Kent State University tabs CS8 rushing leader as head football coach

Kenni Burns, a 2003 Sacred Heart-Griffin High School graduate, was hired by Kent State University to be its head football coach last week.

He leaves Minnesota, where he spent six seasons as an assistant under P.J. Fleck. Burns followed Fleck from Western Michigan in 2017 and was promoted to assistant head coach in 2019.

“I am excited and humbled to lead the Kent State football program," Burns was quoted by The Associated Press. "I am looking forward to getting to know the team and connecting with them on a personal level, and I am also excited to engage our alumni and fans as we begin to move this program forward. We have a lot of work and recruiting to do, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Burns is the Central State Eight Conference’s career rushing leader with 4,584 yards despite suffering a broken bone in his foot in the 2001 season opener.

After Burns graduated from SHG, he played at Indiana then worked as an assistant at Southern Illinois, North Dakota State and Wyoming before going to Western Michigan. This is his first head coaching job.

Related story:'No other better way': SHG celebrates Ken Leonard's final season with state title

Iguodala, Collins headline IBCA Hall of Fame class

Two Lanphier High School basketball legends lead five local players who will be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Banquet in May.

Andre Iguodala, a 2002 Lanphier graduate and a four-time NBA champion, will join current Lanphier girls basketball head coach and 1987 graduate Doug Collins as the latest inductees in the IBCA Hall of Fame.

Iguodala was the Central State Eight Conference’s Boys Basketball Player of the Year in 2002 then played two seasons at Arizona before the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Iguodala ninth overall in the 2004 draft. He won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA in 2012 — the same year he was selected as an NBA All-Star. In 2015, he won the NBA Finals MVP after helping the Golden State Warriors to the first of four championships in an eight-year run. He’s currently in his 19th season but hasn’t played a game since the NBA Finals in June with a hip injury.

Collins, in his 24th season as the Lanphier girls basketball coach, was of the city’s top basketball players at Lanphier with a 23.9 points per game average, had a hall-of fame career at John A. Logan College before he went on to play a key role at Iowa State University. As a coach at Lanphier, he guided the Lions to their best finish — fourth — in the Class 3A state tournament in 2020. At Iowa State, he averaged 12.0 ppg as a junior with 6.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. As a senior, Collins upped his scoring to 14.3 ppg, 6.0 assists and was named captain of the All-Big Eight Conference’s defensive team.

Riverton’s Devyn Flanagan, who went on to play at Bradley University, is also part of the 2023 class. The 2004 graduate of Riverton was The State Journal-Register's Area Girls Basketball Player of the Year as a senior and the SJ-R's Area Female Athlete of the Year. At Bradley, she finished with more than 1,000 points and was second in scoring as a senior in 2007-08 with 9.6 ppg.

Ike Dodd, a 1981 graduate of Waverly, will also be inducted. Dodd played four seasons at Blackburn and scored 19.5 ppg, grabbed 11.6 rebounds and shot 57.3% in his senior season, 1984-85, when the Beavers won the National Small College Athletic Association National Tournament.

Eric Weaver, a 1991 graduate of Illinois, also made the cut. The 6-foot-5 Weaver dominated the 1991 Sangamon County Tournament, scoring a record 134 points as Illiopolis finished third. Weaver went on to play 32 games in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners and the Anaheim Angels. Weaver, who averaged an eye-popping 36.5 points and 23.3 rebounds as a senior, was a three-sport standout and was named The State Journal-Register's Area Male Athlete of the Year in 1991.

Also being inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame are area officials Bob Engel and Doug Strohm, both of Springfield, and Raymond’s Allen Poggenpohl.

Four local contributors to the sport will be inducted as Friends of Basketball: George Haycraft and Darin Seymour, both of Franklin, Buffalo’s Stan Price and Mike Meisner, of Raymond.

Richie to golf at SIU-C

New Berlin’s Dain Richie said knowing his next two years is reason to celebrate.

The Pretzels’ 2021 graduate chose to play his final college golf at Southern Illinois University Carbondale after two successful seasons at the two-year Parkland College.

"Putting the pen to paper for my commitment is a massive relief off of my shoulders," Richie said in an SIU press release. "It has provided peace of mind, something that coming from the JUCO route you do not always have. Some weeks you think you'll be playing at the highest level and other weeks you may think that you're done after that season. It has been a constant grind the last two years so signing to an established and successful program like SIU becomes that much more rewarding."

In 13 rounds of golf during his sophomore season, Richie led the Cobras with an 18-hole average of 72.8 strokes. His lowest two-hole round was a 143 and Richie had four rounds under par during the fall season.

Richie was The State Journal-Register's Small School Boys Golfer of the Year as a senior for South County — a golf co-op between New Berlin, Franklin and Waverly. At Parkland, he earned a National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association Division II All-American first team selection and was named to the Mid-West Athletic Conference’s team.

Springfield Lucky Horseshoes release schedule

The Prospect League announced its schedule for the 2023 season and the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes have 32 home games in its 60-game schedule.

The Lucky Horseshoes will try to improve on their last-place finish in the Prairie Land Division from 2022. Springfield was 27-33 and finished five games below division champion Alton in a tight race.

Springfield, which has been moved to the Eastern Conference’s Wabash River division after the league added a pair of teams for the 2023 season. The Wabash River division includes the Normal Cornbelters, Danville Dans and Terre Haute Rex.

The Horseshoes open the season at home against the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp, of Peru, on May 31 at Robin Roberts Stadium. They host Terre Haute on July 4 and close out the regular season at O'Fallon, Missouri, on Aug. 5. If Springfield qualifies for the playoffs, the postseason runs from Aug. 7-12.

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Kent State picks SHG grad Kenni Burns as head football coach