42nd West Central Illinois Boys All-Star Classic Canceled

By Benjamin Cox on May 18, 2020 at 11:01am

The 42nd West Central Illinois Boys All-Star Classic at the JHS Bowl has been canceled this year.

WLDS-WEAI General Manager Gary Scott says the cancellation was a difficult decision. “It’s been a tradition for 42 years. We’ve never had to postpone or cancel it before. We’ve had it at various times. This year we felt with everything considered, with all the other uncertainties in the coming weeks and months, and the fact that the school district has control of the JHS Bowl – so we have to get permission from them and right now, they’re not doing that – we just thought it would be better off to go ahead and cancel it.”

Scott says that each All Star team member will still be honored this year. “Our main intention with the All Star Game has always been to honor the seniors and we will still try to do that. Secondary, is raising money for the charities. Unfortunately, we’ll not be able to do that this year, but we do have uniforms for the players. What we are doing right now is making sure that each one of those players have a uniform sponsor, so they can claim their uniform. What we would like to do, and we will try to get a hold of as many of these players as possible through the coming weeks, is maybe have them come by the station, receive their jersey, get a quick picture taken, and then we can post it on our website to honor them.”

The all-senior, All Star Game was originally slated for March 27th.

The South Squad for this year’s classic was Cole Howard, Gabe Cox, and Drew Evans of West Central; Lunden Cook and Carter Hayes of JHS, Adam Lindsey of Routt; Keaton Brown of North Greene, Brenton Duffie and Jackson Smith of South County, JT Wiegand of Springfield Lutheran, Stone Zirkelbach of Calhoun, and Ethan Brannan of Carrollton. Ryan Sichting of West Central was chosen as coach.

The North Squad for this year was Mason Muller and Gabe Carlock of PORTA-A/C; Broc Moore of Triopia, William Guthrie of Pittsfield, Ethan Eskeridge and Jacob Reller of Rushville Industry, Pascal Guilavogui of Beardstown, Nathan Hendricker of Brown County, Jacob Fletcher of Havana, Tucker Kunzeman of Griggsville Perry, Jack Buerkett of New Berlin, and Kyle Colgrove of Barry-Western. New Berlin Head Coach Blake Lucas was chose as coach for the North.

The New Berlin Pep Band was scheduled to perform for the game.

WLDS-WEAI would appreciate if the players reach out to the station so they can receive their honor for this year. Please call 245-7171 as soon as possible.