All Conference selections for the high school spring sports were just published! Many Olympia athletes earned conference and state rankings. Congrats to all athletes!

Many recent Olympia High School grads are going on to pursue athletics in college. From a class of only 86 students, 5 females and 4 males will be continuing their athletic careers. Most of them will be staying right here in Illinois, with just a few moving over to the bordering states. 

The sports season for OHS in the 2021-2022 school year concluded on Friday. Friday was the state track & field meet for our boys' team. The boys competed in the prelims on Friday but did not end up making it to the finals on Saturday. The qualifying 3200-meter team consisted of Anthony Ragland, Cooper Phillips, Owen Dare, and Brad Schardan. Owen and Brad wanted to save their energy for the 800 so the alternates, Logan Demling and Caden Clark ran instead. The team ran an 8:42.37 relay. Then, Brad Schardan ran the 800-meters at a personal best time of 2:00.20. Owen Dare was right behind him with a time of 2:00.26. Then, Keagan Uphoff did the 300-meter hurdles and had a time of 44.40. With Keagan being just a sophomore, he has a lot more potential to advance further in the coming years. He is off to a great start and ready for more! 

This was regional week for the softball and baseball teams! To begin, the baseball team played Clinton on Monday night, coming away with a 3-2 win. This advanced them to play Pontiac on Thursday. The Spartans were not as good as Pontiac’s baseball team and lost 1-14. Pontiac is now going to the regional championship game on Monday vs Tremont. Olympia High School hosted all these regional baseball games. The high school baseball season has now ended and the boys are ready to play travel ball. The baseball program is grateful for finally having a full season that was very fun and memorable, too!

Post-season for Olympia High School athletics is coming into full gear. Just this week Girls Track and Field competed in their IHSA Sectional Meet. Anna Beiber qualified for State at the meet with a time of 2:21.68, just 2 seconds under the state qualifying time. Melissa Bieber just barely missed the qualifying time by .29 seconds with a 47.98 in the 300 hurdles, which is less than a second off the school record. Boys Track and Field will compete in their Sectional this coming week on the 18th.

The Spartans started off the week with a win. The girls' soccer team played Decatur Lutheran for their senior night. But, instead of the traditional senior night, they had a foreign exchange student night. The three girls include Kaat Biskanter, Lea Gersdorf, and Sofia del Val. The soccer team won with a score of 4-1. Raquel Birky earned a hat trick. Brooke Rogers also scored a goal. Assists by Tarah Hilt, Grace Birkey, Kensie Kleinschmidt, and Andi Ewalt. Congrats on such a fun game! They had three more games this week too. It was a tie against IVC 2-2, a loss of 0-4 against St. Thomas More, and a lose 1-8 against Bloomington.

The Boys Track and Field Team started off their week successfully in Heyworth with multiple first-place finishes. Owen Dare got first in the 400, Caden Clark got first in the 3200, Keagan Uphoff placed first in the 110 and 300 hurdles, and the 4x200 team came in first as well as the 4x400 and 4x800 teams. In the high jump, Olympia took the top two spots with Chase Litwiller in first and Keagan Uphoff in second, and Chase Ragar placed first in the boy’s triple jump. 

The softball team was keeping busy this week. They began at Pontiac on Tuesday, coming away with a 2-0 hard-fought win. Shelby Finchum had a great fake throw to turn into a double play, keeping the Indians scoreless. Danika Frazier followed this with a 2-run home run. The JV team then picked up a 7-1 victory. On Thursday, the girls had a home game against rival Central Catholic. They won 10-0, scoring all 10 runs in the last inning. A double by Kat Springer started the rally by scoring Jordyn Turner. Other highlights include Shelby Finchum hitting a grand slam and a 2-run homer by Julia Winterland. On the defensive side, Danika Frazier threw a 2-hitter while striking out 10. JV softball followed with a 6-5 win. Saturday was a big tournament at Mt. Zion with at least 3 varsity softball games for the Spartans!

