Colbert Column

SPORTS COLUMN James Robinson is success story for BNC

Living near the Oregon football field, I thought I was imagining things on Friday night. The lights were on, there was music coming through the speakers and a bunch of kids looked to be on the field.

On closer inspection, footballs were indeed in the air. It was the Hawk football team going through one of its 20 allotted practices this fall.

Had not been the season postponed, this past Friday would have been a home game against Genoa-Kingston.

What was refreshing about the scenario was all the enthusiasm. Though the players have had opportunity to play taken from them by a governor who has seemingly wrested control of prep sports from the IHSA, that didn’t dampen their spirits.

They also practice a couple other times during the week, but opted to also partake in Friday Night Lights. I had a chance to chat with coach Nick Schneiderman for a bit and he was also upbeat.

It wasn’t an actual game-day experience, but there is something special about practicing under the lights and having music blasting from the loud speakers.

On Sept. 10, IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson issued a letter to the governor that seeks permission for the IHSA and its Sports Medicine Advisory Committee to resume control

COMMENTARY Andy Colbert

over determining the resumption of sports.

With how poorly the current regime of governmental officials have run this state, why do we even need them interfering with the IHSA? It was just a few years ago that state legislators made fools of themselves by attempting to scrutinize internal IHSA records.

In one of what may be the biggest success story to come out of the Big Northern conference, James Robinson of Rockford Lutheran started at running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first week in the NFL. The 64 yards he gained in 16 carries was the most yards ever by an undrafted rookie.

While at Lutheran, he set the IHSA career rushing record with 9,045 yards. What stood out to me were his vision, cutting ability and physicality.

He wasn’t exceptionally fast, but had that innate gift of knowing what spots to run to and how to break tackles. The other thing that stood out was how quiet he was and that hasn’t changed any in his professional career.

Speaking of the BNC, heard a replay of the memorable 44-42 regular season win by Byron over Stillman Valley in 1999, as WRHL is broadcasting a different game of the week from years past to fill the void of empty Friday nights.

They do a Rochelle game on the AM side and an area game on the FM.

Byron, of course, went on to win the 3A state title with a 14-0 record, while Stillman Valley won 2A. A footnote to that season was Oregon coming from behind to beat SV 23-21 in what had to be an upset.

I was roaming the SV sidelines early in the game and can attest to a degree of over-confidence when the Cardinals took an easy 14-0 lead.

I asked coach Mike Lalor after the game if his players took the Hawks too lightly and he didn’t exactly say yes or no, but I have a feeling it would be addressed.

Speaking of Stillman Valley, it was neat to see them field a full boys and girls cross-country team at a triangular at Oregon last week. There were some glory days in the 1970s and 80s under coach Gary Bredeson, but the program has been dormant for quite some time.

Former Oregon runner Kyle Groenhagen has taken the reins as coach and looks to have some building blocks going.