Mendota’s Kip Cheek recognized by IHSA as a Most Distinguished Media

MENDOTA - Kip Cheek has been a fixture covering Mendota High School sports since May of 1984.

He has covered state tournament teams and all-state athletes and champions in multiple sports at Mendota High School.

However, it’s the “purity and innocence” of the competition that draws him most to high school sports. He reflected on a football game where Mendota High School trailed by 40 points, but after recovering a fumble, “the entire defensive unit leaped in the air with joy and excitement. That moment to me is what personifies high school sports.”

On Tuesday, Cheek was recognized with the IHSA Distinguished Media Award prior to Mendota’s varsity basketball game with Rock Falls. He received the award at midcourt from Mendota principal Joe Masini and athletic director Brock Zinke on behalf of the IHSA’s Matt Troha, who was in attendance.

Cheek was one of five media members to receive this award this school year.

“I am truly humbled to be the recipient of such a prestigious award for doing something that I have loved for more than 40 years,” said Cheek, who has been supported by his wife Deb throughout his career.

“Covering high school sports is an honor and a privilege that I wouldn’t trade for any other career. Thank you to those who deemed me worthy of the IHSA Distinguished Media Award.”

Cheek has worn many hats at the Reporter, serving most recently as publisher and news editor. But his passion has always been sports since growing up in his hometown of Atlanta, Ill., where the neighborhood boys played sports nearly every day.

He once made a 75-foot shot at the halftime buzzer in the eighth grade district championship victory on his homecourt at Atlanta Grade School. He was the ace pitcher for the 1979 Olympia Corn Belt Conference champions, selected to play in the Bloomington Pantagraph All-Star Game.

Cheek started covering sporting events for the high school newspaper, the Olympia Torch, and realized he had found his passion.

“I loved playing sports, but realized I wasn’t going to be a professional, so writing about sports was the best way I knew to stay close to the games,” Cheek told the IHSA’s Troha.

While attending Illinois State University, he found a part-time job covering high school sports for the Pantagraph, thanks in part to fellow Olympia alumnus and Pantagraph writer Randy Kindred. Cheek graduated from ISU in 1983 and was hired by the Mendota Reporter one year later.

Cheek is one of four sportswriters from his small hometown Atlanta, including nationally renowned Dave Kindred, Randy Kindred and this reporter.