consecutive 4-28 seasons.

It might be a bit much to call the Breese Central boy's basketball program a dynasty.

But when one tries to explain the success of basketball programs that year-after-year rack up wins and hardware, it would be easy to add that word to the many paragraphs it would take to describe the overall success of this program.

Central wins games, that's what they do.

Since 1996-97, the 28-seasons of Cougars' basketball produced 21 years of 20 or more wins.

Seven of the seasons Breese Central won over 30-games.

No other program in southern Illinois has produced anything close to that.

Last season the Cougars won their 17th regional in that same time frame and fell just short of taking home their 10th sectional title.

Belleville Althoff ended the Central season with a 56-44 loss.

The 2024-25 year ended at 28-6 and it also marked the end of the prep careers of eight BC seniors.

Kaiden Rakers, Griffen Becker, Easton Becker, Preston Baker, Ian Toennies, Carson Moore, Anthony Huegen and Karson Korte are gone.

Baker, Rakers and Griffen Becker are playing football for North Central College, a Division III powerhouse program in Naperville, Illinois.

It's doubtful anyone will think that Central will have a down year even with the missing parts from last winter.

Because the motus-operandi of the program never changes.

It's a winning formula.

In other words, “if it ain't broken, don't fix it.”

One starter returns for head coach Jeremy Shubert, who in his stint as head coach has won an impressive 75 percent of his games.

Six-two senior Jackson Kampwerth is back for the Purple and White.

Kampwerth produced modest numbers as a junior (4.3 points, 3.1 rebounds) but he had lots of help that he won't have this season.

Or at least he will get new help.

Coach Shubert played his underclassmen enough minutes a year ago, especially at the JV level, to get them ready for prime time in 2025-26.

They will need to be ready in a hurry considering their early schedule of games at the Effingham St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament.

Six-two senior Bryce Wieter is also back for Central (5.1 points, 4.2 rebounds) after coming off the bench for the Cougars as a junior.

Another key player last season was Conlan Haar, a 6-foot senior guard.

Haar made the now famous steal and layup to win the regional title game last February.

A pair of 5-10 senior guards; Nate Behrmann and Ryker Hegger will get minutes and so will 6-4 junior Bennett Becker.

Depth has always been a key for this program annually and this edition will have plenty of underclassmen to provide minutes.

Six-five sophomore Wyatt Schrage, 6-2 classmates Owen Kehrer and Ryder Burgmeier along with 6-3 Braden Obszanski round out a strong 10th grade group.

“There will be a lot of new faces on the court at times for us this year,” said Coach Shubert, who is 17-wins shy of 300 in his career at Central. “We will be searching early in the season for the guys who want to step up and be our leaders for this season. We only return one starter and only two other players with any varsity experience so look for us to play 10-12 guys early on until we find out what our best combination will be. We like this group of basketball players though, especially with a large sophomore class who have good basketball skill sets. We have strong non-conference opponents again for this upcoming season.”

If the Cougars are going win their sixth-straight Mississippi Division title, they will need to stay the course again in 2025-26.

The IHSA classifications for the 2025-26 were a big relief for the Freeburg Midgets and head coach Dakota Street.

With a shift upward in the cutoff between 2A and 3A, the Midgets dropped back down to 2A and into a postseason with more hope for success.

Freeburg was eliminated in the opener of the Waterloo Regional last season by Cahokia, ending the campaign at 11-21.

The Midgets dropped their final five contests in 2024-25 and finished 5-5 in the Cahokia Mississippi Division in Coach Street's first season at the controls.

With just four seniors missing from a year ago (Matt Pluff, Jase Brentlinger, Joey Pruett, Robert Fritz) and three kids returning that saw significant playing time last winter, things should be looking up for the program.

Six-three junior Brady Kerr returns after averaging 8.2 points a game for Freeburg as a sophomore.

Dathan Krauss, a 6-2 junior, added 6.3 points per outing last season.

Joe Carmack, a 5-11 sophomore, played in nearly all of the varsity contests last winter, adding 4.3 p.p.g.

Although he didn't make a huge impact last season, 6-11 senior Oren Byman should be much more important in the scheme of things for the Midgets this season.

Coach Street mentioned some others who are going to see PT this winter as the season begins in earnest at the Roxana Thanksgiving event.

Six-foot senior Alex Fritz and 5-10 senior Ashtin Hauser each got their varsity feet wet in 2024-25.

Danny Smith, a 6-3 junior, also came off the bench for Freeburg last year.

“The starters are still up in the air at this point as we will have some good competitions in the early part of practices to see who wants it more, every spot will be earned,” said Coach Street.

He mentioned five others who played at different levels in the program and will have opportunities to move up when preseason practice turns into regular season games.

