2023-24 Preps Year in Review: Top 10 teams on the rise

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Want to hop on the bandwagon of these area high school programs before the 2024-25 school year starts? Preps coordinator Zach Piatt explains why it’s smart to do just that for these local teams on the rise:

1. Champaign Central softball

Last year, the Maroons got a hint of what they might be able to accomplish by making it to a regional championship game. This year, they made it back while also recording their first winning season since 1992 with a 16-12-1 record. The Helm sisters, Kaitlyn and Haley, have provided a huge boost, both receiving Class 3A All-State honors and both returning next year. Haley, who was last spring’s Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, led a large crop of talented freshmen that consistently made up half of Central’s starting lineup.

2. Unity boys’ basketball

The combination of first-year Unity coach Matt Franks and this year’s group of seniors led the Rockets to a special season. One year removed from a 16-15 record, Unity won its first 18 games on the way to a 26-5 record and the program’s first Class 2A regional title since 2012. News-Gazette Player of the Year Henry Thomas was at the forefront of the team’s success. The Rockets are losing all five starters to graduation, but that senior class set a new standard for the next teams in line.

3. Tuscola boys’ cross-country/track and field

Athletic director and boys’ track and field coach Ryan Hornaday said one Division I athlete in a decade for a school like Tuscola would be impressive. These two programs had three in the same class in Jackson Barrett, Josiah Hortin and Will Foltz. That trio led the Warriors to their first Class 1A state cross-country appearance as a team in 2022 and then their first state title in 2023. They also paced the track team to a runner-up finish last spring, the highest placement in program history. They all graduate, but the lofty expectations will remain.

4. Centennial girls’ soccer

After this past season, the Chargers are back-to-back regional finalists, fighting for their first postseason hardware since the 2017 season. They’ve reached a point of competitiveness like former Centennial standout teams did in the 2000s and 2010s where you’d never know they were a one-win team just four years ago. Coach Thair Al-Saqri has changed the culture of the program, and All-State talent and 2024 News-Gazette Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year Payton Kaiser has led the way on the field.

5. Cissna Park girls’ basketball

With many of the same names on the roster as the Timberwolves’ state-qualifying volleyball team, the small-school Iroquois County program has a lot to look forward to during the next couple years. Led by four-sport star Addison Lucht, this year’s sophomore class took Cissna Park to the Class 1A super-sectional stage for the first time since 2014 and nearly made the state tournament for the first time since 2000. With two more years to go for Lucht, Lauryn Hamrick, Sophie Duis and Josie Neukomm, buckle up.

6. Urbana athletics

None of the Tigers’ programs had any monumental achievements this year, but the potential is there. The football and baseball teams are back after a brief varsity hiatus. Multiple relays advanced to the Class 2A state track and field finals, and there’s a solid presence on the cross-country teams. The softball team is celebrating the little victories with a young, inexperienced roster. The boys’ basketball team went on a hot streak in the middle of the season, and both soccer teams are competing at a high level.

7. Westville softball and baseball

Before Abby Sabalaskey joined the Westville softball program in 2021, the Tigers hadn’t won a Vermilion Valley Conference title in 17 years. The 2024 News-Gazette Player of the Year changed it to a winning culture, leading them to four straight undefeated VVC championships. Across Westville’s athletic complex, Cameron Steinbaugh, Drew Wichtowski and Cade Schaumburg led the baseball team to its first Class 2A regional title since 1993. The Tigers are proving they’re a force to be reckoned with in Vermilion County.

8. St. Thomas More girls’ golf

They have a state championship in their program’s history, but numbers have dipped in recent years for the proud program.When 2023 News-Gazette Girls’ Golfer of the Year Ashley Wells joined the team three years ago, she was one of two players on then-first-year coach Kim Zahrn’s roster. It grew little by little throughout the season until the Sabers were finally able to post official team scores. This year, they had eight players, and Wells led them to the program’s first Class 1A regional title since 2020.

9. ALAH football

Replacing 2022 News-Gazette Player of the Year Kaden Feagin was no small task once he went off to be a running back at Illinois, but Jayce Parsons filled the dual-threat quarterback role Feagin held almost seamlessly this past fall. On top of that, while the outside expectations dropped, the Knights went on to have an even better 2023 with an undefeated regular season before an upset loss in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs to Quincy Notre Dame. ALAH has found a formula that works. The next goal is to keep it going in the postseason.

10. Mahomet-Seymour baseball

It’s hard to say a team that had already won three consecutive Class 3A regional titles going into this year could be on the rise, but the Bulldogs did take a step forward. And without Blake Wolters, the 2022 and 2023 News-Gazette Player of the Year and current pitcher in the Kansas City Royals organization. Through a combined effort from guys like Gavin Bailey, Finn Randolph and Mason Orton, M-S won a fourth straight regional title and followed it up with its first sectional championship since 2000.