Free Press Advocate

Student athletes who were on top of more than their game

Published by admin on Tue, 06/12/2018 - 3:13pm

    The Wilmington Wildcats had plenty of standout athletes on the field. But those who put it all together to be stars in the classroom, are the real MVPs.
    This week the Free Press Advocate takes a look at those senior athletes who excelled in the classroom as well as on the field.
JOSH JONES
    Josh Jones was a three-sport athlete who graduated with honors.

I-8 Conference names best in baseball, softball

Published by admin on Tue, 06/12/2018 - 3:10pm

    The Interstate Eight conference has named seven softball players to the All Conference team.
    Coal City has three players honored including Payton Smith, Leslie Youskevtch and Madison Emerson.
    Smith was a pitcher for the Lady Coalers compiling 130 innings over a long season while maintaining a 2.04 ERA and striking out 130 batters.
    Youskevtch ended her high school career on a high note. She stayed in control of her at bats all season with a .354 batting average, smacking two home runs while driving in 15 runs and crossing the plate 16 times herself.

Youngsters show their spiking skills

Published by admin on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 2:57pm

It’s that time of year when high school coaches get the opportunity to reach out to younger kids to teach them the fundamentals of sports.
    The Wilmington High School held a summer volleyball camp on Thursday and Friday for girls in kindergarten through eighth grades.
    The camp went from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. for fifth through eighth graders and  noon to 2 p.m. for the younger girls. In all, 62 future Lady Wildcats participated.

Go easy on ‘blue’

Published by admin on Tue, 05/29/2018 - 5:45pm

    For 110 years now the Wilmington Baseball Softball Association (WBSA) has been dedicated to teaching youth the fundamentals of baseball and softball.
    Included are about 30 teenagers who get to know the ins and outs of the game as umpires.
    It used to be the WBSA had mostly adults calling strikes and walks. But in recent history the popular youth league, encompassing 22 teams, has been recruiting young umpires and it works.
    Britton Roth, who has been  the WBSA’s umpire manager for nine years, says teen umps are perfect for the position.

Switzer, Ohlund reach State finals round in track

Published by admin on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 4:32pm

    Two of three Wilmington girls who qualified for the  Class 1A Girls Track & Field finals in Charleston, IL advanced to the finals round.
    Junior Autumn Switzer  placed 11th overall in the triple jump (35-03.75) on Saturday. She reached that qualifying distance in the prelims on Thursday to advance to the final round where there were 12 finalists.
    The winning distance for triple jump ended up being 38-00 set by Danielle Tiets of Orion. Placing fourth overall was Jaden Christian, a sophomore from Reed-Custer, with a distance of 37-00.50.

Three Lady ‘Cats qualify for state

Published by admin on Tue, 05/15/2018 - 4:41pm

The Wilmington girls track team finished fourth overall in the Seneca sectional, qualifying three Lady ‘Cats for state.
Wilmington junior Autumn Switzer finished first in high jump (5'0) and third in the triple jump(36') to qualify for state. She set a new school record in the triple jump.        
Claire Rink, a sophomore, finished second in the 400 meter dash (1:05.88) to qualify.
Freshman Alyssa Ohlund finished third in the high jump tied with Switzer's (5'), to qualify for state.     Ohlund made it because the 5’0” heighth was the minimum to advance.

Wildcat girls run in the middle of the pack

Published by admin on Tue, 05/08/2018 - 7:22pm

    The Wilmington girls track team was on the cusp of beating Coal City Thursday during the Interstate Eight Conference meet in Seneca.  
    Coal City and Wilmington finished with 38 points each but the Coalers got the edge due to second criteria.
    In the women’s relays, Seneca outdistanced the remaining I-8 teams with a 185 score. Sandwich came in second with 131.5 points while Herscher (82), Reed-Custer (79) and Plano (52.5) finished third through fifth.
    For the Wilmington girls, they ended up placing seventh overall out of 12 teams. Coal City was sixth

‘Cats inch closer to conference best with recent wins

Published by admin on Tue, 05/01/2018 - 5:31pm

The Wilmington Wildcats beat the Bulldogs thanks to a three-run seventh inning in a 4-2 win.           

 

After four scoreless frames of good pitched baseball, scoring finally began.                   

The Wilmington (12-8)  bats scored first in the top of the fifth to get it started scoring one.                 

A wild pitch scored Brock Bolser bearing down the line at third to give the 'Cats the lead.               

Streator got one back in the bottom half to tie it.             

They scored another in the sixth to take the lead.          

Wildcats win five of their last six

Published by admin on Tue, 04/24/2018 - 7:14pm

By Shawn Long
staff writer
    The Wilmington Wildcats had a big fifth inning to leap frog over Peotone in a 9-3 win Monday.
    Scoring happened in the first inning when Peotone tallied two in the top half.
    The ‘Cats (8-8 overall) got one back in the bottom half of the inning when Conner Dempsay would score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Josh Jones to narrow the deficit to one.
    Peotone answered with a run in the second inning to extend the lead to 3-1.

Long joins FPN news staff

Published by admin on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 5:20pm

Shawn Long, of Wilmington, has joined the Free Press Newspapers to help cover high school sports.
    He is a graduate of Illinois State University where he majored in broadcast journalism and was a television sports reporter on the campus news station, TV-10 News.
    Long graduated from Wilmington High School in 2011, and went on to attend Joliet Junior College, where he originally wanted to be an architect. He took a couple of journalism classes and it was a fit.