The daily pitch from Sports Editor Matt Daniels: Aug. 14, 2024

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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:

Three reasons we love sports today

➜ 1. Have to credit Illinois for getting creative when it comes to students purchasing football season tickets. If UI students do so before Aug. 28, or if they already have, they will be entered to win two tickets to Taylor Swift ’s “The Eras Tour,” when it takes at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Nov. 3. Roughly a month before the Big Ten championship game is held at the same venue.

➜ 2. The lucky winner, call it karma if you will, will be announced on Aug. 29 during the Illinois season opener against Eastern Illinois at Memorial Stadium.

➜ 3. It wouldn’t be the Butkus Award if an Illinois player wasn’t on the preseason watch list. Dylan Rosiek is the latest Illini linebacker to earn August accolades.

Numbers game

50

Is the spot Unity football found itself in with the IHSA unveiling its top 50 high school football programs. The project, which will run until the final day of the season on Nov. 30, kicked off Tuesday as coach Scott Hamilton ’s Rockets became the first team off the list at No. 50. Unity has six state runner-up finishes since 2000 and has made 31 playoff appearances, with 29 of those since 1994. Hamilton begins his 31st season in charge of Unity on Aug. 30 at Prairie Central.

Crowd control

Three events I’m paying attention to

➜ 1. Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks . Tanner Gordon is vying to become the first Champaign Central graduate to win an MLB game since Dick Hyde did so in 1961 when Gordon takes the mound for the Rockies on Wednesday afternoon in Phoenix.

➜ 2. Wright State at Illinois soccer. The Illini outscored Eastern Illinois and IU Indianapolis 16-0 in two exhibition matches last week. Can the offensive output continue at a high level? Find out at 7 p.m. Thursday when the Illini open their season.

➜ 3. Oakwood Scramble. A total of 15 area boys’ golf teams are set to tee off their season Thursday in this tournament at Harrison Park Golf Course in Danville.

Coach’s corner

Three questions with Monticello golf coach Andrew Turner. His Sages open the season on Thursday with a match at Tuscola:

➜ 1. My favorite sports team is ... the Kansas City Chiefs, and long before Patrick Mahomes arrived. But I’m enjoying the ride now.

➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are ... Phil Jackson, Mike Small and Brian Kelly.

➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is ... people who openly judge others.