NORMAL

Byron makes it back-to-back titles

Paige Holloway scored 22 points and Bailey Burrows and Lexi DeVries each added 11 as Byron beat Bloomington Central Catholic 53-32 on Saturday to capture its second consecutive Class 2A girls basketball title.

The Tigers (33-2) completed the season with a 19-game winning streak and rolled through most of their state tournament run. The closest challenge was an 8 point victory over Spring Valley Hall in a Princeton Sectional final.

In last Saturday’s title game at Redbird Arena, Byron never trailed and jumped to 8-3 lead by the end of the first quarter, led 19-16 at halftime and blew the game open with a 22-8 third quarter for a 41-24 advantage heading into the final period.

Byron went 33-3 in 2015-16 and beat Teutoplis 53-44 for the school’s first girls basketball crown.

Bloomington Central Catholic closed at 22-11.

ROCKFORD

Park, school districts okay land swaps

Closed or closing schools will soon become parks under a new agreement between Rockford Public Schools and the Rockford Park District.

The School Board and Park District Board of Commissioners have approved an intergovernmental agreement tonight that will help develop a new elementary school in Cherry Valley and turn land at White Swan, Thompson and New Milford elementary schools over to the Park District for neighborhood recreational opportunities.

The strategic land management agreement outlines 18 acres of Park District-owned land at Harrison Avenue and Perryville Road, which is Southeast Community Park. Under terms of the agreement, RPS 205 will use that land to build a new school in Cherry Valley. RPS 205 will exchange it for land at White Swan (4.72 acres), Thompson (8.49 acres), and New Milford (3.65 acres) schools. White Swan and Thompson are scheduled to close after the 2017-18 school year. New Milford Elementary closed after the 2010-11 school year.

RPS 205 will first demolish those buildings, and then turn the green space over to the Park District. New Milford School will serve as open space for passive recreation. Thompson School likewise will have an interim period of serving primarily as open space; there is also a paved area along the east property line that will remain to provide connectivity to the Charles Street multi-use path. White Swan School will retain the existing playground along with fencing and select paved areas.

STATE

Bustos won’t run for governor in 2018

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos has announced she will not run for governor in 2018.

The three-term Democratic member of Congress, who represents the Rockford area and much of northwest Illinois,  told a national media outlet that the combination of a new U.S. House leadership position and the challenge of raising millions of dollars were factors in her decision.

“As much of anything, it’s based on the fact that I was just elected to the House Democratic leadership,” she told the political web site POLITICO last week. “I think it’s a big responsibility and I serve as a voice for the folks in the heartland who feel that they’ve been left behind.”

Four potential candidates remain as possibilities to challenge incumbent Republican Bruce Rauner: billionaire business J.B. Pritzker; Chris Kennedy, former University of Illinois trustees and son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy; Chicago AldermanAmeya Pawar; and Madison County school superintendent Bob Daiber.

African-American veterans honored

Members of an elite African-American WWII unit of the U.S. Marines were honored Feb. 22 at in a ceremony at the State of Illinois James R. Thompson Center. Five Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, members of the Montfort Point Marine Association, were called “trailblazers.”

The 2017 Salute to African American Veterans was presented by the Illinois Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

“You have it possible for me to stand here today, in this uniform, wearing a rank and holding a position that during your time could only be viewed from afar,” said Coast Guard Cmdr. Zeita Merchant, who heads Chicago’s Marine Safety Unit.

Montford Point, N.C. was the site of a segregated training camp where more than 20,000 African-Americans trained between 1942 and 1949. Recruits went on to become the first African-Americans to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Loyalty and Service in the Face of Prejudice and Discrimination” is the slogan of a special archive collection of online oral histories and photographs at the University of North Carolina.

Cpl. Harry Hamilton, awarded at the Chicago ceremony, is interviewed in the UNC archives.

From Tutwiler, Miss., Hamilton served between 1943-50 in the 52nd Defense Battalion, according to the archive website. Hamilton participated in “occupation duty” on both Saipan and Guam. After the war, Hamilton worked for the U.S. Post Office in Chicago for 37 years, according to his biography.

–Winnebago County News Briefs–