Hoveln, Litwiller, Thompson head up newly release collections

More than two dozen collections featuring highly talented high school athletes were added to our photo archives in the past week. Here are our favorite shots of six athletes from their galleries shared earlier this week. Follow links to see more photos of each athlete or click here to search our site for your favorite athlete.


December 21, 2016 - St. Joseph, IL - St. Joseph-Ogden's Brandon Dable blocks a put-back attempt by Olympia's Luke Litwiller during their Leader Classic game on December 21, 2016. With the 84-71 victory, St. Joseph-Ogden won the holiday tournament title for the fourth time in the past five installments. Litwiller finished the game with 18 points in the loss. Click here to see more photos of him currently in our online archive.




Rock Island High School's Mystique Thompson runs in the preliminary heat of the 100-meter dash at Illinois High School Association's 2012 Girls State Track & Field Meet on May 12, 2012. She qualified for finals as the Rocks went on to finished in a three-way tie for 18th place in the final team standings on Saturday. There are 15 more images in Thompson's collection. Click here to see more photos of her in action.




Spartan two-sport athlete Brant Hoveln takes a big swing at the ball while playing in St. Joseph-Ogden's road game on April 16, 2016 at Duffy Bass Field against Normal University High. St. Joseph-Ogden, who later went on two win a Class 2A runner-up state trophy in the season, fell victim to the Pioneers 13-3 in their non-conference game on Saturday. Click here to see more baseball photos of Hoveln and our collection of football images as well.




Lincoln-Way North's Ashley Pop celebrates with partner Allison Gerk between points during her badminton doubles match against Deerfield High School's Gwyneth Helm & Brooke Buranosky. Pop and Gerk were eliminated from medal contention after a 21-14, 21-16 defeat in their first round consolation match at the IHSA Badminton State Finals on on May 15, 2015. See nine more action photos of Pop in our archive ...




January 9, 2012 - Champaign, IL - Photo of St. Thomas More basketball player Jade Brinkoetter in the Sabers' home game against St. Joseph-Ogden. St. Thomas More survived a scare after defeating St. Joseph-Ogden in an intense battle 42-39 on their home court. Here Sabers' Jade Brinkoetter brings the ball down the court for STM in the first half. See more photos of Brinkoetter here and follow this link for more related sports action images of St. Thomas More athletics.


Rock Island's Troy Jackson takes the baton from LaCresha Linton in the preliminary heat of their race at Illinois High School Association's 2012 Girls State Track & Field Meet on May 18, 2012. The Lady Rocks went on to finished the season finale in a three-way tie for 18th place on Saturday. See the Troy Jackson collection here and our photo collection of LaCresha Linton currently in our online archive.

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PHOTONEWS MEDIA holds a vast photograph and negative collection that comprises approximately two-million images. These photos were created by contributing photographers over nearly a decade and half starting at the birth of the digital age of photography capturing moments in time and memories to be shared for years to come.

Explore the faces, places and events comprised mostly of high school, collegiate and amateur athletes competing in events in East-Central Illinois. By the end of 2018, we hope to have collections of over 2,000 athletes available in the Hall of Champions catalog, which contains mostly never published, online or in print, action and candid photographs starting in 1999 until today. Most the images in each individual athlete collection are being shared for the first time in our archive.

All images displayed in the archive are available for editorial licensing, or purchase for private display or personal use.

If you don't find who or what you're looking for after using our built-in search tool, please submit a photo search request or contact our online curator. Visit our site weekly for our latest release of athletes and events added to the digital library.

Six new collections featuring Monticello and SJO football players

If you missed the news, we are rebuilding our online photo archive from scratch. Our latest updated includes seven football players from more than two dozen new collections of basketball, baseball and track & field athletes that have been added in the past 24 hours. Here's a look at some of the action photos of the players as well as links to their photo collections that we have just shared in the archive today.


Monticello's Jack Spence and Cole Reedy wrap up IC Catholic Prep's Jordan Rowell during second quarter action. In their deepest postseason run since the 90s, the Sages battled defiantly against the Knights to a 48-6 loss in their Class 3A home playoff game on November 19, 2016. Click here to see 29 more photos of Rowell currently in our online archive.




Monticello's Noah Zimmerman (right) blocks St. Joseph-Ogden center Elijah Place during their final regular season game in the first year in the Illini Prairie Conference. The Sages earned one-third of the inaugural conference title after defeating the visiting Spartans at home in an epic 27-24 finish on Friday, October 20, 2017. The comeback victory dropped SJO to 4-5 for the season eliminating the perennial playoff team from this year's postseason. The Sages improved to 8-1 earning a first round home playoff contest. (Photo: PhotoNews/Clark Brooks) Click here to see more photos of Noah Zimmerman and here for our photo collection featuring Eli Place.




