Pistol Shrimp, sports back to normal, titles made 2021 memorable

The last year certainly has been eventful for area sports.

Sports were different in the first half of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but started to get back to normal in the second half of the year.

Area football teams had plenty of success, some area programs ended long postseason droughts and a new baseball team came to the area among other stories we’ll remember from the past year.

Here’s a look at the NewsTribune’s top 10 sports stories of 2021:

1. High school sports return to normal

In 2020, the sports calendar was thrown off as sports such as football, volleyball and boys soccer were pushed from the fall of 2020 to the spring of 2021.

In the winter, spring and summer of 2021 shortened and altered seasons were jammed in for typical fall and winter sports.

But the spring sports got in a pretty normal season — although later in the year — that ended with a full postseason.

In the fall, all the typical sports went on as normal, starting at the typical time and playing through a full postseason.

The only thing out of the ordinary were mask requirements for indoor sports.

2. Pistol Shrimp come to Peru

Early in 2021, John Jakiemiec, owner of the Pistol Shrimp of Prospect League, was looking for a new home field for his team.

He located Peru on Google Earth, made some calls and came to an agreement to become the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp with Veterans Park in Peru as their home field.

The Shrimp, who previously played at Benedictine University in Lisle, went 24-36 in their inaugural season in Peru, averaging 600-700 fans per home game.

The Shrimp will return to Peru for the 2022 season after signing a use agreement with the city in October.

“We’re smiling from ear-to-ear knowing that we’re coming back,” Jakiemiec said in October when the 2022 agreement was announced. “But also, we are coming back knowing that we have so much more time to do things right and get the right sponsor packages and fan experience where we are not scrambling to solve just the problem in front of us.”

3. Area football teams have success over two seasons in one year

In a unique year, area football teams had the chance to play two different seasons.

And area squads racked up plenty of wins.

In the shortened spring season, Princeton (6-0), La Salle-Peru (5-0) and Fieldcrest (4-0) all went undefeated, while St. Bede was 5-1.

The Tigers, Cavaliers and Bruins carried their success over to the fall as well.

Princeton went 10-2, qualified for the playoffs for the third year in a row for the first time in school history and advanced to the Class 3A quarterfinals.

L-P went 5-5 and made the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 2003-04.

St. Bede went 8-3 and won a playoff game for the first time since 2016.

Also in the fall, Mendota went 5-5 after six consecutive seasons of one win or less and qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2014, while Amboy-LaMoille advanced to the Illinois Eight Man Football Association semifinals.

4. Mendota joins the Three Rivers Conference

After a decade playing in the Big Northern Conference, Mendota returned to a more local schedule by joining the Three Rivers Conference.

Fulton left the Three Rivers for the Northwest Upstate Illini, and Three Rivers officials extended an offer to Mendota.

The Big Northern allowed Mendota to leave the conference a year early, so the Trojans began competition in the Three Rivers in the fall of 2021.

With the move to the Three Rivers, Mendota renewed conference rivalries with Hall and Princeton and also now play St. Bede and Bureau Valley as conference foes.

“The biggest thing for us is it gets us some of those Illinois Valley rivalries back that we’ve been missing,” MHS superintendent Jeff Prusator said in March at a special school board meeting to approve the move. “It will be exciting to play St. Bede twice (in all sports but football), play Hall twice and play Princeton twice. We’ll be starting a new tradition with Sterling Newman. We had a long tradition with Kewanee when they were in the NCIC. It will be nice to get reacquainted with Kewanee as well. I don’t see a downside at all with joining this conference.”

5. Tom McGunnigal let go at St. Bede

Days before the season started, long-time St. Bede girls basketball coach Tom McGunnigal.

“Information has been brought to the attention of the administration that warrants a thorough investigation,” assistant principal and athletic director Nick McLaughlin said at the time. “We are committed to maintaining a positive, healthy and supportive learning environment for all students.”

In a letter dated Nov. 23, St. Bede superintendent Eve Postula informed parents Tom McGinnigal was no longer employed at the school as girls basketball coach or admissions director.

Postula did not respond to multiple requests for comment about why McGunnigal was let go.

McGunnigal, a 1988 St. Bede graduate, led the Bruins to a 434-242 record, eight regional championships and a sectional title and was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2019.

6. Bureau Valley’s Jade Aber wins state title in track and field

Bureau Valley senior Jade Aber entered the Class 1A state track and field meet as the favorite in the triple jump based on sectional performances.

She lived up to her top seed.

Aber leapt 11.13 meters to win the state championship. She is BV’s second individual female state champion, joining Alisa Baron, who won the 400 meters in 2008.

“It’s very nerve-wracking, because I feel like everybody’s looking at me,” Aber said. “I watch everybody, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re so good.’ For me, if I didn’t perform as I should have, then I would have been like, ‘Oh my God, I let so many people down.’”

7. Mendota boys soccer goes undefeated in regular season, wins sectional

The Mendota boys soccer team dominated all season.

The Trojans set a school record for goals scored and shutouts recorded as they rolled through the regular season undefeated.

Mendota won the Class 1A Serena Regional then beat Peoria Christian and state power Quincy Notre Dame in the IVC Sectional to capture the program’s first sectional championship.

After winning their first 23 games, the Trojans’ run came to an end with a 3-2 loss on penalty kicks to Bloomington Central Catholic in the BCC Supersectional.

“It’s hard to go out this way on PKs, but we’re 23-1 with every record possible at MHS and our first ever sectional,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “It’s going to be tough for them on the way home and they’ll be upset the rest of the week, but they’ll hold their heads high eventually. We had a heck of a season.”

8. St. Bede, Princeton end long droughts in volleyball

It was a long time coming for the St. Bede and Princeton volleyball programs.

The Bruins defeated Woodland 25-17, 25-20 to win the Class 1A Henry-Senachwine Regional, claiming the program’s second ever regional title and their first since 2001.

St. Bede coach Abbi Bosnich, who took over the Bruins before the spring 2021 season, was a player on St. Bede’s last regional champion 20 years ago.

Princeton snapped a 10-year regional championship drought as the Tigresses defeated Knoxville 25-16, 25-14 to claim the Class 2A Bureau Valley Regional.

9. L-P’s Carlie Miller advances to second day of state tennis

La Salle-Peru junior Carlie Miller went 3-1 on the first day of the Class 1A state tournament to advance to the second day.

Miller became the first L-P girls player to advance past the first day of the state tournament since Wendy Grabowski in 1998.

10. IVCC women’s tennis places third in nation

Behind a championship finish from No. 2 doubles team Brianna Strehl and Olivia Woods and three other top three finishes, IVCC placed third at the NJCAA Division III National Tournament in Peachtree, Ga.

The third-place finish matched the Eagles best at nationals as IVCC also placed third in 2016.

Oxford Emory racked up 33 points to win the national championship followed by Suffolk County (19) and IVCC (17).

Honorable mention: St. Bede baseball wins regional title, Princeton girls soccer wins sectional title, Fieldcrest’s Mason Stoeger places seventh at state cross country, IVCC men’s golf qualifies for nationals for second year in a row, St. Bede graduate J.A. Happ signs with Minnesota Twins, gets traded to St. Louis Cardinals.