Sports

BY ERIC INGLES eingles@shawmedia.com

The Oregon High softball team didn’t have to look far for its new coach.

Nate Rogers was named the new head coach of the Hawks this week, taking over a program in which he had been helping out Dave Duke before the season was cut short in the spring.

Duke coached the Hawks in 2019 and was preparing to coach them in 2020 before the pandemic put an end to the season.

“I felt like it was a good time for me to step in and help with the transition,” Rogers said. “I think that what got me the most interested in this job is just that we have a lot of hard-working young ladies and girls who have put a lot of work into the program. We see a lot of good things

MT. MORRIS BY JEFF HELFRICH

jhelfrich@shawmedia.com

Roughly 25 percent of the old Kable Printing plant in Mt. Morris will be demolished in the coming weeks, Village Trustee and former Kable employee Jerry Stauffer said.

About 230,000 square feet of the building will come down including the east end offices and the south side ink farm and press rooms. The area has been fenced off and preliminary demolition work is being done.

“It’ll be fairly soon,” Stauffer said. “It’s all to upgrade the property. The rest of it may stay and be renovated and marketed. With the fencing up, they’ll start in the center and work their way out. We probably won’t see much until they get to the outside wall. They said they’ll be taking down the old smokestack. I know people want to see that.”

Stauffer said the demolition will likely take months. The property is owned by Phoenix Investors of Milwaukee. The plant was in operation for 114 years and shut down in 2013 and also operated under the names of Quebecor and World Color.

Stauffer was employed at the plant for over 20 years. He said it’ll be tough to see it partially town down after its value to the village and area over the years.

“A good majority of Mt. Morris people worked there and it was their livelihood,” Stauffer said. “It fed families. People from Sterling, Dixon, Polo, Lanark and Mt. Carroll worked there. It drew employment in a 40 mile radius. It was the biggest in Ogle County.”

The parts of the facility that will come down have been remodeled “too many times” and need to come down, Stauffer said. 650,000 square feet will be kept.

“I’m a realist,” Stauffer said. “Nothing lasts forever. It on the horizon for them. We’re excited for the future.”

Rogers is no stranger to Oregon – he previously led the Hawks’ wrestling program and was an assistant with the football program. He is also a teacher in the district.

“The biggest thing is, Nate is an outstanding teacher, educator and relationship-developer with kids,” Athletic Director Mike Lawton said.

Nate Rogers is Oregon High School’s new softball coach.

“He just has that ability to connect with kids, in the classroom and now an opportunity to carry that over into softball, which is huge for any coach, because obviously coaches are teachers first, and when you’re an outstanding teacher and you have the ability to take those out of the classroom and into the arena or onto the field, that’s huge.”

Rogers knows a lot of the players already through his work alongside Duke, as well as his work at the youth level before that, and his daughter, Abigail, is a utility player on the team.

“There’s a comfort level and a trust level,” he said. “And I’ve had most of these girls as a teacher, too. That helps. When you have those relationships already built, it can make those things go a lot easier.”

While some spring sports teams will head into the 2021 season with effectively two freshmen classes – one class of true freshmen and one of sophomores who did not have a high school season in 2020 – Oregon is pretty well off, having fielded a largely young roster in 2019 with eight freshmen and six sophomores.

But there is still an uphill battle with sports activities suspended for the time being and no telling when a softball season actually will be played.

“In some ways, we have a lot of experience coming into the season,” Rogers said. “There’s other things we want to be working on that we just can’t work on in terms of team cohesiveness and just laying the groundwork for what we want

Kable Printing plant to be partially town down

to do.” was harder to see it close after trying to extend its life.”