Rock Valley College women are national basketball champions for the fourth time in six years after beating defending champion Roxbury in overtime last Saturday for a National Junior College Athletic Association Division III title.

UTICA, N.Y.

Rock Valley women win national title in OT

For the fourth time in six years, Rock Valley College’s women are bringing home a National Junior College Athletic Association Division III basketball championship trophy after a 57-49 win in overtime over defending champion and No. 3 seed Roxbury (Mass.) last Saturday night.

No. 1 seeded Rock Valley rallied to force a 47-47 tie at the end of regulation and outscored Roxbury 10-2 in overtime to secure the win.

Tournament MVP Tierra McGowan helped guide Rock Valley (33-2) to the victory posting 20 points and 22 rebounds in her double-double performance. McGowan finished the tournament averaging 21.3 points and 15 rebounds in three games.

Roxbury finished 25-3.

Jaycee Cleaver added 13 points and completed the tournament averaging 14 points per game.

The title is the fourth women’s basketball championship in Golden Eagles’ history – all in the last six years, including wins in 2012, 2013 and 2015.

ROCKFORD

Normal school days seen as strike ends

Rockford Public School officials expected to have a normal school week following the end of a three-day strike by bus drivers, food workers and paraprofessionals.

“We expect bus drivers, nutrition service workers and paraprofessionals will return to work on Monday, March 20, based on details in their strike notice,” RPS said in a recorded call to district families. “That means regularly scheduled transportation will continue on Monday, and regular school operations will resume. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.”

Workers went on strike for three days last week to protest a contract offer that included a salary increase but also higher insurance premiums that some union members said would offset the higher pay.

CHERRY VALLEY

Youth escort police begins at Cherry Vale

Cherry Vale Mall’s new policy on weekend visits by unsupervised teens went into effect that week.

Following two shooting incidents at the mall last year, management instituted a new policy that required all children under the age of 18 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian age 21 or older.

Restrictions begin after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and could also be extended at management’s discretion. Guards will be posted at mall entrances to check identification.

“The policy is in effect for the entire mall except stores with exterior entrances; including: Bergner’s, Barnes & Noble, JCPenney, Macy’s, and Sears,” CherryVale officials said in a statement on the mall’s web site.

“The policy includes the walkways and any corridor leading to the mall. In addition, unsupervised shoppers under the age of 18 will not be permitted to congregate in the mall parking lot or exterior common areas.”

Other malls around the nation have also reported incidents, including one in the Chicago area when fights broke out among teens at Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, Ill. late last year.

ROCKFORD

RU history explored at lunch and learn event

As part of observing Rockford University’s 170th year, the community is invited to “Location Location Location,” a brown-bag lunch-and-learn providing an in-depth look at the university;s history at noon on Thursday in Regents Hall at the Burpee Student Center.

Tracing back to 1928, Bern Sundstedt, Vice President for Institutional Advancement and unofficial Rockford University historian, will chronicle the events and personalities surrounding the little-known, yet remarkable 32-year story of the University’s relocation from its original home along the eastern shores of the Rock River to its current park-like campus.

In 1847, the university was chartered by the Illinois legislature as Rockford Female Seminary, initially holding classes in the courthouse of downtown Rockford, then a town of 2,500 people. The university moved to its current home on East State Street in the 1960s, after more than a century on its original campus between the Rock River and Seminary Street.

FREEPORT

Farmers Market boot camp offered

The University of Illinois Extension will partner with the Pretzel City Market and the Freeport Downtown Development Foundation for a Farmers Market Boot Camp to offer farmers tips and information about marketing directly to the consumer for the upcoming market season.

The boot camps  will feature three, two-hour sessions covering rules and regulations, crop succession and planning, and use of social media, marketing, and booth design.

Farmers Market Boot Camp will be held on March 21, 28 and April 4, from 6 – 8 pm, at the University of Illinois Extension located at Highland Community College in the Community Services Building (use parking lot B). 

There is no cost to attend but pre-registration is required by calling the University of Illinois Extension at (815) 235-4125 or on-line at web.extension.illinois.edu/jsw.

–Winnebago County News Briefs–