Starting Lineup: Notable storylines, games, numbers as fall season gets underway

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Welcome to the Starting Lineup, Clutch Sports Media’s new morning column on anything and everything in Central Illinois high school sports. 

For those of you who are CSM Overtime subscribers — and we thank you for your support! — you might be familiar with our nightly Roundups of area scores, stats and top performers. 

But what about all the other things going on in prep sports around Peoria and Bloomington/Normal?

That’s where the Starting Lineup comes into play. We’ll help you kick off your day with bite-sized news, storylines, analysis and more as we continue to expand our coverage of teams from the 39 schools in our coverage area. 

Speaking of increasing …

CSM Fall Previews 

On Aug. 29, CSM put a bow on its 2025 Fall Sports Preview project, where our staff of writers interviewed coaches and players and wrote in-depth previews on a total of 85 area football, volleyball and boys soccer teams. Such an ambitious project wouldn’t have been possible without them, and we’d also like to thank the coaches and athletes who took the time to talk with us. In total, the previews contained nearly 88,000 words and mentioned 690 area athletes. 

To everyone who read our previews and subscribed, we’re glad you’re here and we look forward to providing more coverage of your teams through our Roundups, news, feature stories, power rankings and more (and we apologize for blowing up your email inbox the last few weeks!) If you’re not a subscriber, please consider supporting our efforts to cover local schools and their talented athletes.

Magic number: 400 

On Aug. 28, Pekin volleyball head coach Yvonne Thompson won her 400th career game with the Dragons in a victory over Richwoods. Thompson has led the Pekin program since 2000 and is one of just four head coaches in its 50-plus years. For those curious, the IHSA’s all-time winningest coach is Wheaton St. Francis’ Peg Kopec with 1,248. 

3 events worth watching this week 

1. Normal Community at Normal U-High boys soccer: The Intercity tournament kicks off on Sept. 1 with two title contenders facing off, however this year’s tournament is still wide open. 

2. Cissna Park at Tri-Valley volleyball: A Vikings team that could win the HOIC this year will welcome the reigning third place state finisher in Class 1A in a heavyweight tilt on Sept. 3. 

3. PND Early Season Invite: Several of the top area cross-country teams on both boys and girls’ sides, such as Elmwood/Brimfield, Eureka and El Paso-Gridley, will hit the course at Donovan Park on Sept. 2. 

Monday Morning Quarterback: Notables from Friday’s football games

• Normal U-High and Manual combined for 93 points as the Pioneers pulled away for a 71-22 victory. Farmington (51) and Princeville (54) also hung up crooked numbers in big wins and several other teams reached 40 points. Talk about shaking off the rust quickly.

• Dee-Mack’s 38-8 win over Eureka was the Chiefs’ first against the Hornets since 2016. Shaun Denniston’s 186 rushing yards and three touchdowns buoyed Cody Myers’ group.

• Dunlap will be a bit more rested heading into Week 2 against Rock Island. The Eagles’ opener against Galesburg was called final in the third quarter due to lightning in the area, but Dunlap had already proved its dominance with a 44-0 advantage. 

• Metamora’s Nick Delinski was the lone new head coach in the area to taste victory in Week 1 as the Redbirds trounced Sterling 43-14. Limestone (Cory Bielema) and Tremont (Joe Hageman) both lost, but to formidable foes as the Rockets fell to last year’s Class 4A state runner-up Mt. Zion and the Turks came up short against a highly-regarded Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley team.