Six-three junior Cayden Bievenue, 5-10 junior Gentry Brentlinger, 5-10 sophomore Cooper Kisgen, 6-1 sophomore Owen Jenkins, and 6-1 freshman newcomer Jamey Wamser.

According to Coach Street, any one of these kids could see some varsity action this year and be expected to help us in any way possible.

Six-four senior transfer from Belleville West Jay Jay Thomas should also be important for Freeburg and Coach Street.

“Having a big guy that can score down low should help our shooters be able to have some better looks compared to last year and a real strength of ours should be our depth and ability to play defense,” said Coach Street. “We are still young compared to most teams with a ton of our underclassmen seeing action so we will have to continue to get stronger and stay poised under pressure for us to do what we should be capable of. Hopefully we can piece it together at the right times to be able to pull off some wins. Still learning as we go and will be better in February.

The sorrow of having a regional championship snatched from your grasp is something that unfortunately Coach Mark Sandstrom is familiar with.

Having won 75-games in the past three seasons, the Columbia Eagles came up moments short of the hardware each of the last three title games.

Three seasons ago the Eagles fell to Pinckneyville, 48-45 in the championship game of the Sparta Regional.

A year later they were 53-49 victims to Wesclin at their own Columbia regional finale.

But last season might have been the biggest disappointment.

The Eagles battled Cahokia Conference nemesis and state-ranked Breese Central into double-overtime at the Carlyle Regional.

But a steal and fast break lay up in the final seconds beat the second overtime buzzer for a 57-55 Cougars' victory.

Three straight regional title games equated to three consecutive heart-wrenching defeats.

Perhaps the worst part of the ending was the finish of the prep careers of some standout seniors in the spring.

One of the top players in the school's long history said goodbye after a four-year varsity career.

Sam Donald, a 6-6 senior who was a first team ABV selection as well as first team Associated Press All-State, has moved on to Division I basketball at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.

He took his points, rebounds, assists and leadership away.

His senior classmates also left a void with River Randall, Hayes van Breusegen, Charlie Steckler, Micah James, Logan Bosch, Logan Hicks and Brady Hemminghaus leaving the program.

Coach Sandstrom will try to rebuild around two seniors who return that were starters and factors in the 24-9 finish.

Six-six senior guard/forward Eddie Smajic returns.

A transfer from Missouri last season, he helped the Eagles with 14.8 points a game and was a marksman from the arc, canning nearly half of his 3-point attempts.

Brody Landgraf, a 6-5 senior forward, also is back as he averaged 11.3 p.p.g.

The senior is a multi-sport athlete who is going to play baseball at the next level having committed to Creighton University.

Coach Sandstrom has some kids who are ready to move up the list after playing key reserve roles as juniors in 2024-25.

Elliot Nelson, a 5-11 senior guard, will look to fill a backcourt spot.

Kyle Chudd, a 6-1 senior guard, will also be in the running with 5-9 senior Jase Nelson.

Luke Dewilde, a 6-1 junior, also has a shot at making the starting lineup when the season opens with a tough tournament at Wesclin.

“All of these kids have paid their dues behind last year's large senior class that won 101 games during their time at CHS,” said Coach Sandstrom. “They are all very talented, have good basketball instincts and knowledge while being very athletic. They are looking forward to the season. I believe this group will be in the post-season mix once again, it just might take us a little bit of time to get going.

Head coach Mark Briggs and his Roxana Shells took on a pretty strong schedule a season ago and despite some graduation losses, this mentor is confident that that hard work is paying off.

Junior Hardimon, James Tidwell, Noah McVey and Jake Newton left the program but the main cogs of offensive machine return for Roxana.

Coach Briggs has a pair of veterans returning for the Shells.

This will be the fourth year of starting games for both Sean Maberry and Trenton Hollaway.

Maberry is a 6-1 senior who should surpass the 1K point total for his career after averaging 11.5 points a game last winter.

Hollaway is a 5-8 senior guard who runs the Shells' game while also being a long-range threat.

Look for 6-foot senior Keelan Crawford to continue his fine play. Crawford added points and defense a season ago while also being able to run the floor.

Six-five junior Cohen Dugan adds length and size to the Roxana lineup while he averaged just under 10 points a night as a sophomore.

Aiden Stemm is a 6-3 junior who also added points (6.7 p.p.g.) a year ago and has improved his game around the rim.

The reserves will come from underclassmen looking to move up for a club that ended up a game short of the .500 mark (16-17, 5-5) following a season ending 52-28 loss to eventual regional winner Staunton on the Bulldogs home court.