Brody White was a member of the 2017-2018 St. Joseph-Ogden football team. White, a senior, and the Spartans finished the season compiling a record of 4-5 in the inaugural season in the new Illini Prairie Conference. Follow this link to see the more photos now online of St. Joseph-Ogden athlete Brody White in the PhotoNews Media archives. (Graphic design and photography by Clark Brooks)




October 20, 2017 - Monticello, IL - St. Joseph-Ogden's RYAN FERRIMAN blocks Monticello's Jack Spence in their Illini Prairie Conference road game on Friday. The Spartans fell to 4-5 on the season after a heartbreaking 27-24 loss to the Sages. Visit our archive to see more photos of Ferriman by following this link. (Photo: PhotoNews/Clark Brooks)




Monticello quarterback Caleb Hanson finds an open receiver in his team home semifinal football game against IC Catholic Prep in their IHSA Class 3A semifinal game on November 19, 2016. The Knights defeated the Sages to keep their season record lossless with their 48-6 victory. View five more photos of Hanson from the playoff game now in our online archive.


St. Joseph-Ogden lineman COLE ZACCARELLI dashes into the Monticello backfield during his team's Illini Prairie Conference road game on Friday, October 20, 2017. The Spartans fell to 4-5 on the season after a heartbreaking 27-24 loss to the Sages. See more photos of Zaccarelli currently in our online archive.

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PHOTONEWS MEDIA holds a vast photograph and negative collection that comprises approximately two-million images. These photos were created by contributing photographers over nearly a decade and half starting at the birth of the digital age of photography capturing moments in time and memories to be shared for years to come.

Explore the faces, places and events comprised mostly of high school, collegiate and amateur athletes competing in events in East-Central Illinois. By the end of 2018, we hope to have collections of over 2,000 athletes available in the Hall of Champions catalog, which contains mostly never published, online or in print, action and candid photographs starting in 1999 until today. Most the images in each individual athlete collection are being shared for the first time in our archive.

All images displayed in the archive are available for editorial licensing, or purchase for private display or personal use.

If you don't find who or what you're looking for after using our built-in search tool, please submit a photo search request or contact our online curator. Visit our site weekly for our latest release of athletes and events added to the digital library.

Ma'ma mi-yaaa, we need more pigs

There needs to be more pigs in America.

If you love the taste of bacon and shop for groceries, you know exactly where I'm coming from. The cost of one pound of bacon, which is one serving for any true bacon lover, is just too expensive.

I miss the days when bacon was $1.99 a pound on sale and around $2.59 most of the time. It wasn't a BLT until I put a half pound of sizzling hot strips on top of a plush bed of lettuce and tomatoes. Sundays meant six to eight strips of bacon, three eggs and four pieces of toast - and two more strips for dessert at breakfast when grandma was in the kitchen.

Today, $1.99 barely gets you two slices of bacon. Anybody else have a hard time wrapping their head around the fact a pound a bacon is as much or more expensive than a pound of ground beef?

I miss the shopping trips when my hardest decision was whether or not to buy three or four one pound packages of Oscar Meyer thin sliced bacon.

Sure, I really shouldn't eat that much of it anyway. With it priced way over what I'm willing to pay and what most American's can afford these days, that is probably a good thing. If I'm going to have high cholesterol looks like it is going to be from something other than bacon, and probably not as tasty.

I think Merek, Pfizer and Eli Lilly need to invest heavily into the business of raising pork bellies. If they really wanted to pig out on profits they could flood marketplace with nice thick, 150-pound-plus Genetically Modified Hogs (GMH) from their subsidiary businesses. No doubt those companies would fill their piggy banks with proceeds from the skyrocketing sales of statins and other cholesterol lowering drugs.

With more pigs on farms and more swine producers, prices would surely be driven lower, right? We all know it is a supply and demand thing. I just wish pork producers weren't demanding so damn much so I can put more of their delicious bacon on my table.

You know, if President Trump really wants to Make America Great Again, he can start by passing an Affordable Better Bacon Act (ABBA) guaranteeing low prices on one of America's culinary staples. For the record, I'm all for him building that wall he mentioned during his campaign, but he needs to relocate it to various sea ports on our coast to keep American pork from being shipped overseas.

"China is one of the largest pork-consuming and producing nations in the world," according to Jim Monroe from the National Pork Producers Council.

In my opinion, the Asian country is doing a better job than Trump at ABBA. Recently China increased tariffs on pork imports by as much as 25% in a recent trade war the two countries are currently waddling up to their hooves in.

If the ABBA movement needs a jingle or catch phrase it was already written by that Swedish pop group of the same name from the 70s in their hit Mamma Mia.

Mamma mia, here I go again
My my, how can I resist you?
Mamma mia, does it show again
My my, just how much I've missed you?

Ma'ma mi-yaaa, bacon, how I do miss you.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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Five new collections unveiled in the Hall of Champions

The first 18 collections have been released in the PhotoNews redesigned online photographic archive. Content in our former format was indexed by the date the event occurred. The new design arranges a group of photographs of an individual athlete, coach or participant into a single gallery or collection of images.

Among the new collections are galleries of five athletes starting with Morgan Finn, a three-sport athlete from St. Joseph-Ogden, from the 2005 basketball season. From last fall there are a few unpublished photos of Monticello High School football players Devin Graham and Riley Austin from the Sages' 2017 first round playoff game.

