Randy Kindred

What happens when your toughest coach is also your dad? Illinois State defensive coordinator Travis Niekamp is pushing sons Tye and Dexter — and the Redbirds — to the brink of the national championship game.

Veteran Lincoln High School assistant coach Eric Ewald has been chosen for the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame . He will be inducted in May as a “career coach” and calls it “quite an honor.”

Teddy Corwin sees football jerseys regularly while selling sports apparel and equipment to high schools near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Daniel Sobkowicz rates fishing as “probably my favorite hobby … I mean, other than football.”

A 2017 Normal West High School graduate, Kinley has been around a lot of winning in his young career as a television sports director. While at KSNT in Topeka, Kansas, he covered a Kansas men's basketball national championship and two Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl wins.

He called it “a great week, a great experience,” and here is what we know: Holtz learned a great deal in his time at the famed Augusta National Golf Club.

Antonacci blossomed into the 2023 NJCAA Division II National Player of the Year by his sophomore season, leading Heartland to a 57-5 record and the national championship . That led to an opportunity at Division I baseball power Coastal Carolina, where after a stellar junior season in 2024, Antonacci was drafted in the fifth round by the Chicago White Sox.

Don't remember Chaia Meier's basketball career at University High? It's OK. She understands. She was Chaia [pronounced KY-ya] VanGoethem back then.

Chiodo will be celebrated Saturday when the trophy case at U-High is named in his honor. A bronze plaque detailing Chiodo's Hall of Fame career will be displayed permanently in the trophy case near the entrance to the U-High gymnasium.

The World Cup is among many major sporting events on Hardiman's Levy calendar. He was at the Kentucky Derby in May and in New York for Saturday's Belmont Stakes. He was in Oklahoma City recently for the NBA Western Conference Finals and works a number of top-level tennis tournaments, including the U.S. Open.