“This group combines scoring balance, inside presence, and perimeter shooting. Maberry’s scoring and leadership, Dugan’s versatility, and Crawford’s perimeter shooting blend well with Hollaway’s speed and Stemm’s physicality. With these five returning starters, we have the experience to have a very good season,” said Coach Briggs.

Roxana lost five games a season ago by single digits and Coach Briggs hopes his club learns how to finish this season.

This season the Salem Wildcats will say goodbye to the Cahokia Conference in all sports as the school will shift south to the SIRR beginning next fall.

In the interim Coach Pete Colclasure wants to leave the Cahokia with an improved record for 2025-26.

Last season the Wildcats managed to win just six contests (7-23) and just two league wins over last place East Alton-Wood River (2-8).

Being in the 3A state tournament didn't help as they lost to Carbondale in the opening round at Carbondale to end the season.

Seniors Miking Ettress, Braden Rector, Ayden Rose and Noah Nix are missing from last year's squad as 2025-26 begins.

With them they took over half of the Salem total offense to graduation.

The Wildcats dipped back down to 2A for 2025-26.

Returning players who contributed last winter include 6-foot senior Ryegan Warren.

Warren was second in scoring with eight points a game for the Wildcats.

Six-two junior Kaeden Bevolo averaged 7.1 a game as a sophomore.

Juniors Avery and Payton Gullion, who are both 6-3, return as they played a bunch of minutes as sophomores.

The rest will come from competition in the practices leading up to the season start at the Lawrence County Capital Classic.

“We will utilize athleticism and length in the upcoming season along with speed,” said Coach Colclasure. “There is a togetherness amongst this group that we really enjoy and they will play for each other.”

It's another season of East Alton-Wood River boy's basketball in what ABV considers to be one of the best basketball gymnasiums in the state.

The Oilers have not faired well in the past two seasons and this will be the third consecutive season with a new head coach.

Billy Sullivan comes in after serving as an assistant at Highland for the past five seasons.

Sullivan prepped at Breese Central under head coach Stan Eagleson and he founded the AAU club the Southern Illinois Raptors.

This new coach is optimistic about the future of his program and hopes to compete one last year in the Mississippi Division before the school switches to the Illinois Division in 2026-27.

Coming from a successful program at Highland and having played for a successful program at Central, Sullivan could turn things around in a hurry at EAWR.

Although the program lost a trio of seniors to graduation (Harrison Smith, Austin Bock, Matthew Bruce) Coach Sullivan is banking on a mixture of experience players and newcomers to be more competitive in 2025-26.

The top returning player from last winter won't be available until the second half of the season.

Tamarion Marshall, a 6-foot senior guard, is still on the mend from an ACL surgery and likely won't see playing time until January.

“With a full season had a real opportunity to reach the 1000-point scoring mark. It is unlikely that he will do so with a shortened season, and his loss will certainly be a challenge for us to overcome,” said Coach Sullivan.

Marshall led the Oilers with 13.2 points a game as a junior.

Coach Sullivan added Jordyn Spiller, a 6-1 junior, who is returning from last season (9.4 p.p.g.).

Also expected to help is Jasiah Brown, a 6-1 junior, who transfers in from nearby Alton Senior.

Weston Hatch, a 6-1 sophomore, is looking to move up to the varsity while seniors returning include 6-4 Isaiah Smith and 6-3 Malachi Carter.

Two other sophomores looking for court time are 6-5 Mikel Stockard and 5-8 Miliek Wings.

“We will go into the season with one returning starter (Jordyn Spiller) from last years team and another once Tamarion gets healthy,” said Coach Sullivan. “With that being said, I'm excited about the new pieces to our team, as well as the returning guys who have made progress over the summer/fall. They add some size, length, athleticism, and skill to our team. With the loss of Tamarion, it's really going to be 'all hands on deck' going into the year. As much as we wish we had Mar, I believe our younger guards have a great opportunity to step up, gain some valuable experience, and become leaders. We may take some lumps, but it'll help us later on this season, and moving forward to next year.”

11/28/2024
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - In the Illinois Division, the change in enrollment cutoffs in 2025-26 came a year too late for Carlyle and head coach Maverick Taylor.

The Indians posted a 26-5, 9-1 mark last winter with a senior led club that posted some big wins.

But they were ambushed on their home floor by nearby Wesclin to bring a premature ending to a quality season.

This season the Tribe will compete in 1A but they will be in more of a rebuilding mode.

Wesclin and mentor Brent Brede has one of the top youngsters in the conference returning with some other kids hoping for continued improvement.

Another class dropper in the division will also be smiling when the season reaches February 23.

Sparta will also be 1A for Coach Jordan Beckley and the Bulldogs have a “dawg pen” full of talented kids with experience.

Chester looks to keep things moving forward with Coach Chris Toledo.

