Coming off a memorable state championship season, the Dee-Mack High School girls basketball team is preparing to take the court again with high expectations, strong team chemistry, and plenty of excitement for the upcoming season. After all the hard work and success from last year, the players are looking forward to another opportunity to compete together. Through an anonymous Q&A, one player shared, “I’m excited to play with this group of girls and see what we accomplish throughout the season and watch everyone grow.” Winning state last season was an unforgettable experience for the team; this accomplishment showed how much dedication and effort the players put into reaching their goals. One player explained, “Winning state meant everything to me because it had proved how hard we worked.” 

As the team moves into a new season, players believe their chemistry and experience will be some of their biggest strengths. With many returning players who understand what it takes to compete at a high level, the team hopes to build on last year’s success. Individually, players have goals of improving their shooting, becoming stronger leaders, and contributing more offensively to fill the spots left by graduating seniors. The Dee-Mack Chiefs are also excited to spend another season playing alongside friends and teammates. When asked what fans should expect, one player answered simply, “High energy!” Another added that fans can expect “a fun team that will be very competitive and exciting to watch.” With a championship behind them, Dee-Mack is ready to create another memorable season. 

As the seasons change at Dee-Mack, sports seasons do as well. Last year, the Chiefs Basketball team tied a program record with 26 wins and a Sweet 16 appearance, which ended in heartbreak with a Tremont buzzer-beater. This year, the Chiefs are determined to repeat their successful season, and that all starts now during open gyms, which take place weeks before the official season begins. I was able to interview Liam Dockins about open gyms and how he approaches them. My first question was, “Do you approach an open gym differently than an official practice?” He responded with, “No, when I walk onto the court, I treat it the same way that I would during a game.” I then asked about the environment of open gyms, and Liam said, “It depends on the day. Some days might be more serious and others will be more laid back, but it stays competitive.” My final question was about a certain skillset he wants to improve on before official practice starts. His answer was, “I would like to work on my leadership and help the younger players learn about our team's values. Also, what is expected from them if they are wanting to play at the varsity level.” The Chiefs kick off the season against Roanoke-Benson on November 23rd and look forward to another successful season.

Everything in life requires the right mindset. Sports in general take a great toll on mental and physical aspects of students, but the sport that is heavily based on pushing yourself mentally is cross country. If you ask any of the students that are involved in Cross Country, they will tell you that all it takes is the right mindset to get you past the finish line. When I spoke to the team, they mentioned the specific parts of Cross Country that take the most mentality. Noah Burrel stated pyramid workouts; even though he understands their purpose, he just despises doing them. Whereas Bella Cobb brought up preparing for the race–aka race nerves. While there are more downsides to the sport, running for instance, the overall best part would be the friendships and community that comes with it. Ellen Horacek told me about how they have weekly team meals and extra hangouts. This brings the team closer together and reminds them that their support group is always there to cheer them on. 

On top of the great community, the runners really look forward to three regular season meets a year. Those races include: Saint Joseph, Clinton, and El Paso Gridley! Saint Joseph is a favorite because of its untraditional running on the road rather than through the grass and woods. Sam Awbry expressed, "Clinton also is good because of the fireworks and it being a night meet!” Even if you have no connection to the sport, you have probably heard about the El Paso Gridley meet. It is a meet where the team gets to have a little extra fun and plan out a theme for their uniform. This meet takes a little extra preparation, but is worth it in the end. Overall, cross country is not one of the sports you hear about on a daily basis unless you know someone who is involved. But, if you ever find yourself wanting to go cheer on your heavily dedicated runners, these three meets are the crowd favorites and the best to watch!

Dee-Mack High School has a long, rich sports history full of state titles and even multiple college athletes. If you were to think of Dee-Mack’s past achievements, your mind would probably go straight to our football or girls basketball teams. Most people would never imagine our golf program. Golf was only added four years ago, but despite the recent addition, the Dee-Mack Chiefs just had another golfer reach sectionals. I was able to sit down with Chase Grimm, a senior, to ask him some questions about his season so far. The first question I asked him was what drew him into golf. He responded simply by stating, “I never liked football, so I tried golf instead.” 

