Daily Chronicle Top 10 sports stories of 2023

Sycamore baseball said hello to Joliet. DeKalb and NIU grad Cole Tucker said hello to Canadian citizenship and a spot in the CFL. Three Genoa-Kingston volleyball players said goodbye to the school they helped lead to a state title. And NIU said goodbye to a legend.

We take a look at the top 10 sports stories in DeKalb County for 2023.

10. DeKalb hosts badminton state tournament for first time

The football state tournament left Northern Illinois University for Illinois State, but DeKalb picked up another year-end event – and it paid dividends for the local athletes.

No DeKalb County team played in a football state championship in the five years NIU hosted, but the DeKalb badminton team made history in the first year the Barbs hosted the state tournament.

The Barbs won a singles and doubles match at the state tournament for the first time, with Gwen Pfile going 1-2, matching the record of doubles team Kaitlyn Davis and Lea Guelde.

“We’re in DeKalb, so we have to travel a long time to go to these places,” Guelde said. “So it’s really nice close to home. And plus the familiarity of the courts is a really huge advantage. State is already super nervous going into it, but having something comforting you, like being here, is really nice.”

Almost 200 athletes from just shy of 60 schools were present at the two-day event hosted by DeKalb.

9. Sycamore playoff streak rolls on

Making the playoffs is nothing new for the Sycamore football team, which has qualified for all but one postseason since 2009.

But also during that stretch, they’ve been bounced in the first round of the playoffs only one time.

The Spartans won their sixth straight first-round game, beating Evergreen Park 42-13. They lost their second-round battle against Morgan Park 27-21 in a game they had a chance to win in the closing minutes. Sycamore had been a semifinalist each of the past two years.

“There’s a lot of sad kids in that huddle, and it’s because we work so hard and our expectations are so high,” Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. “They shouldn’t be sad about the effort they had preparing themselves to get to this point.”

Sycamore finished 9-2, their only other loss 22-14 to Morris, preventing them from winning the Kishwaukee River/Interstate 8 for the final time.

8. District vote fails again, but DeKalb and DVC have a contingency plan

Four conferences put before the IHSA a measure to eliminate conferences in football, instead going to a district system that, proponents said, would create stability by eliminating the need to chase after five wins to make the playoffs.

Both DeKalb’s DuPage Valley Conference and Sycamore and Kaneland’s Interstate 8 were among the conferences that proposed the measure, but it was outvoted by member schools in December 379-272.

In October, the DVC announced a football merger with the SouthWest Suburban Conference starting next year. The new league will be in three five-team divisions based on a combination of success and size. DeKalb will be in the smallest, the Green Division, with Bradley-Bourbonnais, Stagg, Waubonsie Valley and Lincoln-Way Central.

“They were at an odd number, and we’re always chasing games, so they approached us,” DeKalb athletic director Peter Goff said. “This was probably about three proposals, and we all agreed on this.”

The Interstate 8 and Kishwaukee River Conference were in a football-only merger that was in its final year this year. Sandwich and Plano left the I-8 for the KRC, leaving the I-8 at six schools for next year unless an alternative arrangement is found.

7. Girls wrestling takes off

The IHSA hosted its second girls wrestling tournament, but the 2023 event in Bloomington was the first time a local wrestler medaled.

Kaneland’s Brooklyn Sheaffer took sixth, the program’s first medal in its second year. DeKalb sent two down to Bloomington in its first year, with Reese Zimmer dropping her two matches and Alex Gregorio-Perez finishing a win away from a medal.

And the 2023-24 season has started even stronger. The Barbs have close to a full lineup on the girls side and hosted a multiteam dual round robin this year.

“I’m so proud of my team, especially the amount of girls we have and how the sport is growing,” Gregorio-Perez said. “Any team, you can see the numbers have duplicated since last year. It’s so amazing to watch.”

Genoa-Kingston also started its girls program. Freshman Violet Sanders became the first girl in school history to record a wrestling win.

6. Cole Tucker taken fourth in CFL draft

It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which someone applying for dual citizenship results in a spot on this list, but for Cole Tucker it did.

After his playing career at NIU came to a close, wrapping up almost a decade on DeKalb football fields between his standout career with the Barbs and then the Huskies, Tucker earned dual citizenship in Canada and the U.S.

That allowed him to be drafted by the Calgary Stampeders fourth overall.

“It’s exciting,” Tucker said. “I knew I was going to go around that area. It’s exciting to get your name called, be on the phone with your coach and everything. It was just how I expected it to be.”