The Yellow Jackets football program always seems to make a postseason run and will likely keep multi-sport kids busy well into November.

Red Bud, according to head coach Dane Walter, will also have some rebuilding to do as the Musketeers lost a five seniors and a bunch of stats.

Okawville won a 1A regional championship last season for Coach Ryan Heck.

The Rockets also lost some production from graduation but they have a strong group returning to try and add to the program's 20 regional championships.

Seven missing seniors.

That is the dilemma facing Coach Maverick Taylor heading into the 2025-26 season for his Carlyle Indians.

All five starters and two top reserves are missing from the Illinois Division champs (9-1) and 26-6 club that won their own Kaskaskian Classic (with a championship victory over Pinckneyville) and also put together a couple of long winning streaks.

The 70-50 defeat in the first round of their own regional to Wesclin put a damper on the season, a tough defeat to end the year.

Matthew Guthrie, a 6-8 senior forward for Carlyle a season ago, has moved on and took his 12.1 points and 9.2 rebounds a night with him.

Another senior, 6-5 Hayden Huels (13.4 points, 4.8 rebounds) also graduated with other classmates Jacob Ruscher, Rhettick Steinkamp, Logan Fruend, Hunter Taylor, and Ethan Goodin represented nearly all of the varsity minutes.

It won't be easy replacing that crew.

“For the first time since I can remember we will return no starters. We had a couple guys start a couple games last year when we had injury or discipline, but outside of that we don't return any starters. We do have some talented kids coming in and back,” said Coach Taylor.

Carlyle will have some kids who have some time served and will be eager to prove they're ready.

Six-four senior guard Zack Persing and 5-8 senior guard Brady Gustafson have the most experience returning along with 6-3 senior forward and Ethan Brinkmann.

Coach Taylor will look at the seniors to help lead the way.

Six-two junior Gannon Meyer was part of the varsity last season and helped out off of the Indians' bench.

Jax Johnson, a 6-2 junior guard, with 6-foot sophomore Ethan Peebles and 5-9 sophomore Eli Gray will have opportunities for more minutes.

Coach Taylor also talked about 5-10 freshman guard Wyatt Gebke.

"I really believe we have some talented guys, guys who can compete at a high level night in and night out. But basketball season is long, it's demanding, and any given night you can get beat. If we get the buy in that we've had the last couple years, we're going to be just fine. I anticipate us to be very competitive. We have a very solid core of 6-to-8 kids that all want a spot. I expect us to compete for a 1A regional championship and be a tough out for the conference. Wesclin, Sparta and Okawville return a lot. We hope to be right there with them,” said Coach Taylor.

After splitting a pair of close regular season games with conference and county rival Carlyle last season, the rubber game of the match saw the Wesclin Warriors blow out the host Indians in the regional first round.

After eliminating the Tribe, the Warriors dropped a semifinal decision to Columbia that put an end to the 2024-25 season at 19-14.

Chandler Mueller was an ABV 2A selection last season and he and four other senior classmates are gone.

Mueller averaged 16.5 points a game last winter and fellow senior Owen Szpila added 8.8 p.p.g.

Owen Josias and Landon Middleton were also part of the club that only had one defeat at the hands of a team with a losing record (4A O'Fallon) while eight of the losses were to teams that won 20 or more contests.

Meaning that the schedule was very difficult for Coach Brent Brede's team.

The top scorer for the Warriors from a year ago is back and he has already received attention from colleges in the area even though he is just going to be a junior.

Six-three junior Gavin Rahm averaged 17.3 points a game as a sophomore and he is approaching 1,000-points (942) heading into this season.

Six-three junior Bryce Haar and 5-9 junior JJ Zurliene produced offensively as well for the Warriors in 2024-25.

Haar was just under 10 points a game and Zurliene added 6.8 p.p.g.

Also on the radar for Coach Brede are 6-2 junior Eli Wellen and 6-foot junior Keaden Tobin.

Both played varsity minutes as sophomores.

Brady Twenhafel is a 5-10 sophomore who got into a handful of games as a freshman and Hayden Renth, a 5-11 junior, was also part of the roster in 2024-25.

“He (Rahm) a strong point guard who can score and distribute,” said Coach Brede. “Bryce (Haar) is a junior slasher who is ready to take a big step forward. If all are healthy, we will start five juniors.”

The Chester Yellow Jackets also felt the “sting” of graduation last spring as six players from the 17-16, 5-5 team that tied from third in the division and hosted a regional where the state's top-ranked club and eventual state runner up Belleville Althoff played.

The Crusaders ended the Yellow Jackets' season 61-35 in the semifinals.

Coach Chris Toledo lost the six-pack of players who were important while they were suiting up.

