Teams and schedule set for the 2024 Toyota of Danville Classic

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

St. Joseph-Ogden's Coy Taylor tries to force a turnover while playing defense on Oakwood's Brody Taflinger in the 2023 Toyota of Danville Classic championship game. SJO beat the Comets, the number one team from Pool A, 74-42.

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ST. JOSEPH - Months away, the eight-team lineup for this year's Toyota of Danville Basketball Classic was released earlier this week. The annual early season hoops tournament opens at St. Joseph-Ogden High School on December 2, and the championship games will take place five days later on December 7.

New to the tournament this year, Kankakee Bishop McNamara will join Cissna Park, Oakwood, and Paxton-Buckley-Loda in Pool A.

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

Charleston's Mikey Myers and ALAH's Colin Smith go up for a rebound at last year's pool play. The Trojans defeated the Knights, 59-26.

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Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond, Charleston, and Watseka return to Pool B with last year's champions St. Joseph-Ogden. The Spartans defeated Oakwood in the title game in the high school's main gym, 74-42.

Once again, spectators and basketball fans can expect 16 exciting, fast-paced games with the return of the 35-second shot clock.

Admission fees for this year's tournament are $5 for adults and $3 for students. Tickets will be available at the ticket booth at the main entrance before each game.

2024
Toyota of Danville Classic Schedule

Pool A:
Cissna Park
Oakwood
PBL
Kankakee Bishop McNamara

Pool B:
Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond
Charleston
St. Joseph-Ogden
Watseka

Monday, 12/2/24:
5:00 PM: Kankakee Bishop McNamara vs. Oakwood
6:30 PM: ALAH vs. St. Joseph-Ogden
8:00 PM: Cissna Park vs. PBL

Tuesday, 12/3/24:
5:00 PM: Charleston vs. ALAH
6:30 PM: Watseka vs. St. Joseph-Ogden
8:00 PM: Oakwood vs. PBL

Wednesday, 12/4/24:
5:00 PM: Watseka vs. Charleston
6:30 PM: PBL vs. Kankakee Bishop McNamara
8:00 PM: Oakwood vs. Cissna Park

Friday, 12/6/24:
5:00 PM: Cissna Park vs. Kankakee Bishop McNamara
6:30 PM: ALAH vs. Watseka
8:00 PM: Charleston vs. St. Joseph-Ogden

Saturday, 12/7/24:
1:00 PM: 7 th Place Game
2:30 PM: 5 th Place Game
4:00 PM: 3 rd Place Game
5:30 PM: 1 st Place Game

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Back together again! PBL joins the Illini Prairie Conference

By way of an overwhelming decision three days ago, Paxton-Buckley-Loda's bid to join downstate Illinois' premier prep sports conference was unanimously approved school administrators.

PBL, the league's first expansion team of sorts and the 11th school in the conference, joins St. Joseph-Ogden, Unity, Monticello, Rantoul, Prairie Central, Pontiac, Olympia, Central Catholic, St. Thomas More and Illinois Valley Central to make up the Illini Prairie Conference starting in the fall 2021.

Download this photo Spartan defensive back Cole Berry picks off a pass intended for Panther receiver Matt Poll in the second half of their game on August 29, 2017. St. Joseph-Ogden, ranked #1 in Class 3A in The Associate Press pre-season poll, went on to defeat Paxton-Buckley-Loda in their non-conference battle, 27-7. The Spartans and Panthers will face each other once again under the Friday night lights starting in 2021. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

The Panther athletic program is a comfortable fit in the void that left the football schedules of nine teams open when St. Thomas More announced in January that they would move to 8-man competition. The Sabers will stay in the conference competing in all the remaining sports they offer.

Four schools applied for the opening after conference commissioner Brad Allen, a former teacher and coach at St. Joseph-Ogden High School, announced the IPC was looking for another program to help round out the conference football schedules.

The Panthers, with an enrollment of 472 this year, were already scouting a new conference affilation to compete with schools with similar number of students. They will leave the Sangamon Valley Conference after a 31-year run in a year from this May.

"I think the Illini Prairie has a lot to offer. A lot of conference schools has three levels of volleyball, freshman, junior varsity and varsity football and junior varsity and varsity baseball," PBL athletic director Brock Niebuhr told the Ford County Chronicle. "From that standpoint, I’m excited that we’ll be able to, hopefully, be able to step right in and compete. That’s what our goal is. I’m looking forward to doing that.”

From a scheduling standpoint, PBL was also an easy choice for many of the IPC athletic directors.

"For other sports, we will simply go to an 11 team conference schedule, kind of like what the Big Ten looked like from 1991-2011 when Penn State became the 11th conference team and before Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011," said St. Joseph-Ogden athletic director Justin Franzen. "We can now play 35 regular season volleyball, softball, and baseball games, 31 regular season boys and girls basketball games, 25 soccer matches. We already compete against PBL in almost every other sport that we offer, so adding a conference school just simply means that AD's need to adjust their schedules, which we do each year anyway."

Download this photo Panther running back Paul Bigham is brought down while running the ball in the second half. Bigham left the game after this play suffering a shoulder injury as he was brought down by the three Spartan defenders. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Head football coach Shawn Skinner noted the Panthers recent success on the gridiron, which includes qualifying for the Class 3A playoffs over the past five seasons, and the quality of their other their athletic programs such as basketball and cross country. Without a doubt PBL will raise the bar.

"Aside from football they compete well in all sports. I think it’s a solid fit for them to join the conference and maintain the high level of competitive balance in our league," Skinner pointed out. In regards to football he thinks PBL joining the conference is a great addition. "Their proximity is ideal and they are a similar school from a size standpoint."