Being the number one golfer for the team, I had to ask him about his highest pressure shot of the season. He gave a very specific response, stating, “At the beginning of my even round, I chipped in for a birdie at Oak Run.” With these postseason matches being 18 holes and having multiple teams in attendance, most of these matches run for several hours on a school night. I asked Chase how he kept up with schoolwork despite these long matches, and he responded, "I always make sure to set time aside on free days for studying.” This year's golf team has seen lots of success, even having Chase Grimm reach IHSA Sectionals for the second year in a row. Make sure to go out and support him at sectionals on Monday, October 5th, at Jacksonville Country Club. We are all rooting for you, Chase!

Our girls volleyball team is having a strong competitive season. However, there have been some unexpected games added to their schedule, which could potentially be affecting the teams overall energy. I took things into my own hands and asked the volleyball girls themselves about how their season is going so far and how they feel about the new games being added to their schedule this past week.

I interviewed Kenlea Brown, a Dee-Mack junior, and asked specific questions to get a better understanding of these new additions to the schedule. I asked her, “What are your reactions to the new games added to your schedule, such as East Peoria?” She stated, “I'm excited because we can add to our current record, and hopefully come out with more wins.” I was glad to hear that our volleyball girls are staying positive about the extra pressure added to their homecoming week! This optimism made me curious about how our girls are handling some of the losses they have had this season: “How are the players handling the season so far?” Kenlea enthusiastically responded, “We are definitely struggling in some areas, but I don't think there is anything we can't fix!” 

With a packed schedule ahead, the girls are not letting any of the new added pressure or past losses define their season. Instead, they are stepping onto the court ready to turn every challenge into an opportunity to improve, compete, and prove what they are capable of. We are all rooting for our Dee-Mack Chiefs! 

The Dee-Mack Chiefs have a proud and historic culture in football, having reached the IHSA playoffs 32 times out of the 52 seasons that IHSA playoffs have been around. This season, with the expanded playoffs, the Chiefs were thought to be a lock for the 2026 playoffs, but tough times have come over Dee-Mack with the Chiefs starting the season off 0-4. From the outside, injuries could be to blame for this rocky start with starting offensive and defensive Line, Wyatt Otto, suffering a season ending injury in their first game at Central A&M. The Chief's quarterback, Zack Day, was also sidelined for Week 4 and 5 due to an unknown foot injury. I sat down with head coach Cody Myers hoping to get some insight on what is really going on this season. Instead of pointing blame at key injuries he stated, “The energy levels haven’t been what we're used to seeing in my time here.” However, he did add, “But every one still shows up and works in hopes of turning this season around.” Coach Myers also had a lot of positive comments despite the tough start, “With every week we have had different players step up and buy in to turn this season around.” With the expanded playoffs, Coach Myers had some optimistic goals for the end of their season, “With the expanded playoffs, I would love an opportunity for our team to go on the road and have a chance to upset somebody going into the offseason.” With the playoffs now only requiring three wins and five games remaining on Dee-Mack’s schedule, the playoffs are not out of the question for the Chiefs just yet. Looking ahead, our boys will travel to Tuscola this Friday before returning home to face LeRoy and GCMS. The season concludes with back-to-back road trips against Walter Christian and longtime rival, the Tremont Turks. 

Last Friday was the first home football game of the season, coming off a 0-3 run. Unfortunately, we lost the tough battle against Dwight with a final score of 44-12. Players and fans combined can agree that this was definitely the hottest, sweatiest game of the season so far. However, our football team is nowhere near ready to give up just yet. Before the game on Thursday, I collected players' thoughts about how they prepared for the game by having to practice inside the school gymnasium due the extreme heat. Dee-Mack’s wide receiver Denton Neely states, “We had a good week of practice, and it was more tough being inside because of the plays but we were able to make it work.” Our quarterback Zack Day also mentioned, “We just worked on the mental game, and stayed strong no matter what.” Then post-game, I grabbed Zack for an interview and asked, what do you think the team did well despite the loss? He claimed that, “I think we fought hard, I mean we just played our game. We lost a grip of things but we still fought hard.” I asked Zack how the heat felt, and he gave me a firsthand response about his experience. He replied, “I mean I felt it, I did throw up during the game, so I did indeed feel it a decent amount, but it did not affect the game.” The unfortunate news: we lost the game. The exciting news: the loss did not affect the mentality of our football team! Nonetheless, Dee-Mack fans will be cheering loud and proud this Friday as our boys face the Heyworth Hornets for our Blackout Game.