Cayden Brunkhorst, Devante Palacio, Kolton Jany, Evan Dunning, Brenden Malley and Jack Heffernan left behind a bunch of minutes.

The ones returning are, for the most part, inexperienced at the varsity level.

The only one coming back with much time spent is 6-foot senior Tray Peters.

Peters is not only a point guard for the basketball squad but he is the quarterback for the football Yellow Jackets.

A couple of other returning players received more varsity minutes late in the season.

Six-foot junior TaShawn Palacio and 6-2 junior Trey McCartney return.

All three mentioned are also standouts on the playoff bound football squad.

Coach Toledo will also have three other juniors; 6-foot guard Tallen James, 5-10 guard Zane Eggemeyer and Kross Jany, a 5-9 guard.

The sophomore class also looks auspicious with four players mentioned by Coach Toledo, who is now in his fifth year running the Chester show.

Six-one Danny Worley, 5-10 Rusty Korando and Mitchell Liter along with 6-foot Kale Sprengel.

This roster has athletes that will be needed to compete in the Illinois Division.

“We obviously are not going to be very big, so we will have to outwork everyone. We had the best summer we have ever had and we are excited to get going with this team, we have a great group of kids that are really enjoyable to be around, they work hard and they want to get better,” said Coach Toledo.

There should be a bit of excitement in the air around the Sparta Bulldogs' basketball program heading into the 2025-26 season.

The obvious reasoning is that the school's enrollment and the adjustments that the IHSA made in the classifications puts the Bulldogs in 1A.

Sparta's enrollment (293) puts them just a whisker under the 300 cutoff.

Instead of being one of the smallest in 2A, Coach Jordan Beckley's bunch will be one of the 1A largest.

This bodes well for a program that hasn't captured any postseason hardware (regional title) since 1990-91.

Coach Beckley took over the program five years ago and after a tough first year, this coach has produced three-straight winning seasons (63-31) at the school.

The other reason for hope is that three starters and some important reserves return after the Dawgs went 19-12 in 2024-25.

Six-foot junior Dariontez Monroe returns for Sparta.

The guard and football quarterback is a team leader and should surpass 1,000-points at some point this season.

DJ Hayes, a 5-10 sophomore backcourt player, started games as a freshman last winter for Coach Beckley.

Six-two junior forward Tyrell Charles also started games for Sparta a season ago.

Three seniors return who either started some games or earned letters last season.

Five-nine guard Grant Allard along with 5-11 senior DeQuan Woods will be in the mix along with 6-2 forward Aidan Hernandez.

Depth looks to be a key factor for the Bulldogs with another junior, 5-10 guard Eian Wallace as a potential starter or reserve.

Coach Beckley mentioned four additional sophomores looking for varsity minutes.

Camden Allard, a 6-foot guard, was also a letter-winner last winter.

Six-one Owen Kueker, 6-2 Owen Kessler and 5-9 Wyatt Peck will also be in the hunt.

Coach Beckley added a pair of freshmen to the conversation; 5-10 Jakhai Dancy and 6-foot CJ Kilpatrick.

Sparta picked up some good victories a season ago.

The Bulldogs took home the title of the Chester Invitational Tournament and beat 3A Herrin in an early season encounter at the DuQuoin Tip-Off.

Nine of their defeats came to teams with winning records.

Sparta was one-and-done at Chester as they will shift to the Pinckneyville “Duster Thomas Hoops' Classic” for their third tournament.

But the real tournament that have their eyes on is the on that begins February 23rd.

Sparta lost to Red Bud in the regional opener last season and three seniors (Damian Lanton, Jake Wesbecher, Quintin Littlepage) are missing.

But the outlook this year should still be be sky high.

“Assuming everyone stays healthy by the start of the season, Dariontez Monroe, DJ Hayes, and Tyrell Charles are projected starters. The remaining two starting spots are still an open competition. Expect a deep rotation, with 8–10 players seeing regular minutes. As usual, we will be athletic but lacking height compared to many of our opponents,” said Coach Beckley.

The basketball program at Okawville has never backed away from a challenge in its very long history of success.

Playing in a conference in which every member is larger than themselves, the league games are all difficult.

Add to that an annual non-conference slate of games that is trying to say the least.

The goal each year is to play the competition to get the kids ready for the postseason.

Last season head coach Ryan Heck made it pay off as his squad won its first regional championship since he took over in 2021-22.

Okawville topped host Christopher to win the 1A Christopher Regional championship to advance to the Cobden Sectional.

The stay in the sectional wasn't for long, as they dropped a decision to state-ranked Goreville in the semifinals.

Aidan Anderson, a 6-9 senior center, is the most important missing person from that 19-16 club.

