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MAC ON SPORTS: MAROA-FORSYTH FOOTBALL TROJANS ‘TEAM OF THE DECADE’

 

J. Thomas McNamara

     Before he began broadcasting a recent LSA Lions game in the recently-concluded 16th annual First Mid Bank and First Mid Insurance Group St. Teresa Christmas tournament, Cromwell Broadcasting’s Brett Zerfowski posed this question. “Who is your team of the decade?” asked Zerfowski, well aware of my interest in prep history as the Decatur Tribune sports editor of 44 years. Off the top of my head, I mentioned Maroa-Forsyth knowing how consistently Josh Jostes’ Trojans win in football, regardless of where they play Friday nights and on Saturday afternoons from week 10 through week 14. I advised him that I needed some additional time to do some more research since I was busy getting ready to covering that game and others for the Decatur Tribune.

     When I got home, one click of my home computer mouse came up with this information which the historian has saved. As Lee Corso would say on the “College Game Day” shows, “Not so Fast!” It is a good thing because I found that Todd Vohland’s St. Teresa lady Bulldogs won four straight cross-country championships in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. And their success led the Illinois High School Association to approve the “success factor” policy which penalizes successful non-boundaried schools. Couple those four cross-country titles, with Vohland’s girls track and field third place finishes in 2017-18 and 2018-19, the Bulldogs 2015 basketball Class 2A runnerup, their 2016 Class 1A football runnerup, Brad Dalton’s volleyball Class 1A third place and Class 2A championship seasons in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and the boys 2018 soccer third place makes St. Teresa my school of the decade, with Jostes’ football Trojans the “team of the decade” when only one sport is considered.

(Continued in this week’s online and print editions of the Decatur Tribune)

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