With lots of meets and games throughout the week, Olympia High School athletes had an eventful, and successful, week. Track and Field had first-place finishes at the Metamora Coed Invite with Brad Schardan in the 400-meter, Owen Dare in the 800-meter, a boys 4x400 meter relay, a boys 4x800 meter relay, a girls 4x800 meter relay, and had a third-place finish from Anna Bieber in the 800 meter. The boy’s track and field team continued their success at the Monticello Invite with Owen Dare once again finishing first in the 800-meter, the 4x400 relay team getting a first-place finish, a second-place finish in the 4x800 relay, and Keagan Uphoff achieved third in the 300-meter.

Olympia High School athletics had a successful week as many teams picked up wins throughout the week. Starting with girls’ track and field, the team placed 3rd out of 17 teams at the overnight meet in Greenville with only 4 points separating them from first. To achieve this placing the girls brought home 25 medals with Amelia Kistner finishing first in the 2-mile, Anna Bieber finishing second in the 800, Abby Litwiller placing third in the mile, Hannah Cleveland getting third in shot-put, Melissa Bieber finishing third in both the triple jumps and 400, Kourtney Fann placing 3rd in the 300 hurdles, and Chrystal Cornwell, Madison Bales, Anna Bieber, and Kaylie Dare got third in the 4x800.

Back from winter sports, Taylor Nowaskie earned yet another basketball accomplishment. She made it on the Pantagraph All-Area girls’ team. Taylor is at the top of the area team averaging 24.7 points per game. 

Cold weather, rain, and harsh winds prevented many Olympia High School sports from competing this week with many of the games being canceled. Olympia boys and girls track and field didn’t face these cancellations due to their indoor season. Just this week four members of the boy’s team qualified for the Class 2A Illinois Top Times Indoor Championship Track meet held at Wesleyan’s Shirk Center. Of these members are seniors Owen Dare and Brad Schardan who will run the 800 and 400-meter races and will also be competing with sophomore Keagan Uphoff and freshmen Cohen Alexander in the 1600 meter relay. From the girl’s team, Anna Bieber qualified for Illinois Top Times in the 400-meter dash and will also be competing at the Wesleyan Shirk Center.

Softball opening day was on Monday at Tri-Valley High School. Both the JV and varsity teams came out with big wins this night! Shelby Finchum and Casey Wissmiller both hit home runs, too! The final score for varsity was 16-2. On Thursday, the softball team played their home opener game against Brimfield. Varsity had a walk-off win in the bottom of the 8th inning with a score of 2-1. The Spartans overcame Brimfield in this game with 11 hits, 2 runs, and 0 errors compared to Brimfield with 3 hits, 1 run, and 2 errors. 

With all of the winter sports having come to a close, within the next few weeks spring sports will be starting up. These sports at OHS include; softball, baseball, girls soccer, and girls and boys track and field. Many of these spring sports had successful seasons last year that will hopefully transfer into this year’s season.

Spring sports for Olympia High School are officially underway. Olympia offers baseball, softball, girls’ track and field, boys’ track and field, and girls’ soccer at this time. All of these sports welcome athletes in each grade to participate at their appropriate level. 

All winter sports at Olympia High School have officially come to a close. Starting within these coming weeks Olympia’s spring sports will startup, all of which include; softball, baseball, Boy’s and Girl’s Track and Field, and Girl’s Soccer.

Monday night the freshman boys’ basketball team traveled to Tolono Unity to begin their end of the season tournament. Olympia played Tolono Unity in the first game. More tournament games were to be played later in the week, but were postponed due to weather. Therefore, the tournament should conclude on Saturday. 

As winter sports are coming to an end IHSA Regionals and Sectionals are fast approaching. The Boy’s Basketball team started the week with a win against IVC on Tuesday with a score of 53-49. On Thursday they faced Central Catholic where they put up a good fight, staying a few points away from Central throughout the third quarter, but couldn’t get it together to pull through a win and lost 48-69. The team has two more games before they start regionals on the 19th where they will play DeeMack to start. They lost a close game to DeeMack earlier in the season, 39-45, so hopefully they can pull through and gain a win in their first regional game.