Anderson, an ABV 1A all-south selection, averaged 20.1 points and 12.3 rebounds a game for the Rockets and is now gearing up for his freshman year playing at Rend Lake College.

Those are some big shoes (statistically and literally) to fill.

Other seniors gone from graduation include Parker Wiese and John Schaller.

But the rest of that regional titlist team returns.

Six-two junior guard Braylen Turner is back after being second to Anderson last season in scoring.

Turner netted 11.7 points a contest to go with a team-leading 3.5 assists a night.

Six-two senior Landen Shubert will be a starter for Okawville for his third-consecutive season when the Rockets take the court early in 2025-26 at the Carlyle Kaskaskian Classic.

Shubert checked in with 10.3 points and 4.3 rebounds a contest.

Ryker Obermeier, a 5-11 senior, is also a projected starter for Coach Heck.

Six-seven sophomore center Ayden Foley will take over the role on the team anchored by Anderson.

Foley got in a bunch of varsity games as a freshman (19) a year ago and should step right in to the lineup.

Zayden Cepeda, a 6-1 junior, is another of the players from the junior varsity who got his feet wet in the varsity waters last winter and has earned more minutes.

Coach Heck has some key players ready to fill reserve roles for the Rockets.

Kaden Buehler, a 5-8 junior guard, is another valuable asset coming off of the bench along with 6-1 junior Clay Maynard.

Kaden will see some backup mins in the backcourt, he will be a steadying hand in the offense and has the capability to make three point shots

Six-one junior Gabe Charles will be one of the others ready for quality minutes as is 5-10 sophomore Teren Schwankhaus while 6-3 sophomore Bennett Schuetz will add some size in the lineup when he is on the floor.

“I'm excited for this season. Replacing Anderson will obviously be a huge key for us. And we won't replace him with one guy, will have to be a group effort. We will have to play differently this year, which the kids and I are both excited about. We want to really push the tempo, play aggressively and attack teams on both ends of the both. We are as talented and athletic in the backcourt as we've been in my years as head coach. How quickly the front court rotation shakes out and gets acclimated will play a major factor in our success,” said Coach Heck, who enters his fifth season as the head coach.

11/22/2025
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - New Athens tied with Steeleville for the top spot in the Kaskaskia Division of the Cahokia last winter.

This was the first league title for the Yellow Jackets in 10 seasons.

New Athens won three consecutive Kaskaskia titles in 2012-13, 2013-15 and 2014-15 under head coach Marc Derwort.

Coach Conrad Widdersheim led the squad to a 20-11, 9-1 mark and earned the ABV 1A “Coach of the Year” award for the hard work he and his kids put in.

Unfortunately there are some empty uniforms that need filled from five seniors a year ago.

Steeleville, also went 9-1 in the conference and 20-13 overall for Coach Aaron Fiene.

These Warriors will have a bit of a new look this season as they, too, are minus five spring graduates.

Valmeyer will be missing four seniors from their club that accomplished something historical for the program last December for head coach John Wuelling.

The Pirates took home a boy's varsity tournament championship last December.

It was the first such honor in the past 21-seasons for Valmeyer.

Marissa/Coulterville will be missing nine seniors from last spring's send off and will have to rebuild under new head coach Brandon Lanton.

Lebanon head coach Ayinde Bennett has three returning starters and a bunch of freshman that look to climb up the Kaskaskia hill.

Dupo also has a new coach in place with Jason Sashanker taking over the Tigers.

Last February the Steeleville Warriors nearly pulled off a mild upset in the 1A Marissa Regional title game.

After struggling in the first half, Coach Aaron Fiene got his club playing better in the final two quarters against state-ranked Waltonville.

The Warriors clawed their way back from a 10-point deficit and drew even with Waltonville in the fourth quarter.

But the Spartans put together a late run and held off Steeleville 54-51 to advance.

It closed the season on a tough note for Steeleville.

The Warriors picked up first place hardware at the Trico Pioneer Invitational Tournament last season and had some pretty good wins, beating 2A teams Chester, Mt. Carmel, and Carterville.

They split with Red Bud, winning an early season game at Trico and then losing a 4OT thriller at the Sparta Mid-Winter Classic in January.

Coach Fiene has done a fantastic job with this program since taking over eight seasons ago, sporting a 154-93 mark, which includes a state finals fourth place finish in 2021-22.

Unfortunately the majority of the points and minutes from the squad have departed.

Five key seniors have hit the road, including top scorer 6-3 guard Canon Ruby.

The others were also important; 6-4 Hayden Sternberg, 6-foot Tyler Ingles, 6-foot Cale Newby and 6-foot Trent Ingles.

They will be missed.

