A pair of former area standout student-athletes are in the latest class of CHISOX Athletes, the Chicago White Sox's NIL program.

Rich Zinanni, Fred LeSage, Irish O'Reilly, Jack Sikma, Ben Zobrist and Michelle Bartsch-Hackley are the six people with local ties that will be inducted into the new Illinois Sports Hall of Fame in June.

<p>Coming off a quiet stretch in the schedule, the college basketball season kicks into full gear this week, highlighted by a super Saturday with four games between ranked teams.</p>

<p>When his recruiting process first began, Bradley-Bourbonnais senior big man Nick Allen didn’t have Illinois State University anywhere on his radar. But like a series of storm cells, Redbirds coach Ryan Pedon just kept on popping up on Allen’s doppler.</p>

<p>GIRLS VOLLEYBALL</p>

<p>Gamers of all generations and platforms alike have come together for the return of the iconic college football game EA Sports College Football 25, the first release in the franchise in 11 years.</p>

<p>As the Daily Journal coverage area continues to see more and more student-athletes make waves at the college level, several of them are doing so at the highest level: NCAA Division I. Our summer campus catch-up series begins on the diamonds of baseball and softball.</p>

<p>Jyaire “Suga” Hill has gotten to live out plenty more dreams than most teens a year removed from high school. As a high-schooler, the 2023 Kankakee graduate helped his Kays to their first-ever run to the IHSA State championship, a Class 5A second-place finish in 2021. Not long after, he lived out the dream of every high school athlete when he committed to the University of Michigan as a four-star recruit, earning last year’s College Football Playoff National Championship with the Wolverines last winter.</p>

<p>Through almost every step of their baseball and softball journeys, Mason and Teagan McCue have been no more than a diamond away. Whether it was in T-Ball or at the House of Sportz, where they played together, or at Bishop McNamara, where Mason just finished a four-year baseball career and Teagan will do the same next spring in softball, the siblings with one year between them have always physically and emotionally been right there for one another.</p>