Saturday, January 29th, was the start to a girls basketball tournament at Central Catholic for local JV teams. Olympia lost the first games in the tournament and are no longer competing for a trophy. The girls’ varsity basketball team competed in a crossover shootout between the Illini Prairie and Sangamo conferences. Olympia was lined up to play Williamsville based on conference rankings. A close back and forth game resulted in a loss of 59-61 for the Spartans, though. Monday night, the girls hosted IVC. This was senior night for Erin Dederich, Taylor Nowaskie, and Casey Wissmiller. The JV was very competitive and got the crowd all pumped up already going into double overtime. But, the Spartans were able to pull ahead and come out with a 38-31 JV win. Then, everyone was excited for the varsity game and senior night to begin. The whole team played very well together and won 60-36. Taylor Nowaskie had an outstanding game, scoring 32 points for the Spartans. This made her the Olympia High School Girls’ Basketball All-Time Leading Scorer. She also signed to play college basketball at Lincoln Land Community College that night!

Going 3 for 4, the Girls Basketball team has had a busy week. They started off at Peoria Manual where they won 57-33 on Saturday the 22nd. Then on Monday, they got a tough loss against St. Joseph Ogden 40-50. They then faced East Peoria on Tuesday, winning 59-20, and then faced Pontiac and won 61-48. Also, this week senior Taylor Nowaskie, who just recently passed the 1,000 point mark for high school career points scored, has now passed her mom, Mandy (Bryan) Nowaskie, and has taken over the #2 spot on the All-Time Girls Basketball Career Scoring List.

This week was very busy with sporting events for Olympia High School. Every day there was at least one competition going on, with multiple on many days. 

Olympia High School’s athletics had a successful week with the majority of the teams adding wins to their record and competing well throughout their games and meets.

Over winter break, Olympia boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball had the opportunity to participate in the State Farm Holiday Classic tournament. There were 4 brackets and classifications of games played. Both Olympia teams were in the small school brackets. 64 teams total came to Bloomington-Normal for one of the best basketball tournaments in Illinois. 

The American League MVP race is going to be a close one between two players who have both had historic seasons. The Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani has been one of the most fascinating players since coming to the United States from Japan in 2018. Ohtani is a two-way player, meaning he can hit and pitch. Right now, Shohei is one of a kind in the MLB, making him that much more special. Many people say that there hasn’t been any other player in the history of baseball that can pitch and hit at the level that Ohtani is doing it at right now. As of Tuesday, September 28th, Shohei has 45 home runs and a 9-2 record and a 3.18 ERA in his 23 starts for the Angels. Ohtani has been very impressive but someone who has been having an MVP season as well is Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. As the only player in the MLB with more home runs than Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., or Vladdy, has also had an impressive season. Vladdy currently leads all the MLB in homeruns, runs, and total bases and leads the American League in hits, on base percentage and slugging percentage. So how will there possibly be a decision between these two guys who have both had incredible seasons?

Austin Swan is this week’s Olympia Athlete of the Week. Austin is from Hopedale and will be a senior this year at Olympia. Since his freshman year, Austin has been on the varsity wrestling team and was a starter on the varsity football team in his sophomore season. As a senior, Austin is looking to have another successful year in sports, as he will be back out on the field and on the mat this fall and winter. 

On Tuesday night, Stephen Curry broke Hall of Famer Ray Allen’s all-time record for the most three-pointers in NBA history. Coming into the game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Steph only needed two threes to break the record. About halfway through the first quarter, Curry made a 28-foot jump shot that put him ahead of Ray Allen in threes. Allen, who finished his career in 2014, held the previous record with 2,973 three-pointers. In the 13th season of his great career, Steph leads the NBA with 142 threes made this season and he now is the NBA’s all-time three-point king. In 2015, Curry set the record for the most threes made in a single season, making 402. 

This week has been a rough week for Olympia High School sports. Many students are sick, injured, or quarantined so they are unable to play. Thus, the week was much lighter with sports and activities going on. 