But Coach Fiene has one returning starter and a part-time starter coming back along with some junior varsity Warriors wanting get their names called.

Nate Witthoft is a 6-1 senior who started the last two seasons and was a double-digit scorer as both a sophomore and a junior.

The part-time starter that Coach Fiene referred to is 6-foot senior Colin Vallett.

Five-seven senior Carson Rednour is another one who got a few spot starts in 2024-25.

Every team needs a point guard and Parker Fiene, a 6-foot senior, will handle the task.

Three other seniors will make an impact on the team.

Five-ten guard Mason Hill, 6-3 Connor Brown and 6-3 Logan Bockhorn will bring skills to the table and toughness.

JV kids looking to move forward are 6-5 junior Korbin Ping and 6-3 junior Owen Gremmels.

Coach Fiene also mentioned incoming foreign exchange student Baptiste Troude, a 6-foot junior, who could help out immediately.

“Our team will be very experienced and tough. We will guard as good as we ever have and be very deep. We are going to score, but want to win when we don't shoot well. Effort and work ethic will define and ultimately decide how good of a season we have. The ceiling is high for this group,” said Coach Fiene.

Losing the program's all-time leading scorer to graduation is never easy but the mark that New Athens' senior Isaiah Lintker made in his four-years wearing purple and gold is a special one.

Lintker was a ABV 1A first team all-south selection last winter and finished with 1,736 career points.

Head coach Conrad Widdersheim also took home the ABV 1A “Coach of the Year” award for the outstanding work he has done for this school and program.

Last winter the Yellow Jackets split two games with Steeleville in the regular season and won the other eight Kaskaskia Division contests for a 9-1 mark.

New Athens won the consolation championship at the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament and finished fourth at both the Christopher Thanksgiving and the Chester Invitational Tournaments.

Another of the big wins on the year was topping Webber Township in the first game of the season at Christopher, a team that would go on to win a 1A regional.

Wins over Woodlawn, Marissa/Coulterville (3), and Red Bud along with narrow defeats to 2A Carlyle and Waterloo Gibault showed that the Yellow Jackets belonged.

They lost their third game with Steeleville, 65-50 to close the season with a defeat at the Marissa Regional.

Not only has Lintker left the building but classmates Brady Middendorf, Tommy Dutkanych, Gavin Gallagher and Landon Shemonia are also gone.

Coach Widdersheim will still have kids to work with heading into the season.

Three of them with experience are seniors now.

Cam Taylor, a 5-11 guard, was a part-time starter a year ago and contributed some points (4.6 p.p.g.) as a junior.

Five-nine senior Will Mulholland (5.8 p.p.g.) and 5-11 Cole Dachsteiner (6.9 p.p.g.) are also in the running for the cherished starting assignments.

Five-eight senior Carson Lauer (2.9 p.p.g.) and 6-2 junior Sawyer Sullivan (4.6 p.p.g.) will be in the rotation.

Coach Widdersheim also mentioned 6-2 senior Lane Kimbrell and 5-10 junior Wyatt Mulholland.

Sophomores who could move forward for the Yellow Jackets are 6-1 Cam Steinwagner and 6-2 Graer Badgett.

Others who could get into some games are Brodie Sieber, a 6-2 senior, and 6-3 senior Carter Mehner.

“Last year was a special year for our program, between eclipsing 20-wins, winning conference, and having one of our players break the school record for career points. However, we ended the season a little shy of our postseason goals. We return five-of-nine guys from last year’s rotation. The guys that will be stepping into the rotation have some big shoes to fill but we feel like we have a lot of potential in our underclassmen. I think this group has a chance to surprise a few people,” said Coach Widdersheim, who played high school basketball at Stewardson-Strasburg years ago and enters his 10th season at the helm of New Athens' basketball.

With Valmeyer and head coach John Wuelling it was a pretty special December heading into the new year.

The Pirates shocked host Piasa Southwestern to win the Southwestern Holiday Tournament championship.

It was the first tournament title for Valmeyer since winning the Coulterville Invitational Tournament back in January of 2004.

Coach Wuelling and his club ended up a very respectable 15-16 last winter, which included a 4-6 mark in the Kaskaskia Division.

They were dismissed early in the postseason by New Athens and the club will miss some kids who graduated.

Missing senior starters from last winter are Landon Roy, Oscar Hoerr and Austin Abeln.

This season Coach Wuelling will work with five seniors first off to see if they can get past that elusive .500 mark.

Five-ten senior guard Chase Snyder is a returning starter from last season.

Ripken Voelker, a 5-11 senior, started last year for the Pirates along with 6-4 senior Jeremy Crossin.

Two other seniors played for the Pirates last winter.

