Mac On Sports

  As expected, Tarise Bryson and Sean Flaherty are the new MacArthur boys and girls basketball head coaches.     They were approved at Tuesday night’s Decatur Board of Education meeting.     And they were already on the job coaching that evening with Flaherty on the Generals bench at home against Normal University High and…

     Josh Jostes is going into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.     What makes his selection such a great honor is it comes in the first year he was eligible to be nominated which few coaches get selected for induction in their first year of nomination.     “It’s humbling,” said Jostes in a…

    District 61 made the announcement this afternoon (Friday, Jan. 29).     “We are committed to supporting not only our students’ academic wellness, but also their social and emotional well-being,” said Beth Nolan, Decatur Board of Education President.  “Part of that social well-being is allowing students to take part in sports and activities they love. …

         Schools meeting the Illinois Department of Public Health Phase 4 guidelines can schedule boys and girls basketball games seven days after their first practice which was a week ago Monday, Jan. 25. Some expect the first basketball games to be played Feb. 9. All basketball games must be end March 13.      Football practices…

     Once again, the Mount Zion Braves athletic community has been rocked by another tragic death.     Brad Stuart, who played basketball and baseball for Mount Zion and coached the varsity basketball Braves four years, was killed in a two-vehicle auto accident on Interstate 72 in Pike County at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, according to…

    Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, announced today that all IHSA and IESA sports can be played in regions that reach and stay within Phase 4 of IDPH COVID-19 mitigations. Ezike, during a news conference alongside Gov. J.B. Pritzker, was asked specifically about basketball and responded, “If your region…

    At today’s (Thursday, Jan. 21st) virtual University of Illinois board of trustees meeting, the trustees signed off on a six-year, $26.7 million contract for new football coach Bret Bielema.     The terms of the deal call for Bielema to be paid $4.2 million in Year 1 and adds $100,000 annually through the 2026 football…

Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, all the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time.”     He was right and that’s the position the Illinois High School Association Board of Directors will find themselves in after their meeting…

      The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) announced today (Monday, Jan. 18), that if health conditions allow, the fall sports of football, men’s & women’s soccer and women’s volleyball will have the opportunity to compete in the spring. Each member institution has the opportunity to determine if and how much competition is best for…

     When the Buffalo Bills and the Green Bay Packers take their respective fields for this weekend’s American and National division championship games, a former Decatur MacArthur graduate and long-time friend, Scott Berchtold, will have more than casual interest in the Bills game.     The Bills play the Chiefs for the American Conference championship and berth…