St. Joseph-Ogden was able to fill the open week on Skinner's schedule relatively quickly inking a one-year deal with Nashville. With veteran quarterback Crayton Burnett coming back to lead the offense, the Spartans will open the 2020 season on road against last fall's 2A state runner-up.

Skinner said the Hornets will have "almost their entire starting team" back this fall.

"It will be a real challenge for us week one," Skinner added.

While SJO's open date was quickly filled in February, Franzen acknowledged some schools are still looking for a team to play.

Unity, one of the programs looking to replace the STM game, announced yesterday that they will travel 430 miles to Pierce City, Missouri, where they will play their week seven contest.

Hamilton, Behrens lead SJO's girls hoops in bounce back

After dropping Saturday's home game to visiting Morton on Saturday, the St. Joseph-Ogden girls team got back on track posting a 58-47 win over visiting Paxton-Buckley-Loda last night.

Dropping six points in the third quarter, Atleigh Hamilton shared team-high scoring honors with Abby Behrens with 12 points each against the Panthers.

The Spartans also received another strong performance from a pair of sophomores. Ella Armstrong and three-sport athlete Ashley Lannert also finished with double figures with 11 points apiece.

Armstrong and Behrens, also a sophomore, capitalized on each and every trip the free throw line. Combined, the sophomores duet finished 5-for-5.

The Spartans took an early advantage in their final home contest for 2019 going up 14-5 after the first quarter. SJO kept their foot on the gas scoring double digits the last three periods to win the non-conference contest.

Mackenzie Bruns led the Paxton-Buckley-Loda scoring effort with a game-high 15 points, all tallied in the first three quarters of the game. Teammate Kirra Lantz added another 10 points to the losing cause while junior Baylee Cosgrove booked another eight points.

The Spartans are on the road tonight picking on yet another big school program. SJO take on the Urbana, now under of the leadership of former St. Thomas More head coach Chris Mennig. The Tigers were 4-4 heading into their game against Peoria Notre Dame on Saturday.

Led by seniors Chian Scott and Raevyn Russell, both major scoring machines, Urbana is 1-1 against Illini Prairie Conference Teams. Unity rolled to a 59-49 win and the Tigers knocked off the Sages in Monticello 62-45 last week.

Box Score

St. Joseph-Ogden	14	11	18	15	- 58
Paxton-Buckley-Loda	5	14	14	14	- 47

Scoring

St. Joseph-Ogden: Ashlyn Lannert 11, Payton Jacob 6, Atleigh Hamilton 12, Abby Behrens 12, Taylor Barnes 4, Payton Vallee 2 and Ella Armstrong 11.

Paxton-Buckley-Loda: E. Adwell 6, Walder 4, Casgrove 8, Schwarz 2, Bruns 15, Lantz 10 and Ecker 2.

SJO beats PBL, tough volleyball schedule continues

(Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks) Lindsey Aden celebrates a point for SJO in the second set of the team's match against Paxton-Buckley-Loda. Aden tallied six digs in the 2-0 win by the Spartans. See more photos from this match here: SJO vs Paxton-Buckley-Loda.

The St. Joseph-Ogden volleyball is playing one of the most grueling portions of their 2019 schedule. SJO was back in action yesterday after a five-match day on Saturday and a match they cruised to victory in just 24 hours earlier on Monday to face Paxton-Buckley-Loda on Tuesday.

Kennedi Burnett led the Spartans with nine of the team 42 digs in an exciting defensive battle that tested the starting line-up's mental and physical resilience after playing six matches in three days.

Thanks to nine kills from middle blocker Lacey Kaiser, plus seven from Burnett and the same number from Katelyn Berry, SJO improved to 12-3 on the season after declawing the Panthers, 2-0.

Emily Bigger was credited with 26 assists.

And the tribulation isn't quite over yet. Tonight, in a few hours, the lady Spartans host Danville in a non-conference, non-division match-up before a well-deserved four day reprieve to heal and prepare for the next chapter in this year's campaign.

The St. Joseph-Ogden volleyball team will then play six matches in nine days starting next Monday, September 23, starting on the road at Urbana High School and ending with an Illini Prairie showdown at home versus Bloomington Central Catholic on October 2.

Left: Lacey Kaiser leaps above the net to attempt a block on a kill attempt by Paxton-Buckley-Loda's Jasmine Miles during second set action on Tuesday. Right: Emily Bigger sets the ball as teammate Katelyn Berry moves in position behind her. See, share or order photos from this match here: Spartans vs Panthers. (Photos: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Spartans crush the Turks in road win

On the warmest day so far this spring, Keegan McCarty helped the St. Joseph-Ogden baseball team earn their eight win of the season at the Clinton Varsity Baseball Invitational. The junior hurler, who gave up six hits, struck out three in the 11-1 victory on Saturday.

Adam Frerichs waits for a pitch in SJO's home game against Westville last week. The Spartans will alternate in home-away-home game schedule this week as they prepare for a deep postseason run later this spring. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Blake Primmer led the Spartans' offensive effort with 3 RBI and catcher Adam Frerichs pounded away a pair of hits in the first of two games at the Invite.

SJO has two home and one away contest on tap over the next seven days. Opening the week, Primmer & Co. will host the Rantoul Eagles on Monday at 4:30p in a regular season conference game. Then it's a road trip to Bloomington on Thursday for an Illini Prairie Conference battle against the Saints of Central Catholic.

The Spartans close out the week at the SJO sports complex with a visit from Paxton-Buckley-Loda on Friday.


Box Score:
SJO ___    200 102 6 11-6-1
Tremont     000 100 0  1-7-2


From the editor: The conference game canceled on April 4 with St. Thomas More has been rescheduled to Wednesday, April 24. First pitch is slated for 4:30p.