Erica Foltz's male athlete to watch for the 2025-2026 school sports year is junior Lucas Bowers of Vandalia. While known for mainly two sports, Bowers is a three sport athlete that could be a difference maker in all three in his coming junior season. In the Fall in his lesser known of three sports, football, Bowers spe...

2024-2025 Coach of the Year: Jason Clay, Vandalia Football and Wrestling - Coach Clay led the Vandalia Football to an 8-1 regular season and a tie for the South Central Conference title before the Vandals went to the second round of the Playoffs for the second straight year and third time in the last four years. The Va...

Female Athlete of the Year: Sophie Bowers, Vandalia - Bowers put a large explanation point on her legacy at Vandalia High School with a very impressive senior year. In Wrestling, Sophie went 42-0 her Senior year and capped it off by winning her second straight State Championship. Sophie finishes her time at VCHS at 11...

Overall Female Standout Athletes (in no particular order): Macee Rodman, CHBC - Rodman left her mark on CHBC girls sports, finishing off her high school career with three big seasons. In the Fall, Rodman would finish second on the team in digs and third on the team in kills for CHBC volleyball. She tallied 332 digs on ...

Male Athletes of the Year: Ben Roedl, Altamont: Roedl finished his high school career at Altamont with big seasons in all three sports in which he competed. In just his second soccer season, Roedl was third on the team in goals with 10 and also assisted on 3 others. The senior forward wrapped up his high school basketb...

Overall Male Standout Athletes (in no particular order): Kade Milleville, Altamont - The junior broke out his sophomore year and kept his momentum rolling into his junior year. In baseball, Milleville led both the Indians pitching staff and led the team offensively. Kade earned First Team All-Conference honors for the ...

Spring Coaches of the Year Dustin Jackson, Vandalia Boys Track & Field - The first year high school track and field coach led the Vandals boys team to a very big year. The Vandals captured the South Central Conference title in early May and then went on to capture an IHSA 1A Sectional Championship in mid-May. The V...

Girls Athletes of the Year Hannah Brown, Vandalia - The junior thrower continued to get better in her third year of high school track and dominated the competition in her best event, the shot put. Brown competed in 12 meets and turned in first place finishes in ten of those meets and capped off her year with a fourth p...

Boys Track & Field Athletes of the Year Ben Roedl, Altamont - The jumps specialist was dominant in his senior season for the Indians. In the high jump, he took first place in 10 of 15 meets he competed in the event finishing fourth twice, finishing in third once and his other two finishes being second place finishe...

Track and Field Newcomers of the Year Jackson Wimberly, Vandalia - The freshman pole vaulter picked up where he left off from junior high, reaching new heights in the event. Wimberly competed in 15 meets turning in three top 10 finishes during the indoor season. During outdoor season, Wimberly captured four first place...

Softball Player of the Year Grace Lemke, Altamont - The senior pitcher put on a strictly dominant performance throughout her final year on the mound for the Lady Indians as she would handle 172 of the 189 innings played by Altamont. Lemke faced 641 batters and struck out 416 of those batters including one of them being...

Top Team South Central - The Lady Cougars won their fourth straight Regional Championship, beating Hustonville-Palestine 3-1 in the Championship game before falling to Casey-Westfield, the eventual State third place team, in the Sectional Semifinals. South Central finished the season 19-11 which included a mid-season s...

Best Moments Grace Lemke Records 1,000th Career Strikeout and Lily Johnson Gets 600th Strikeout - Altamont senior pitcher Grace Lemke struck out 416 batters this season including one of them being her 1,000th career strikeout. During the Lady Indians April 24 game at Vandalia, Lemke would toss 20 strikeouts in the game...

All Area Team (in no particular order): Kaitlyn Swift, South Central - The senior shortstop was as sound as they come in the middle infield for the Lady Cougars with one error in 85 chances for a .988 fielding percentage on the season. Swift had just as strong a season at the plate with a .352 batting average, .459 on ...

Baseball Players of the Year Kade Milleville, Altamont - A year after breaking out in his sophomore season, Milleville was one the key leaders for the Indians in his junior year. Milleville anchored the pitching staff and the left side of the infield, finishing with a 5-3 record on the mound giving up just 23 runs, 18 ...

Top Team South Central - The Cougars finished the year with a combined record of 28-19 for the school year after going 15-6 during the fall season with a second place finish in the National Trail Conference Tournament and going 13-13 in the Spring, fighting through a tough schedule and eventually capturing their third ...

Best Game South Central Walks It Off in 12th Inning to Beat Altamont 2-1 - After adding the game late in the afternoon on Thursday, May 1 and then eventually having a change of location from Altamont to Kinmundy due to wet field conditions, South Central and Altamont baseball teams battled for just over 11 ½ inn...

