Hi Illini Fan. At this time, we have not heard of anyone who has committed to Illinois for football backing out of that commitment. Not to say there won't be some. That isn't unusual when there's a coaching change, but there's no news along that front now. Thanks for asking.

Hi Green Wave Fan. As far as our coverage area, clearly the top surprise thus far is LeRoy. The girls are 15-1. I saw a strong season as a possibility for the Panthers, but never envisioned anything like this. And of the 15 wins, only one has been closer than eight points. This is a team with six seniors and that experience has been very beneficial. Something of a surprise is the Shiloh team at 15-4. I know they were state-ranked in the preseason, but that was based on what recent Shiloh teams had done and with so many graduation losses, I had some doubts about this year's team. The raiders have more than met the challenge and Larissa Moses inside has been dominant (40 points in a Monday win this week). Those two are the schools which have been the biggest surprises. As for disappointments, that's hard to say because most of the schools that have struggled more than I anticipated have had issues such as injuries to key players to contend with. When you remove one or two prominent players from a team, that can change the whole look of the team.

Hi DRM. I suspect there is no one single factor to your question. It's probably a combination of things, including what you've listed. I will add another variable for you. I didn't see this particular game, but one score which struck me over the holidays was a 28-16 win by Westville over Windsor. My guess is that Westville was very patient with the ball and careful in its shot selection. Fewer attempts lead to fewer points being scored. Teams will play this kind of control game -- and Westville is one of the best at it -- for several reasons. One is to stay close in a game where there might be mismatchs size-wize or when another team likes to run to remove that element of the game. Westville's players are generally very disciplined and when I saw the Tigers before Christmas, that was the case again with this year's team. I will say that I have seen more defenses playing better and making it harder for teams to get good shots. I think that is a contributing factor, too. It's certainly not all gloom and doom, however. Georgetown-Ridge Farm recently had an 89-point game. Unity, St. Thomas More, St. Joseph-Ogden, Bismarck-Henning, Rantoul, Centennial, Urbana and Central are a few schools offhand I know have had games with scores in the 70s or 80s.

Hi Tom. In football, that program is known as East Central. It's a cooperaive venture between Shiloh and Heritage high schools. I believe they split their home games between Hume (Shiloh) and Broadlands (Heritage). There are a bunch of small communities which feed into each district. I'll probably forget some, but I know Allerton, Longview and Homer are others in the Heritage district and Shiloh also includes Brockton, Metcalf, Newman and I believe Redmon. Each of the schools probably have 150, or fewer, students, so there's not a lot to choose from. East Central is in the Little Okaw, where the top teams recently have been Tri-County, Villa Grove and Arcola as well as Cerro Gordo. for a coach looking for a challenge, this is it!

Hi Tom. I don't know Pastor Grogan personally, but have heard good things about his work. I don't think anyone would argue that the more structured activities available for youth, whether it's in sports, drama or music or whatever, is a positive thing. I hope this takes off. Best wishes to all involved.