Also released are photos and fine art sport posters (one of two designs featured below) of two-sport athlete Noah Blue, who played basketball and goal keeper in soccer for University High. Also featured below is one of our favorite photos of St. Joseph-Ogden basketball player Jordan Brooks from the 2016 Leader Classic basketball tournament.

Here is a peek at some of the photos of Brooks and the other athletes dropped today in our online archive below.




Morgan Finn tries to pass the ball around a pair of Monticello defenders during St. Joseph-Ogden's home girls basketball game on December 1, 2005. Monticello fell 50-34 to the host Spartan. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks) Click here to see more photos of Morgan Finn currently in our online archive.




Devin Graham carries the ball in the first half during Monticello's home playoff game against North Boone on Saturday, November 25, 2017. The Sages advanced to the next round after a 35-14 victory over the visiting Vikings. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks) Click here to see more photos of Devin Graham currently in our online archive.




16x20 sports art of University High goal keeper Noah Blue created by graphic designer Clark Brooks. Follow this link to see 49 more photographs of Noah Blue from 2016-2018.




December 21, 2016 - St. Joseph, IL - SJO's Jordan Brooks steps up to accept his All-Tournament award after his team's Leader Classic title game on Wednesday evening. St. Joseph-Ogden won the game by way of a 84-71 victory. Brooks, who was named to the All-Tournament team, contributed 18 points, 12 from 4 three-pointers. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks) Click here to see more photos of Jordan Brooks currently in our online archive.




After the snap of the ball Monticello's Riley Austin rushes into the North Boone backfield in his team's first round IHSA football playoff game against on Saturday, November 25, 2017. Playing on both sides of the ball, Austin help the Sages advanced to the next round after a 35-14 victory over the visiting Vikings. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks) Click here to see 14 more photos of Riley Austin currently in our online archive. Additional images are available offline. Follow this link for details on how to request them all to be displayed.

* * * * * * * * * * *

PHOTONEWS MEDIA holds a vast photograph and negative collection that comprises approximately two-million images. These photos were created by contributing photographers over nearly a decade and half starting at the birth of the digital age of photography capturing moments in time and memories to be shared for years to come.

Explore more faces, places and events comprised mostly of high school, collegiate and amateur athletes competing in events in East-Central Illinois. By the end of 2018, we hope to have collections of over 2,000 athletes available in the Hall of Champions catalog, which contains mostly never published, online or in print, action and candid photographs starting in 1999 until today. Most the images in each individual athlete collection are being shared for the first time in our archive.

All images displayed in the archive are available for editorial licensing, or purchase for private display or personal use. Patrons may order reproductions in the form of prints or digital files.

Please note that images are being entered into the system on almost a weekly basis. As of today most of the collections now online are incomplete and are representative samples from an event or of a specific athlete.

If you don't find who or what you're looking for after using our built-in search tool, please submit a photo search request or contact our online curator. Visit our site weekly for our latest release of athletes and events added to the digital library.

America is worth protecting

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by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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Many years ago my two sons and I took a few days and traveled to Southern California. We enjoyed seeing some sights in Los Angeles and San Diego. It's was one of those fun things we did I'll always remember.

One thing not so fun was our decision to cross the border into Tijuana, Mexico. We had never been to Mexico and thought it would be interesting to visit and then we could say we had been there. We drove to a parking lot just on the border and left our car and took a designated walkway path that led us right into Mexico. We were greeted by lots of taxi drivers who offered us a ride. We climbed into a cab and got our ears full on into the town of Tijuana. The taxi driver was full of expletives about what Tijuana was all about which was mostly drunkenness and prostitution. It felt like the taxi ride from hell. I was embarrassed for our family and was glad when we could get out of the car.

I felt like we had stepped into a scum hole. There was nothing really worth seeing in Tijuana and every other building was a loud bar with lots of men on the street begging us to come in to see the prostitutes. We probably survived our visit maybe an hour hoping to see something worth seeing before we finally found a taxi to take us back to the border. The driver on the way back laughed and said, "We have nothing here worth seeing or losing. We are not like the United States. We have nothing to lose." When we got out of the taxi there was a long line of people waiting to get through customs back into the United States. What took only a minute to cross into Mexico took us almost two hours that day to get back into our country. We were so glad to cross back into California.

I don't have anything against Mexico. There are lots of beautiful vacation spots and lovely people in that country. I eat breakfast at a place in our town operated by wonderful people from Mexico. However, the taxi driver was right in one point of his comparison between Mexico and America. We are worth something and have plenty to lose in this country.

A friend of mine just moved from a Texas border community and was irritated because someone from Mexico came across the border and stole his motorcycle. "I'll never see it again," He said. He also told about families he knew close to the border who would never let their children play outside alone. "Those families are terrified of their children being kidnapped and taken across the border. They know if that happens they will never see their children again."

Utilize our national guard on the border. Drugs are flowing into our nation from Mexico. People are still crossing illegally. We need to protect our people. Our borders should be crossed legally and people should abide in our country legally.

After all, America is worth protecting.

----------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization. -----------------------------------------------------------

This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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