All Area Team (in no particular order): Keegan Schultz, Altamont - The senior leader was a steady hand on the mound, at the plate and at first base for the Indians this Fall and Spring. Schultz hit .319 with a .465 on base percentage and .556 slugging percentage with six home runs and driving in 33 runs. On the mound, ...

Jason Clay-- Vandals Wrestling Coach Jason Clay finished off an outstanding career with the Vandals overall best season--one that fell just shy of winning a state championship. Coach Clay helped lead the Vandals to a 40-2 record. Their only losses were to Union County, Kentucky early in the season and to Coal City in...

Tyson Waughtel- Tyson will simply go down as one of the greatest High School wrestlers in Illinois history and capped it off with a perfect Senior Season for the Vandals. Tyson went 58-0 on the season--finishing his High School career at 210-2 all time. During his Senior season, he was the Champion of the CM Tourname...

Sophie Bowers-- Sophie capped off an outstanding career with an even more outstanding Senior season. Sophie went 42-0 her Senior year, capped off by winning her second straight State Championship. For her career, Sophie was 112-18 and was a 3 time Sectional Champion, a 3 time State Qualifier and a 2 time State Champ-...

Wresting Newcomers of the Year-- Aiden Evans--Aiden put together a very strong season and anchored down the 106/113 pound spots all year for the Vandals. He went 45-11 overall and was a state qualifier. He also had strong showing at multiple tournaments, finishing 2nd at the CM Tournament, 3rd at the Litchfield Tourn...

Best Wrestling Moments of the Year-- Vandals win Abe's Rumble Tournament--The Vandals were already rolling along coming into the post-Christmas showdown tournament against some of the top dual team competition in the state. The Vandals rolled to wins over Mt. Zion, Morrison, Illini Bluffs, Westville, El Paso-Gridley, ...

Dayana Haslett (BSE) - The sophomore guard picked up where she left off from her breakout freshman season and helped lead the Lady Bombers to a 26-7 season in which BSE won their second Regional Championship in program history. Haslett would rack up 754 points in the season including her 1,000th career point in a Janua...

Brownstown-St. Elmo Lady Bombers - The Lady Bombers put together their third straight 20-win season, going 26-7 during the 2024-2025 season. After a quick 4-0 start, BSE suffered a pair of tough losses to Breese Mater Dei and Central Southeastern before going on a 16-game win streak before falling to St. Anthony in the...

BSE's Dayana Haslett Scores 1,000th Career Point as a Sophomore - After scoring 549 points her freshman year, Haslett got off to a fast start to her sophomore year with 14 20+ point games in the first 19 games of the season. That hot start culminated in Haslett coming back from the short winter break to drop 23 points ...

All Area Team (In no particular order) Macee Rodman, CHBC - The senior guard averaged 19.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 1.6 assists per game for the Bobcats to cap off her high school career. She finishes her career with 1,688 points to be the 2nd All-Time leading scorer at CHBC. This season Rodman was named to...

Altamont's Kade Milleville - The Indians guard took a big step up in his junior season, moving into a leadership role after the graduation of six key players from the previous season. After playing in all but three games his sophomore year, Milleville started all 32 games for the Indians this past season and Milleville...

Top Team of the Year--Altamont Indians The Indians faced a 2024-2025 season where they had several spots to fill from a big 2024 graduating class and several players stepped up to fill those spots and that resulted in Altamont getting their 11th 19+ win season in the last 13 years. The Indians got out to a good start a...

South Central beats Altamont in Early Season NTC Battle - South Central Cougars was able to hold off a late surge from the Altamont Indians to come away with a 40-38 win in the NTC opener for both teams. The first quarter was a back-and-forth defensive battle that saw the Cougars with a slim 10-8 lead. Altamont picked ...

All Area Team (in no particular order)-- Cooper McManaway, Altamont - The freshman guard hit the ground running, quickly making his way into the starting lineup. He averaged 10.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1 steal a game during the 24-25 season. He finished second on the team with 329 points and shot 65% fro...

Vandalia Football Coach Jason Clay - Led the Vandals to an 8-1 regular season and a tie for the South Central Conference title before the Vandals went to the second round of the Playoffs for the second straight year and third time in the last four years. The Vandals again had an All-State player and put up big numbers ...

It was shades of 2016 as the Vandals defeated the Greenville Comets in Overtime on Friday night at Mark Greer Field, 35 to 34. The Vandals jumped out early with 3 Touchdowns in the 1st quarter to lead 21 to 0. Greenville would get two of those scores back in the 2nd quarter and the Vandals led 21 to 14 at halftime. A...

