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Tuesday, Sept. 10

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[SEPT. 10, 2002]  Lead

 

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Articles from the past week

Monday:

  • Mayfield’s Mutterings...:
    We win! We win! We win!

  • Big fourth-quarter comeback sends Bears fans home happy

  • How do you like us now?
    Bears move Houdini act to Champaign

  • Lincolns wooden bats split doubleheader with Normal

  • LC vs. Cincinnati State in final of soccer classic

  • LC scores winning goal in overtime

Saturday:

  • NFL football comes to central Illinois

  • Locals have a swingin’ time with the Aussies down under

  • High school football

  • LC cross country

  • Illinois releases men’s basketball schedule

Friday:

  • Lady Railers refuse to lose

  • LC cross country begins competition

  • Ball State game postponed

Thursday:

  • LC soccer clinic to benefit Pettijohn family

  • LC vs. Springfield College in volleyball

  • LC vs. Springfield College in women’s soccer

  • LC women’s golf results

  • Redbirds meet two top 20 teams in Wisconsin

Wednesday:

  • Lady Railers smoothly dominate in home opener
    A new brand of football -- Program kicks off on 32 campuses, including the U of I

Tuesday:

  • Illini disappoint in a big way
    Missouri hands Illinois a 33-20 whopping

  • Illinois-Mizzou notes

  • Labor Day mutterings

  • Lincoln College men’s soccer vs. Yavapai

  • Lincoln College men’s soccer vs. Iowa Central

  • Lincoln College women win soccer opener

  • Lincoln College plays in volleyball tourney in Mattoon


We win! We win! We win!

By Jeff Mayfield

[SEPT. 9, 2002]  I think that sentiment best describes the emotions and feelings we’ve been able to pick up from area residents describing this past weekend. With the exception of one hiccup and too much heat, everything else went pretty well this past weekend. Our only regret is that you can’t be everywhere and you can’t do everything.

For instance, we wanted to go to the Railer game on Friday. But when you try to be involved in the community and support the town and county, sometimes schedule conflicts do arise. Before we even realized that the game was in Chatham, we had already promised some friends that we would meet them in Mount Pulaski for the good ol’ fall festival. It didn’t feel much like fall, but it’s a great festival and we had a great time over there in the Mount!

Congratulations, Railers!

At any rate, we still want to offer up congratulations to all of the Railer football players and to the coaching staff and to anyone else who has anything to do with the program. If you’ve never played or been around a high school football program, you probably have no idea how much work goes into the entire operation. These people spend hours practicing, working, poring over game films and scouting reports, going to scout other teams; it’s an incredible procedure. That is why we are so happy for this group of Railers! They have weathered lots of storms and now are finally seeing some of the fruit of their labor.

It is encouraging to see that many fans have not turned their backs on the Railers and have ridden the proverbial wagon through thick and thin. I’m sure that has been a great source of encouragement to players and coaches alike. We were always taught to root for "our" team whether they were 10-0 or 0-10. I guess for some people that’s just not fashionable enough nowadays. Whatever, we here at the LDN are always proud of our hometown teams, and we couldn’t be prouder of this group of Railers! We look forward to the next win come Friday nite!

 

Speaking of local high school sports squads

We sometimes get accused of only reporting on the so-called major sports of football or basketball, etc. Let’s be clear on what happens here. We get so many reports on this stuff from coaches, parents and sometimes even the players that it makes it easy to do the reporting. In an ideal world where budgets are no object, we would simply assign a reporter to cover every sport, and then every local athlete would get covered in some way. However, we don’t even have a budget to cover the stuff that we’re covering! Virtually everyone that works here already has a full-time job. They cover sports on the side. So, If you’re involved in an individual sport, write us at ldneditor@lincolndailynews or fax 732-9630 and let us know how you did or how you are doing. Make sure that we have a schedule of your stuff, a team roster and a phone number to reach YOU or your coach. You can mail that stuff to LDN Sports, 601 Keokuk St., Lincoln, IL 62656.

 

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To my knowledge no one who has followed this prescription has been denied yet. And not only that, it is good for you. I found out in my days as a player and a coach that the best promoter of YOUR team is YOU!... or YOUR mom! So, call us and send us your stuff, including pictures, and you’ll see your smiling face on the cover of the LDN. What’s really great about that is that your grandparents and your family and friends around the country and around the world can just click on the LDN to see you; isn’t that great?!

How ’bout those Redbirds?

Not those Redbirds! We’re talking about the ISU Redbirds! ISU put a 55-10 hurtin’ on Quincy Saturday night in Normal before an excitable crowd of 8,234. The home-opening rout featured 210 yards rushing and two touchdowns by Quincy Washington. Vito Golson grabbed four catches, 63 yards and two touchdowns. And how ’bout the kicking of sophomore Stephen Carroll? Carroll booted a 48-yard field goal but later added a 53-yarder, which is the longest in Hancock Stadium history. The record is now even at 1-1, while Quincy slipped to 0-2. Carroll and Washington have already been rewarded for their efforts by being named Gateway Conference Players of the Week! Lots of Lincoln and Logan County fans were on hand for this one.

Our new favorite player is ISU punt-return specialist Dennis Butler. This kid can shake and bake you before you can shake hands with him. Talk about exciting. Every time he touches the ball something exciting is just waiting to happen. We see good things in this young man’s future!

Another big shoe?...

Isn’t that what Ed Sullivan used to say? We’re sure our show will never reach that level of performance, but it is a lot of fun nonetheless. Tonight, we’ll be talking about the Bears’ exciting win, the Railers’ exciting victory at Chatham, the ISU win, the woes of the Illini, the incredible St. Louis Cardinals, and we hope to do a feature on Railer volleyball. So log on this evening at 6 p.m. to "Hear it Here!" or tune your TV to CITV Channel 15 or your radio to FIX-FM 96.3 if you want to talk sports. More giveaways and more trivia questions coming right at you.

Cardinals take three from the Cubs

If the records were reversed, we would want the Cubs to win these three. Why? Because we don’t want to see Houston or Cincinnati winning the division. It’s just that simple. We’ve been waiting for the Cardinals to collapse all year. It’s hard to mourn the loss of so many loved ones and then try to do something as meaningless as playing a game. Then try playing 162 of them. No matter how far these Birds go, we will always remember their gritty determination. BTW, nice article on former redbird Mark McGwire in ESPN. I don’t usually recommend articles, but this is a good one!

Lot’s more going on, but we’re outta time. Hope things cool off for everyone so that ya all have a great week. See you in the funny papers!

 

[Jeff Mayfield]

[Sept. 3 column: "Labor Day mutterings"]


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