Sports News,  Archives,  Mayfield's Mutterings,  Schedules,

Announcements,  Calendar,  Sports News Elsewhere  (fresh daily from the Web)

Thursday, May 29

High school baseball

[MAY 29, 2003] 

U High Sectional
At Normal

LeRoy       100 000 0 - 1-5-4

Olympia     250 010 x - 8-12-4

Nick Klump (L, 9-1) and Chad Barding; Trevor SMith (W, 8-3) and Rush Olson.

Olympia (25-10) - 3B - Tyler Thornton, Kale Williams. Three hits - Ross Thompson. Two hits - Thornton, Derek Foley, Smith. RBI - Foley 2, Thompson, Smith, Neil Birkey, Williams. Pitching - Smith (7 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts).

Pleasant Plains Sectional
At Springfield

A-C Central        000 100 2 - 3-5-3

Mount Pulaski     100 031 x - 5-5-3

Josh Leinberger (L, 5-6), Jeff Mahoney (5) and Chance Ruppel. Josh Blaum (W, 5-3), Brian Clements (6), John Foley (7, S) and Cameron McClellan.

Hitting star - Mount Pulaski - Zach Moore (2 hits).

Record - Mount Pulaski 22-6.

At East Peoria

Lincoln           000 310 0 - 4-5-0

East Peoria     001 020 0 -3-6-2

Jason Fitzpatrick (W) and John Peters. Donaldson, Driskill (4, L), Culp (7) and A. Brown.

Home run - Lincoln - Derek Schrader.

Hitting star - Lincoln - Peters (2 hits).

Troc is Weisbecker endowed scholar at Illinois State

[MAY 29, 2003]  NORMAL -- A hardworking student and athlete, Illinois State University guard Kevin Troc might not be the most highly regarded player on the Redbird basketball team, but he's truly the kind of student-athlete whose efforts would impress the late Milt Weisbecker -- a pioneer for the Redbirds as athletics director in the 1960s and 1970s. That's one reason why Troc is the 2003 recipient of the Milt Weisbecker Endowed Scholarship at Illinois State.

Troc, a business administration major, is a junior academically but a sophomore athletically because he redshirted his first year. The 2001 Lockport High School graduate suffered a staph infection during his first semester at Illinois State, missing two months of practice. He recovered from that illness to make valuable contributions off the bench to Redbird victories in 2002-03.

Although Porter Moser has known Troc for only a few weeks, the new Illinois State head basketball coach values what his sophomore guard brings to the team.

"Kevin's attitude and effort are phenomenal," said Moser. "He's an extremely tough kid who plays through pain. I know in the classroom he does an outstanding job. He's responded really well to whatever we have asked of him."

Established in 1990, the Weisbecker scholarship is named for the man who led Illinois State's program into Division I status more than 30 years ago and stayed close to the ISU athletics program even as his career moved on to other positions at Illinois State. The scholarship is awarded to a junior or senior men's basketball player with a commitment to academics and competition.

Weisbecker, who died in 2002, initiated the concept of scholarships for student-athletes at Illinois State and was always quick to point out that athletic scholarships create opportunity. It was up to individual student-athletes to make the most of the experience.

[to top of second column in this article]

Troc embraces Weisbecker's philosophy.

"It's a great honor to be recognized this way because of all Mr. Weisbecker did for Illinois State," said Troc. "I think he was absolutely right -- scholarships are opportunities. I just try to work hard every day and try not to miss an opportunity to get better at whatever I'm doing."

The Milt Weisbecker Endowed Scholarship is one of 12 endowed scholarships funded by private donors and available to Illinois State student-athletes. Six are already fully funded, including the Weisbecker scholarship.

For information about supporting Illinois State University endowments for student-athletes, call The Redbird Club office at (309) 438-3803.

2003 -- Kevin Troc

2002 -- Marcus Arnold

2001 -- Gregg Alexander

2000 -- Rich Beyers

1999 -- Ryan Crowley

1998 -- Ronald van Velzen

1997 -- Steve Hansell

1996 -- LeRoy Watkins

[Thomas Lamonica, Illinois State University]

Articles from the past week

[MAY 27, 2003]  Not too many things you say are ever remembered. Unless they're things that you wish people would forget. And not too many things you've ever done are remembered. However, when it comes to Memorial Day, it's hard to argue as to whom this day belongs! We take our hats off to the brave men and women of our country who serve in the armed forces or who are veterans!

