Area coaches earn IBCA District 11 honors
Four area basketball coaches will be honored as District 11 Coaches of the Year, and two individuals with area ties will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during the April 25 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association banquet in Normal.
The honorees include high school boys’ coaches Jesse Brandt of Princeton and Ryan Brown of Annawan, high school girls’ coach Tom McGunnigal of St. Bede and junior high boys’ coach Ken Wilcoxen of Bureau Valley North. IBCA Hall of Fame inductees include former WZOE broadcaster Greg Halbleib (media) and the late Oliver Jochums, head coach at Mineral.
Brandt led the Tigers to their first sectional championship in six seasons, reaching the Elite Eight for the first time since 1955. The Tigers upset heavily ranked Peoria Manual in the sectional finals and fell to Winnebago in the DeKalb Supersectional, finishing the season at 25-6.
In four years, Brandt stands 58-54 with two regionals and a sectional crown.
McGunnigal’s Lady Bruins (27-5) won the Bureau Valley Regional and reached the sectional finals before falling to Sterling Newman in overtime. He is 256-64 in 11 years as the Lady Bruins head coach.
Wilcoxen’s Storm teams both finished as undefeated BVEC champions (9-0) with the seventh grade posting a 14-2 record and the eighth grade going 17-2. It will be the seventh time Wilcoxen has been named as Coach of the Year. He has a record of 362-107 at BV North and 26-year career record of 535-256, including 19 BVEC championships.
Brown’s Braves reached the state finals for the first time in school history, taking fourth place in the 1A tournament. Annawan finished at 27-7.
Jochums, who won six district championships while compiling a 212-106 record from 1940-42 and 1946-55 at Mineral, is one of 16 honorees inducted as a “Friend of basketball.” He was inducted into the Bureau County Sports Hall of Fame along with his district champion Leopards basketball teams in 2004.
Halbleib, a Putnam County High School graduate who called Princeton High School sports from 1979-2002, now is sports director for WJBC in Bloomington.
• Called for traveling: Princeton coach Spencer Davis and the Tigresses took an offseason loss with the news that junior-to-be Brittney Mueller will be transferring to Pontiac, where her father has accepted a new position with State Farm. Mueller, who was a second team all-BCR pick, has been up with the varsity since her freshmen season and a major part of Davis’ rebuilding plan.
Davis joked he should be getting an early Christmas card from the Pontiac coach.
Mueller plans to play for the Indians basketball and volleyball teams at Pontiac. Her family will be moving to Pontiac in late June, including incoming freshman Brett and sixth-grader Brandi.
• Recruiting front: Four Princeton players are weighing their options for college ball. Jon Fisher has decided on Aurora University and teammates Derek Wagner and Brandon Dressler could join him. Wagner is also keeping an eye on Illinois College in Jacksonville, and Dressler is looking at Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee.
PHS’ Garrett Youngren is looking into playing basketball for St. Ambrose University and a hoops and football combo for Knox and Monmouth colleges.
St. Bede’s Sam Galas, the BCR’s co-Player of the Year, will sign with Kishwaukee College on Tuesday morning to play basketball.
Hall senior Sara Smoode will turn in her sneakers to play softball at Sauk Valley. She will have a signing Monday morning at Hall.
LaMoille’s Luke DeLong signed Friday morning to play hoops or Tony Tompkin’s Judson College Eagles in Elgin. Teammates Matt and Jesse Monroe visited Sauk Valley this week.
