History Lesson: Reconfigured Bucs still had enough to win state title

From the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, Verne Pottinger had a powerhouse at Belvidere High School. From 1983 through 1993, Belvidere won fewer than nine games in a season just twice. The 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1992 teams all won more than 10. In 1993, the school finally broke through, storming to a Class 5A title with a perfect 14-0 record.

In 1994, Belvidere made the playoffs, but fell to Class 4A and rolled to another state title. Considering the Bucs were going against smaller schools, it wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise is that there actually was a considerable amount of drama in 1994 because a large number of players that were being counted on didn't play ... for a variety of reasons.

Pottinger, who left Belvidere to finish his coaching career in Wisconsin, talks about the hurdles the team had to overcome in this edition of History Lessons.

2019 Boys Cross Country

Team Results
1.	Belvidere North	41
2.	Rockton Hononegah	87
3.	Rockford Auburn	89
4.	Rockford Guilford	90
5.	Rockford Boylan	117
6.	Machesney Park Harlem	137
7.	Rockford East	165
8.	Belvidere	179
9.	Rockford Jefferson	266

Individual Results
1.	Max Beutel	North	15:26.8
2.	Jonah Garcia	Auburn	15:39.2
3.	Peter Maculan	Auburn	15:39.9
4.	Nate Halbrader	Hononegah	16:11.4
5.	Dominick Welte	Hononegah	16:18.7
6.	Liam Keefe	Boylan	16:23.4
7.	Miles Lang	East	16:24.0
8.	Chris Metz	Freeport	16:25.7
9.	Caden McNulty	North	16:29.0
10.	Nick Lenzen	North	16:29.9

2019 Girls Cross Country

Team Results
1.	Belvidere North	25
2.	Rockton Hononegah	38
3.	Machesney Park Harlem	97
4.	Rockford Boylan	113
5.	Rockford Auburn	140
6.	Belvidere	162
7.	Rockford Guilford	169

Individual Results
1.	Gianna Sagonna	North	18:10.5
2.	Madison Diercks	North	18:27.5
3.	Michelle Gasmund	East	18:32.0
4.	Sydnie Elder	North	18:38.6
5.	Hailey Henry	Hononegah	18:45.1
6.	Lauren Johnston	Hononegah	18:48.9
7.	Indigo Sterud	Hononegah	18:49.1
8.	Isabella Roethle	Auburn	18:52.0
9.	Alex Pecora	North	19:07.8
10.	Alexis Kuehne	Harlem	19:17.5

2019 Girls Tennis

NIC-10 Standings
1.	Rockford Auburn	56.6
2.	Rockton Hononegah	46.4
3.	Rockford Guilford	44.8
4.	Rockford Boylan	43.6
5.	Belvidere North	37.2
6.	Belvidere	25
7.	Freeport	23.4
8.	Machesney Park Harlem	19
9.	Rockford East	16.8
10.	Rockford Jefferson	7.4

Individual Results
Singles
No. 1	Belen Nevenhoven (Auburn) def. Beau DeGennaro (Belvidere)	6-1, 6-0
No. 2	Cristina Gelabert (Guilford) def. Melanie Martinovic (Auburn)	6-1, 6-4
Doubles
No. 1	Natalie Muldowney/MiaBella Provenzano (Boyan) def. Paris Thompson/Amy Park (Auburn)	6-2, 5-7, (10-6)
No. 2	Maddie Harned/Alyssa Trapp (Auburn) def. Mya Carter/Lizzie Schindler (Hononegah)	2-6, 6-0, (10-7)
No. 3	Phuong Pham/Vicky Wu (Auburn) def. Tori Lawlor/Alison Stephens (Hononegah)	7-5, 6-2

History Lesson: Freeport QB Harry Kent led unrivaled passing attack in 1959

I discovered Harry Kent - apparently known as "Golden Arm" by the Freeport sportswriters - because I was trying to learn more about Ron Fearn.

Fearn went from Rockford East to playing quarterback for the University of Illinois. I wanted to compile as much info about Fearn as possible so I looked up his junior and senior football seasons - 1958 and 1959.

Right away, I noticed that Freeport had quite a squad in 1959 and that its quarterback, Harry Kent, was throwing a ton of touchdown passes.

The Rockford Morning Star and Register-Republic tended to be hit-and-miss when it came to reporting about Freeport. Some years, the Rockford papers would miss several games. In 1959, though, every Freeport box was reported.

That allowed me to total up Kent's 20 touchdown passes. I still have years left to look up, but I can't imagine anyone having thrown more to that point. A NIC-10 quarterback wouldn't top 20 until 1987.

Still, coaches picked Fearn as the first-team all-conference quarterback. Typically, if your QB is solid and you win the conference, he's picked first team. Thanks to Don Werntz, I was able to find Kent in Montana and talk a little 1950s football.

Click here to read the story.

History Lesson: Megan Fong's breakthrough title remembered 20 years later

Megan Fong was a trailblazer at Auburn, winning the school's No. 1 girls singles title in 1999. She would repeat in 2000 and then head off to play college tennis at Bradley. Unfortunately, at Bradley she was diagnosed with leukemia and died at the age of 19.

Her coach, Tracy Palmer, remembers Fong 20 years later. You can read it by clicking here.

The NIC-10 History Book chased down Carrie Jeanmaire, now Carrie Jeanmaire Kapala, to talk about Fong. Carrie had just had a baby and didn't get back to us in time to make it into the Register Star story. Here's what Carrie remembers about Megan.

"I only played Megan a few times in high school matches. She was a couple years older than me. When we did play, she was a tough opponent for me then because she was calm, consistent and competitive. I always admired how calm she could stay when competing since that was my biggest weakness.

"Before finding out she was sick, my parents saw her competing at the same tournament I was at. She had been going to Bradley for a couple months by then. I remember them saying 'that is not the same Megan that we saw in high school tennis.' She did not have the same energy.

"When I heard she was sick I felt bad. I never really knew anyone that young to have cancer so it was scary. When she passed away I was sad for her family, for their loss. It made me think about life can be taken away from you at any time and how lucky I was to be healthy.

"When coaching juniors today, I stress about their attitude and staying calm and not showing weakness. That was the type of player Megan was and I really enjoy coaching players that can do this. I also find great joy when I can help players that are struggling with this to overcome it."