I like to think that one of the reasons our country is so blessed and favored is because not only do we pay tribute to our active and fallen heroes, but a whole day is set aside to remember the price that has been paid for our freedom. As I enjoy another fun-filled holiday, I hope none of us will ever forget at what price this day was delivered to us! With that being said, let's head for the sports pages…

Speaking of hats off… what about the performances turned in by the LCHS track squads? For those who don't know anything about track and field, the workouts are often much more grueling than the actual meets. Regardless of that fact, Tricia Dorsey of the Lady Railers, along with a host of Railer athletes, put up some impressive performances in postseason meets. Also posting some fantastic numbers were Chris Sheley, Jarryd Cooper, Luke Sheley, Aaron Steffens, Troy Tolan and Jordan Tabb. Congratulations to these fine athletes and to all their Lincoln High School teammates and coaches!

And what a great choice Lincoln College made in hiring John Andrews as their new softball coach! In fact, we can't think of anyone who would be a better choice. A guy with professional baseball experience, Andrews has also coached at LCHS for five years, Lincoln Legion for two years, Lincoln Collegiate for two years, was an assistant at LC for a year and head coach there for a year as well. This past year he assisted the unflappable Allen Pickering. Andrews will return eight ladies from this year's squad that went 21-17 on the campaign and 17-12 in league play. It appears that the future for the Lady Lynx softball program is incredibly bright! Good luck, Coach Andrews!

…as they took their record to 16-14 and 7-7 with a win over Springfield Southeast. The Railers were to play Pontiac on Saturday, but no results of that doubleheader were available to the LDN. Regional play for LCHS is scheduled to begin Saturday.

…will go on sale on Monday, June 2. You can purchase tickets at 1 (866) ILLINI-1 or in person at the Assembly Hall or on the Net at www.fightingillini.com! This year's home opponents include Illinois State, California, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern. You can also purchase tickets for the showdown with Missouri in St. Louis. All in all, a decent home schedule considering that the big three -- Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State -- won't be coming to Champaign this season. That doesn't hurt this reporter's feelings all that much!

[to top of second column in this article]

Cubs waste Wood's performance...

…but appear to be making a bid to stay in first place through the month of May. Kerry Wood battled the Pirates and limited them to one hit while striking out 10 before the bottom fell out for Chicago. Pittsburg went on to win 10-0. I'm guessing -- now that Sammy Sosa is expected to get back into the lineup -- that the Cubs will still be a formidable opponent in the division. A very nice 8-5 road trip should squelch the fears of most Cubbie fans, who seem to always fear the worst. This division may be won by a team that spurts for two weeks and then staves off the rest of the wannabes!

St. Louis did to the Astros what you'd like to see them do to every interdivisional rival… beat the tar out of them! The Cards were up 10-0 before Houston knew what hit them! It's good to see Drew swinging the hot bat, and even Tino Martinez got in on the act a little bit. Edmonds seems to be breaking out of the mini slump he was in, but what can you say about the pitching of Matt Morris and Woody Williams? Anyone STILL want to roast me on why I said I'd trade Lankford for Williams in a heartbeat? I would've made the deal for a hot dog vendor… but, that's just me. In case you've been on another planet during the first two months of the baseball season, Williams is now 7-0 heading into his next start with a NL-leading 2.1 ERA! The Redbirds continue to fight off injury woes however. To go along with a decimated bullpen we now learn that Fernando Vina will be lost through the All Star break… Who's next the organist?

How many ways can you say, "This series is over?" I guess you could say it was over once Dirk Nowitski went down. But who do you like in the finals, SA or NJ? You have to like NJ's experience in going there in back-to-back years. But, you've also got to like Tim Duncan and the great perimeter shooting the Spurs have been displaying of late. I really like the Spurs, but as well as the Nets are playing right now, don't be surprised to see them pull this thing out.

Have a great week, everybody!

[Jeff Mayfield]

• Last week: Cards and Cubs at it again

• Archived columns

Announcements

Basketball camp dates announced

[MAY 14, 2003]  NORMAL -- First-year Illinois State head basketball coach Porter Moser has announced his camp dates for the summer of 2003.

Moser and his Redbird staff will host three camps this summer, with a pair of day camps and one team camp.

The first day camp runs June 16-19 and is for boys entering grades 1-12. The second day camp is open to boys entering grades 1-8 and is scheduled for July 15-18. The day camps are designed for commuters only and focus on the basic fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding, defense and game play.

The cost for either day camp is $170. Each camper receives a basketball and a T-shirt.

[to top of second column in this article]

The team camp, which caters to high school and junior high teams with boys entering grades 6-12, will be June 20-22. The camp format is round-robin and tournament team play.

The cost for the team camp is $170 for commuters and $205 for resident campers. Each will receive a camp T-shirt.

For more information about the basketball camps, call the Redbird men's basketball office at (309) 438-8681 or click here for an application form.

[Click here to download the Adobe Acrobat reader for the PDF file.]

[Todd Kober, director of media relations,
Illinois State University]

Back to top