Gavin Rau, a 5-11 senior guard, started a few games as a junior and so did 5-9 junior guard Evan Hill.

Five-seven senior Xavier Smither returns.

The rest are underclassmen that Coach Wuelling will have fun working with.

The Pirates, being a small school, welcome years with big number turnouts.

Five-nine junior Parker Frierdich is in the running as are a bunch of sophomores and freshmen.

Six-five sophomore Caleb White is someone who will likely end up in the starting lineup.

Tallen Jakimauskas, a 6-3 sophomore, is another of the players that will give Valmeyer some depth.

Coach Wuelling mentioned four freshmen who will be welcomed and will give the JV and Varsity more bodies on the bench and important minutes on the floor.

Six-four freshman Carter McSchooler will leapfrog a bunch of kids to make it into the starting lineup according to Coach Wuelling.

Graham Knobloch, a 6-2 freshman, 6-foot freshman Griffin Kohnz and 5-11 freshman Cohen Everett will be difficult to keep out of the lineup.

“We are returning three starters and a few depth pieces from last season, while adding some underclassmen that will step in and play right away. We will have more size and depth than past years and will look to utilize it. I expect another step forward for the program this season,” said Coach Wuelling.

There were 16-players listed on the Marissa/Coulterville Meteors' boy's varsity basketball roster a year ago.

Nine of those kids were seniors and gone from the club that finished up 18-13 overall and 6-4 in the division.

There is a new head coach for the Meteors' program as Brandon Lanton takes command after Coach Matt Reuss left.

This new coach will need to find out in a hurry who is ready to move up after graduation eliminated most the roster.

Seniors Brock Portz and Ryne Rhodes were the top scorers a year ago (15.7 p.p.g./10.1 p.p.g.) respectively.

Hayden Steinwagner, Landen Perry, Landon Sabo, Evan Ranck, Carter Daugherty, Fred Klingman and Jack Stewart also absorbed the major minutes on the floor in 2024-25.

Coach Lanton will have some kids ready to go when the preseason practices begin.

Five-seven ophomore Ky Portz averaged 5.3 points a game as a freshman and he played in 29 of the Meteors' contests.

Five-ten junior Tyler Chandler played in 19 of the games, adding 3.6 p.p.g.

Add the names of seniors Parker Henson, Lane Robinson and Wyatt Baker, who were on last season's varsity roster, to take some of the minutes now available.

Senior Marshall Prest will join 5-8 junior Garrett Bailey and sophomores Gavin McGee and Zion Williams to challenge for playing time.

Coach Lanton added a couple of freshman who could jump into contention for varsity minutes; Tanner Chandler and Joseph Baum.

“We are gonna be a rebuilding program from a team that had nine seniors on the roster last year but each and every one of these young men are dedicated to wanting to be in the gym as much as possible and they all have great work ethic,” said Coach Lanton. “Even though we're gonna be young this season as to varsity experience I strongly feel we are gonna be a competitive team and you will see a lot of uptempo style of play from us.”

For the Lebanon Greyhounds it was, indeed, a tough 2024-25 season for the ones in purple.

Head coach Ayinde Bennett, in his first season as head coach, managed to get just four victories (4-28) and lost their final 12 contests with a loss to regional champion Waltonville at the Marissa Regional ending the season.

But if every dark cloud indeed has a silver lining, the Coach Bennett will have some optimism this winter.

Three key players from last season along with a promising freshman group will suit up for 2025-26.

DeVaughn Ware, a 6-foot senior guard, is back for Lebanon and he has logged enough time in varsity games to get close to 1K points for his career.

The other two returning players are 5-9 junior Kyle Noud and 5-10 junior Deion Washington.

Washington is also in 1K range with a good finish to his prep career.

Each contributed numbers and minutes last winter.

But it appears that there is help coming from the freshman class.

Coach Bennett added the names of six ninth graders that will likely be involved immediately in varsity action, especially in the first week of the season at the Mulberry Grove Thanksgiving Tournament.

Five-nine guard Amjad Adams is one of the newcomers along with 6-foot guard Alex Okal.

Kyrie Munton, a 6-1 forward, 5-9 guard Keegan Finch, 5-9 guard Zander DeMello and 5-10 guard Elijah Hodge.

“We have a pretty good, hardworking freshman class that is coming in that we expect to compliment our returnees and get some experience against older players,” said Coach Bennett. “We expect to be more competitive in our conference games this year if our players buy into a true team concept. We have two good scorers in DeVaughn and Deion but they must learn to score without the ball always being in their hands and we must improve our team defense if we wish to be competitive. We don't have much size so we are going to have to use our speed and quickness to our advantage on both ends. If things come together we expect to win 8-10 games and maybe even a few more if things fall in to place.”