This college football season has been anything but normal. With College Football Playoff mainstays like Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma not even reaching their conference championship games, college football fans knew that the Playoff would probably look different this year. Even Alabama was at risk of not making it to the College Football Playoff before they took down the undefeated, number one ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game, locking in a trip to the CFP for the seventh time in eight years. Alabama was the underdog in this game for the first time in 93 games, but the College Football Playoff was not about to crown a national champion without having the Crimson Tide in the mix. There are still three fairly unfamiliar faces in the CFP this year with number two Michigan, number three Georgia, and number four Cincinnati. Georgia has made the Playoff one time before, but both Michigan and Cincinnati are in for the first time. All four of these teams are clearly very talented, making it to the top four and having the opportunity to play for a national championship, but which team will come out on top?

To start off the week, girls’ basketball had a home game against Heyworth. JV had a nice win of 37-17. The varsity also won 57-32. Leading scorers were Taylor Nowaskie with 23 points and Hannah Cleveland with 17 points. Wednesday night, the freshman team traveled to St. Joseph-Ogden and came out with a win. Thursday was an away game at Tremont. Since this game was much closer in distance, the Spartans had a fan section of students. Again, the JV team won by a lot. The varsity girls also lead throughout the whole game and came away with a 66-54 win. This advances the team to eight wins and only two losses. They begin conference play with home games on both Monday and Thursday of this coming week. On Saturday morning, the freshman girls played a home game against Normal Community and lost 29-52.

Olympia High School’s winter sports are now in full motion, most having begun their season last week and continuing into this week. Multiple of the teams have had early successes, showing promise for the season to come.

The college football world was shaken up last Sunday afternoon after Oklahoma Sooners head coach, Lincoln Riley, announced that he will be the head coach at the University of Southern California next season. After last weekend’s loss to the Sooners’ rival, Oklahoma State, Riley was asked to comment on the many rumors that he was set to become the next head coach at Louisiana State University. Before the inquiring reporter could even finish his question, Riley stopped him and said, “Let me stop you right there, I’m not going to be the next coach at LSU.” Oklahoma’s loss last weekend was their first loss to Oklahoma State since 2014 and the Sooners will be missing the Big 12 championship game for the first time since 2003. Although this was a devastating loss for Oklahoma, Riley’s postgame interview gave the Sooners’ fans hope that their successful young coach would be staying in Norman. Unfortunately for them, Riley had other plans. He didn’t lie to his team and his fans at Oklahoma in his postgame interview, he just didn’t tell them the whole truth. 

The National Football League has been playing games on Thanksgiving Day since its inception in 1920. The NFL’s Thanksgiving Day games have traditionally included one game hosted by the Detroit Lions since 1934, one game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys since 1966, and a third prime-time game has been played since 2006. This prime-time game has no fixed host and features different teams every year, mainly consisting of division rivals ever since 2012. This year the Lions host the Bears, the Cowboys host the Raiders, and the primetime game will be the Bills against the Saints in New Orleans. Since the NFL has been playing games on Thanksgiving Day, there has only been one team to not play on the holiday, the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

To finish up the Turkey Tussle tournament, the Varsity girls’ basketball team played against Riverton on Thursday. This game was a close battle the whole night, with the Spartans pulling ahead with the win by just one point. The Olympia Spartans then advanced to the third-place game at Clinton High School on Saturday. From the other bracket, Olympia matched up against Clinton. After a long game, Clinton pulled away with the win by just a few points. 

In these next coming weeks winter sports at Olympia are beginning to start. The Girls’ Basketball team started their first week of games this week, coming out of it with a win and loss for both the Varsity and Freshmen teams. The Varsity team played TCSV on Monday and won 57-29 and then played Mt. Pulaski on Tuesday losing 45-54. The Freshmen team played Metamora on Tuesday and ended up losing  20-45. They finished their week off on Thursday playing Lincoln and winning the game by four points. The JV Girls’ team hasn’t played yet, but so far the girls are off to a good start. This weekend the Varsity team has a tournament at Clinton and then they will play Athens on Monday.