He also had a tryout with the Minnesota Vikings but ended up in Calgary, where he made 14 catches for 192 yards and a touchdown. And next season he won’t be the only former Barb competing in the league. His former teammate, Tony Tate, was signed by the Edmonton Elks after playing in the European League of Football.

5. Genoa-Kingston volleyball reaches sectional with three D-I signees

Genoa-Kingston will on occasion send athletes to compete at NCAA Division I schools.

But the Cogs had three D-I athletes on a single team for years. And unsurprisingly that team had unparalleled success, including a state championship.

Hannah Langton, Alayna Pierce and Alivia Keegan signed with D-I teams in November, about a week after the Cogs lost to IC Catholic in a Class 2A Genoa-Kingston Sectional semifinal. It was a rematch of the 2022 state championship match, won by the Cogs.

“The first set was definitely hard for us, but I think we turned it around,” Keegan said. “I’m really proud of us for the way we fought. We had a really good season, didn’t go our way. But we still fought hard, and I got to play with my [best] friends ever, so it was a great time.”

The sectional was loaded with talent. In addition to the defending state champ and runner-up, Timothy Chrisitan was there. Both IC Catholic and Timothy Christian feature players who worked with Team USA over the summer. IC Catholic ended up second again at state.

4. Sycamore, Kaneland play memorable softball sectional semifinal

Two days. Three start times. Two sites.

It took a lot to finish the Class 3A Belvidere North softball semifinal between Kaneland and Sycamore, but after about 28 hours Sycamore was finally a 9-1 winner.

The game started May 31 in Belvidere, but the teams got in only half an inning before a lightning delay halted the game. They tried to go the next day, but again rain came. So now with a 1-0 Sycamore lead, and the final scheduled for Friday, they decided to drive down to Sycamore and play under the lights at the Sycamore Park District Field.

The Spartans ended up knocking off their rivals 9-1.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” said freshman Kairi Lantz, who drove in three runs on two fields in the win. “We started from the beginning – after getting rescheduled three times – we came back and did not lose our energy. I’m so proud of everybody.”

The Spartans came back the next day and won the sectional against Sterling, scoring two in the bottom of the seventh for a 6-5 win. They lost in a supersectional to Antioch.

3. NIU ends seven-game bowl skid

In 2021, NIU’s bowl skid reached seven games when what officials later admitted was a bad call prevented NIU one final shot at the end zone against Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl.

On Dec. 23 this year, the streak ended at seven games with a 21-19 win over Arkansas State in the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. The Red Wolves succeeded in recovering an onside kick while trailing by two points with about a minute left, but a controversial offside call forced them to rekick, with NIU’s Grayson Barnes grabbing the ball to secure the win.

“For these guys to win the game and walk off the field as champions is everything for our seniors, it’s everything for the guys coming back,” coach Thomas Hammock said after the win. “We knew the challenge of playing Arkansas State and what they bring. There were some chippy moments, but we kept our composure.”

It was NIU’s first bowl win since after the 2011 season, also against Arkansas State and also in Alabama, at the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The Huskies finished the year 7-6 after starting at 1-4 and falling to 4-6, needing wins in their final two games to even make a bowl. But the season, Hammock’s fifth, ended with a bowl win, a winning record and a win at Power Five foe Boston College.

2. Bill Baker retires

When the Huskies left the field after their Camellia Bowl win, Bill Baker wrapped up his 520th broadcast of an NIU football game.

It was also his last.

For 44 years the Air Force veteran was the voice of the Huskies in all sports at one point or another. He estimates he’s called several thousand games for NIU, including more than 1,200 basketball games.

“He loves the Huskies, he’s passionate about it. Things that he’s been able to do and say, talk about,” NIU athletic director Sean Frazier said. “Specifically. ‘Goodbye, Toledo.’ It’s my favorite. I’ll just say that because the passion that he brings to the table.”

Andy Garcia took over the men’s basketball call this year and will start calling NIU football games next season.

1. Sycamore baseball takes third at state

It took 25 years, but Jason Cavanaugh’s Spartans finally made the state tournament. And they didn’t let a loss to eventual state champ Nazareth derail them, bouncing back to beat Effingham in the third-place game.

“Obviously, we didn’t want to come here and lose two,” pitcher Lucas Winburn said. “We wanted to win it all. But to end on a win is definitely the way we wanted to end the season.”

The Spartans allowed four runs in 16 innings at the tournament, losing 3-0 to the Roadrunners in a semifinal. The Spartans pounded the ball all season and never scored fewer than three runs in a game.

And they could pitch, too. No team scored more than three runs off Sycamore in the postseason.