Vandalia junior wide receiver Kohnor Depew - Depew was an unstoppable force in 2024 accounting for 22 touchdowns for the Vandals with 12 receiving TDs, six rushing TDs, 3 special teams TDs and one defensive TD. Depew racked up 854 receiving yards on 45 receptions while averaging 19 yard per catch. Depew rushed 15 times...

Football Defensive Players of the Year (in no particular order) Junior Dillon Hinton - The junior linebacker led the Vandals with 97 total tackles, 28 solo tackles and 69 tackle assists. He was named First Team All-Conference Linebackers for the South Central Conference. Junior Jordan Colburn - The junior defensive bac...

Addie Sasse - As a junior, Sasse took another big step forward after a strong sophomore season and was a jack of all trades in helping lead the St. Elmo-Brownstown Lady Eagles to a 23-12 record for the 2024 season. Sasse led the team in assists with 386 and led in aces with 32 while she was third in kills with 74. Sass...

The St. Elmo-Brownstown Lady Eagles flipped the script in 2024 rebounding from an 11-23 record during the 2023 season to go 23-12 in 2024. The Eagles went 6-3 in the regular season for the National Trail Conference to finish in third while going 5-0 in the Egyptian Illini Conference to grab the regular season title the...

CHBC senior libero Birgen Schlanser had a breakout season in her final year, leading the team in digs with 435 with her effort culminating in reaching a plateau not many high school volleyball players in the area have reached. During an Egyptian Illini Conference Tournament pool play game against Patoka on October 22, ...

All Area Team (In no particular order) CHBC senior libero Birgen Schlanser - Schlanser had a breakout season in her final year, leading the team in digs with 435. Her 435 season digs would be 27th best in the State of Illinois across all four classes for the season. Schlanser also had a 97.2% serving percentage for the...

Golf Players of the Year Ramsey junior Bryce Gillock - Gillock led the Rams all season, turning in several medalist finishes in the regular season. He showed a nearly 12 stroke improvement on his 18-hole average in 2024 over his sophomore season in 2023 and showed a two stroke improvement in his low score, with a best ...

Vandalia girls golf backed up a strong showing in 2023 with another strong season on 2024. After securing numerous top two finishes in several regular season matches, the Lady Vandals finished in third place at the South Central Conference Tournament, making it the second year in a row they placed in the top 3. Vandali...

Golf All Area Team (in no particular order) Vandalia junior Owen Halford - After grabbing low scorer honors for the Vandals in several regular season matches, Halford shot an 84 to finish 19th at the South Central Conference Tournament and followed it up with a 20th place finish at the Mt. Olive 1A Regional to advance ...

Vandalia senior Carlie Graumenz - Playing the No. 1 spot for the Lady Vandals, Graumenz was a leader for the Lady Vandals. Graumenz picked up several match wins at No. 1 including a memorable 10-8 third set tiebreaker win on Senior Night. In the South Central Conference Tournament, she lost her first match and then swe...

Vandalia Dalaney Patterson - Patterson moved into the No. 2 spot for the Lady Vandals this year and would hold strong in the spot throughout the season, picking up several match wins. Patterson also anchored doubles with Carlie Graumenz and Kaylee Tompkins throughout the season for more match wins for the Vandals inclu...

Altamont senior Javian Schlanser - Schlanser was an offensive force for the Indians in 2024, leading the team with 26 goals, averaging 1.7 goals per game. Schlanser helped lead Altamont to a 12-8 record before the Indians suffered a tough 1-0 loss to Staunton to end their season in Regionals. Our "Best Of" is...

Vandalia senior Issac Sachan - Sachan took a big step up from his junior season to become the offensive and field leader for the Vandals in 2024. Sachan led the team with 7 goals and 8 assists for the Vandals. Our "Best Of" is presented by FNB Community Bank

Vandalia soccer won just their second South Central Conference game in just over a decade when the Vandals stopped their 7-game losing streak to open the season by beating North Mac at home, 8-2, on September 19. The SCC win was the first conference win for Vandalia since a 2022 win over Pana, 3-0, and was just the sec...

Soccer All Area Team (in no particular order) Altamont sophomore Aiden Rosales - Rosales was a ball hawk in 2024, amassing 14 goals while also assisting on 14 others for the Indians. Vandalia senior Artan Mustafa - Mustafa took a step forward in his senior season and was second on the Vandals with 6 goals and 4 assists...

CHBC junior August Cosart - Cosart picked up where he left off from 2023 as he built on his strong sophomore season with his third year bringing his second straight National Trail Conference Individual title which aided in the Bobcats winning their second straight NTC team title. After qualifying for Regionals freshman...

CHBC senior Aiden Wallace - Wallace shaved more than a minute off his personal best during his senior season and for the second straight year, finished in the top 6 at the National Trail Conference meet. Altamont junior Katie Tedrick - Tedrick took just under four and a half minutes of her 3-mile course time during the...