The National Football League has been playing games on Thanksgiving Day since its inception in 1920. The NFL’s Thanksgiving Day games have traditionally included one game hosted by the Detroit Lions since 1934, one game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys since 1966, and a third prime-time game has been played since 2006. This prime-time game has no fixed host and features different teams every year, mainly consisting of division rivals ever since 2012. This year the Lions host the Bears, the Cowboys host the Raiders, and the primetime game will be the Bills against the Saints in New Orleans. Since the NFL has been playing games on Thanksgiving Day, there has only been one team to not play on the holiday, the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

The 2021-2022 college basketball season is just about under way and the Illinois State Redbirds are poised for a bounce back season after going 7-18 last year. The Birds have three out of their five starters returning and eleven out of their fifteen letterwinners returning for this upcoming season. Having that many players returning is always a plus, especially when two of them are Antonio Reeves and Josiah Strong. Last season, Reeves and Strong both averaged double digit points per game. Reeves averaged 12.4 points per game and had 82 rebounds and 36 assists while making starts in 24 out of the 25 games Illinois State played last season. Strong averaged 11.5 points per game, made 37 percent of his three pointers, and had 59 assists. With these productive playmakers returning for Illinois State and a handful of key new guys coming in, the Birds could have an exciting 2021-2022 season. 

On Friday evening, the Dee-Mack Booster Club hosted a Winter Meet the Chiefs event at the Mackinaw High School. The evening started at 5:00 P.M. with an introduction to the Mackinaw High School band, who then played the National Anthem followed by the Dee-Mack School Fight Song. The Spirit Team was also introduced, followed by the Scholastic Bowl team. Next, the wrestling team rolled out 2 of their mats and the 8 wrestlers split off into pairs and gave Dee-Mack fans a quick exhibition of the drills they run during practice, before being introduced. The wrestling team is coached by Timothy Thomas and their first meet is on Tuesday November 30th, at 5:30 P.M., at home.

Friday night was Spartan Night at Olympia High School for a winter sports preview to parents and spectators. To begin the night, the pep band played the National Anthem. Directly after, cheer and dance performed the school song. All teams were dressed in uniform for team, individual, and senior banner pictures. Then, Mike Castleman, Olympia High School's Athletic Director, recognized the speech team. These students were responsible for announcing all individual players and teams for the winter sports season. The night finished with various scrimmages of boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, and wrestling. 

As the fall season of sports dies down, many sports and activities at Olympia High School have reached their post-season. Last Saturday the 30th the Boys and Girls Cross Country teams both competed in their sectional meet. At this meet, the Boys Team took second with Owen Dare finishing 10th and Carter Phillips finishing 21st. The Girls Team finished 3rd overall with Anna Bieber taking 15th and Abby Litwiller taking 21st.

On Tuesday night, the Atlanta Braves won the World Series in game six against the Houston Astros. This is the Braves first World Series Championship since 1995 and their 4th championship in franchise history. This Atlanta Braves team was an exciting team to watch for all baseball fans, not just Braves fans. With guys like Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Joc Pederson and the World Series MVP Jorge Soler, this team was easily likeable. The combination of a bunch of guys that are easy to root for and a great story to this season made it seem like all of baseball’s fans were pulling for the Braves, except maybe Astros fans. 

Last Sunday, in Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers rolled the Chicago Bears 38-3, and improved their record to 6-1. The Bucs have been having a great start to their season, with some impressive wins and their only loss coming to a very strong Los Angeles Rams team. Tom Brady has definitely made his impact on the Buccaneers, already winning them their second Super Bowl in franchise history last season, in only his first season with the team. Already this season with the Bucs, Brady has made history in the recordbooks with two incredible passing records. In week four, the Buccaneers traveled to Brady’s home for his first twenty years in the NFL, New England. Going into the game against the Patriots, Brady needed only 68 passing yards to surpass Drew Brees’ all time career passing yards record of 80,358 yards. It didn’t take long for Brady to set the record, as he completed a 28 yard pass to Mike Evans in the first quarter. The Buccaneers would also end up beating the Patriots in what could have been Brady’s final game in New England. Brady also joined a group of only three other quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Brett Favre as the only quarterbacks that have beaten every team in the NFL. It was quite the historic night for Tom Brady in his homecoming game against the Patriots. 

Football playoff time is upon us once again as our Dee-Mack Chiefs hosted The North Lawndale College Prep High School (Phoenix) on Saturday afternoon. North Lawndale received the initial kickoff and quickly found themselves punting. Lucas Blumeyer received and ran the ball back about 30, leaving the Chiefs with excellent field position. Brent Denniston was repeatedly used to march the ball down the field, with Blumeyer getting into the end zone on a very impressive reverse to the left. The 2 point conversion attempt was no good. 

