Roll call of Bureau County kids heading to college

No fewer than 23 area freshmen will be heading off for their first taste of collegiate sports this upcoming school year.

Here’s a look at the class of 2023 who have signed to play in the college ranks:

Bureau Valley - Three BV products are heading north to Sauk Valley College - Isaac Attig in baseball, Cooper Balensiefen in basketball and Jillian Hulsing in track.

Elijah House will run cross country/track at Heartland College in Normal. He was the BCR Cross Country Runner and Male Track Athlete of the Year.

Coe College is turning a double play of Sams from Bureau Valley, Sam Rouse and Sam Wright, who will play baseball for coach Ryan Schisler’s alma mater in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Hall - Mac Resetich, the BCR Athlete of the Year, is going to Illinois on a football scholarship after his breakout senior season for the Red Devils.

Baseball teammates Kyler Lapp will play at Ohio Northern University in Ada, OH and Riley Coble is going to play for the College of DuPage.

Another Red Devil, Grant Plym, will tee it up for the IVCC golf team.

Princeton - The Tigers have the largest class of area schools going off to play collegiately with 10 athletes in five different sports.

Three Tigers will play basketball - Kolton Monroe at Black Hawk College, Olivia Gartin, the BCR co-Player of the Year at Sauk Valley and Grady Thompson, the BCR Player of the Year and PHS all-time leading scorer, at the University of Dubuque.

Two Tigers from the ball diamond will continue their baseball careers with Danny Cihocki going on to pitch for Lakeland College in Mattoon, and Ryan Brucker to play for Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg.

Teegan Davis, the BCR co-Football Player of the Year, is at the University of Iowa for football, rehabbing a knee injury during indoor track.

Isa Ibarra, a three-sport athlete at PHS, will play softball at Black Hawk.

Mariah Hobson, the BCR Soccer Player of the Year, will play soccer at Monmouth College after rehabbing from knee surgery. Teammate Emma Kruse-Carter will play soccer at Black Hawk.

Jaden Eggers will tee it up for the golf team at Adrian (Mich.) College.

St. Bede - Two Bruins golfers will tee up this fall at the college level, Brendan Pillion (Sauk Valley) and Jake Delaney (IVCC). Both were First Team All-BCR selections.

Addie Bontz, who helped the Bruins softball team win the IHSA Class 1A State Championship, will head to the Hilltop to play for IVCC.

Kevin Hieronymus has been the BCR Sports Editor since 1986. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com