When Jim Nugent became women’s basketball coach at Sauk Valley in May 2025, the outlook for even having a season was bleak. The 2024-25 season was canceled after just six games. One recruit led to another and the Skyhawks not only had enough to compete, but to win 11 games.

BCR Sports Editor Kevin Hieronymus writes about his experience traveling to the NIT semifinals at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University for the NIT semifinals.

Emily Smith got her start managing at Logan Junior High when the Lions coach asked her about managing for her classmates in the seventh grade. She first worked for the PHS girls, then split her duties with the boys team her senior year and hasn’t stopped since nor plans to

Ryne Bird, a former Princeton standout and Bloomington High School assistant coach has been around wrestling long enough on the mats and in the coaching box to know that state-qualifying matches are being contested around the state this weekend.

In Kevin Hieronymus' first school year at the BCR, he witnessed Angie Noble put on the finishing touches on a record-setting career for the Princeton High School girls basketball team. 40 years later, he's watched Keighley Davis take over as the PHS girls scoring leader

Cayden Hansen, 20, and Kenny Wilcoxen, 68, who had a 37-year Hall of Fame career at Walnut/Bureau Valley, have made for a perfect match coaching the Princeton Logan eighth grade basketball team together this season.

BCR sports editor Kevin Hieronymus takes a look at the top golfers he's covered over the years The All-Hieronymus golf team dates back to 1997

In many ways, 2025 has been a year of sharp, jagged stab wounds.

One more time looking back at the sports stories and people from 2025 through the eyes of your local sports editor, looking back at feel-good moments and sorrow, best quotes and interviews, favorite story and favorite game and those we've lost