To conclude the high school football season, the JV team traveled to El-Paso Gridley Monday night. This was a Varsity preview game for next year for both schools. The Spartans finished strong with a 50-8 win. Good job to all the players, coaches, and fans. The loyal support of our football teams does not go unnoticed.

The NBA season has just recently gotten underway, with games tipping off this past Tuesday. The Chicago Bulls, a team with a lot of excitement and anticipation, started their season on Wednesday against the Pistons. Bulls fans have many reasons to have faith in this newly assembled team. After an offseason filled with roster changes, there are going to be plenty of new faces playing in Chicago, many of which will see plenty of playing time or even be starters for the Bulls in the 2021-2022 season. A couple major additions that the Bulls made in the offseason included DeMar DeRozan from Toronto, Lonzo Ball from New Orleans, Derrick Jones from Portland, Alex Caruso from the Lakers, and Ayo Dosumnu from the University of Illinois. All of these additions showed Bulls fans that the management thinks that Chicago can win right now. In the past couple of years, the Bulls have had their struggles, finishing the last five seasons with a winning percentage under .500. When the Bulls decided to trade Jimmy Butler in 2017, Chicago knew that they were heading into a rebuilding stage. The Bulls future pretty much depended on the progression of Zach Lavine. While Lavine was a solid scorer during each of his first three seasons with the Bulls, he took his game to another level last season. He averaged a career best 27.4 points per game last season. The Bulls will look to Lavine to lead the team to their first postseason appearance since 2017. 

To kick off the week of OHS activities, on the 16th the Boys and Girls Cross Country teams both competed in the St. Anthony Invite. In this meet, most of the girls and boys from the teams placed in the top forty. The Boys Team got first overall in this meet and the Girls Team got second overall. 
    
The Girls Swim team had a meet at Porta High School where the team did really well. Isabelle Forrest got first in the 200 IM and the team also got first and second in the 200 Medley Relay. Just like many other fall sports, their postseason is fast approaching with their sectional meet two weeks from now. With only a few weeks left of normal meets, the season will soon come to an end and winter sports will be starting.

The Dee-Mack Chiefs suffered a loss against the Eureka Hornets at home Friday night, with a final score of 29-20. The Chiefs started the game with possession of the ball and marched up the field to Eureka’s 22-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. Eureka fired back with an 85-yard touchdown reception and extra point kick for an early 7-0 lead. Not to be outdone, The Chiefs had multiple runs up the middle, resulting in a touchdown. The 2-point conversion was good, putting the Chiefs in the lead 8-7.

The NHL season has just gotten started this week, with the first matches being played on Tuesday. The Chicago Blackhawks are looking for a bounce back season after finishing one game under .500 in their shortened 2021 campaign. The Blackhawks really struggled with holding onto a lead last season. The one, two or even three goal leads that the Blackhawks failed to maintain last season was enough to drive their fans crazy. Another lead that they failed to maintain last season was their standing in the central division. At the beginning of March, nearly two months into the season, the Blackhawks were only three games back from first place, sitting at fourth in the division. By the end of the season, Chicago ended up finishing sixth in the division and twelve games out of first place. That was quite the drop-off for a team that looked like they could legitimately compete for a spot in the NHL Playoffs. Although the overall season was not a “success”, there were plenty of positives that came from Chicago’s 2021 season. Kevin Lankinen emerged as a potential long-term goalie option, Patrick Kane showed that he is still a great player and Alex DeBrincat rebounded from a subpar 2019-2020 season and turned into a star. 

The Olympia High School Homecoming Court was announced. 

This week was a busy week for the Spartans with Homecoming Week going on and multiple activities having games. Boys and Girls Cross Country ran in the Illinois Prairie Conference meet which was held at Olympia. In this race, the Boy’s team placed second overall. They finished off the week on Saturday with the Metamora Runnin Red Invitational. The Boy’s team got eleventh overall and the Girl’s team got sixth.