Provided
Illinois football coach Lovie Smith sits at the desk in his office at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Friday afternoon. Smith and his wife, MaryAnne, traveled to their Arizona home in mid-March before the coronavirus pandemic’s stay-at-home order in Illinois took effect on March 20 and have been in Arizona ever since.
LOVIE SMITH
‘We'll be ready to put a good product on the football field'
Lovie Smith and his wife, MaryAnne, had a trip to their home in Scottsdale, Ariz., planned for the second week of March.
With the University of Illinois set to go on spring break in mid-March and the Illini football team Smith coaches set to begin spring practices on March 23, it was a good time on the calendar for a quick vacation by the couple before the grind of the 2020 season began in full earnest.
Almost two months later, though, the Smiths are still in Scottsdale, staying there after the state of Illinois mandated a stay-at-home order on March 20 that’s still in effect through May because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve lived here before, and we have a long background here,” Smith told The News-Gazette on Friday afternoon. “But where we are right now, we might as well be in Egypt or Texas. It’s all the same. You’re inside your house most of the day.”
Smith said he has checked off “every honey-do item,” that needs taken care of around their Arizona residence.
And the fifth-year Illini coach, who will celebrate his 62nd birthday this upcoming Friday, said he’s currently in the best shape he’s been in during the last 15 years.
“Our society, we eat out an awful lot,” Smith said. “In the old days, you had a meal at home every night. MaryAnne and I have three home-cooked meals a day. We’re eating healthy. That part of it has really been good. Sometimes, to take a break in life in general and have some time to reflect, as a coach, you don’t have time to do any of these things. All of that has been good.”
Smith is staying active in keeping the Illini football team connected. Just doing so virtually. Smith said Illinois has four team meetings a week via Zoom, the video conference system people have quickly become acclimated to in the last seven weeks.
Adapting to the new technology wasn’t cumbersome for Smith.
“Every time a new iWatch comes out or a new iPhone, I have to have it,” he said. “I’m a tech guy like that. I did not know a lot about Zoom before, but once I had my first meeting and I could see every player and exactly what they’re doing, I thought it was almost an even better setup when you’re having a meeting and they’re all in the room.”
Aside from team meetings, position meetings, offensive meetings, defensive meetings, special teams meeting and recruiting meetings fill up Smith’s football-related tasks during the day.
“We Zoom prospects where we can all get on a guy with the guy,” Smith said. “Zoom has gone really, really well. The technical part, I feel like we’ve gotten better through this. The physical part, obviously, you can’t make up for.”
Smith said Friday he is still optimistic the Illini’s season will kick off Sept. 4 during its season opener against Illinois State at Memorial Stadium and said he will adapt to whatever timeline is in place for his athletes to get physically ready for the season. It’s an ongoing conversation he has with strength and conditioning coach Lou Hernandez.
“This is how I look at it: we normally have a 28-day block for training camp before start into our first game,” Smith said. “That’s intense football training that we go through. In an ideal world, we want as much time as possible. My approach that I’ve taken through this is tell us when we can start and then it’s left up to me or other leaders to have a plan for how much time we need. However long they give us, we’ll be ready to put a good product on the football field.”
Having an experienced team for the 2020 season gives Smith some confidence in that aspect. Illinois has 25 seniors on the roster, including returning starting quarterback Brandon Peters, and has added three graduate transfers this offseason. The last two seasons featured a combined 22 seniors on the Illinois roster.
“If this had gone on in years past, where we were so young, that wouldn’t have been an ideal situation,” Smith said. “It’s not like we’re putting in a new offensive system, a new defensive system or a new special teams system. We have everything in place. We’re equipped as well as you can be to deal with this new normal.”
The new normal, however, has found Smith longing for football. Or live sports of any kind, with Smith mentioning how he would typically check out the NBA playoffs right now if they were going on as scheduled.
Don’t tell him how ‘The Last Dance,’ has gone, either. Smith missed the first episode of the 10-part ESPN Films documentary on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, but said he plans to catch up on the series this week.
“I’ve found myself watching old re-runs of classic football games,” Smith said. “That’s been part of my routine. I have a setup with three monitors here where I have all of my video that I have in my office in Champaign. You can watch football whenever. I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night to do just that. Not having sports, there is a void.”
But Smith understands the importance of what the country and the world is facing right now amid the health crisis. His daughter-in-law works at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. He has a niece and a sister-in-law who are doctors.
“Those people are doing so much right now,” Smith said of healthcare workers.
Not only has Smith not seen his fellow Illinois coaches in person since the second week of March, he and his wife also haven’t seen any of their three children or 10 grandchildren in person during that time span.
“That’s been tough. It really is,” Smith said. “We FaceTime them and have a family Zoom, so we’re communicating that way also, but it’s hard. There’s so many people you miss seeing, of course family being the primary part, but this is our new normal, and we’re all adjusting.”
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Fisher football coach Jake Palmer holds his team’s helmet at Kellar Field, the home venue of the Bunnies, on Wednesday. Fisher recently won a statewide contest on Twitter for having the best high school football helmet in Illinois.
THE TOP HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL HELMET IN THE STATE
‘There isn't any team in America who has a more creative helmet'
Jake Palmer didn’t quite exactly know what to do the first time he tried to press the new Fisher logo that he was holding in his hands onto a black football helmet.
See, a drawing of a mean-looking bunny, complete with an orange and white face and orange ears, was staring right back at the Fisher football coach.
Why did Palmer, about to embark upon his second season in charge of the Bunnies at the time, struggle so much when presented with this situation on an Saturday morning back in August 2017?
“It was a pretty difficult process the first year because of the length of the ears and trying to make them symmetrical,” Palmer said. “But now, after three years of doing it, we have it down to a science.”
An award-winning science at that, too. Fisher recently won a poll on Twitter, receiving the most votes to emerge with the best-looking high school football helmet in Illinois. The Bunnies topped Minooka’s helmets in the state championship showdown after making their way through 164 schools that submitted photos of their helmets. Glenbrook South assistant football coach Travis Myers set up the Twitter contest.
“It was really just a great distraction at such a challenging time,” Palmer said. “I’ve joked that there isn’t any team in America who has a more creative helmet than we do. Honestly, winning really was a shock just because the size of our school.”
Minooka, a perennial Class 8A playoff contender, dwarfs Fisher’s enrollment by more than 2,500 students. Yet the Bunnies — who have reached the 1A playoffs each of the last three seasons wearing these helmets — prevailed.
“A few years back, there was a competition for the best mascot in the state,” Palmer said. “I thought we had a great chance to win, but we didn’t even get into the last four because a lot of bigger schools were just outvoting us because they had more people in their communities. We had a ton of support in our community, but I think a lot of other people around the state really supported our helmet in the competition as well.”
The origin of Fisher’s eye-catching helmets goes back to a meeting Palmer had with his four senior captains — Jaden Jones-Watkins, Jacob Horsch, Dawson Purvis and Kade Thomas — the summer before the 2017 season started.
Fisher had large bunny ears on one side of its black helmets during the 2016 season.
“I didn’t really like how they turned out,” Palmer said. “I had the idea to go with the way the Philadelphia Eagles have the wings going back on each side.”
Then Thomas chipped in.
“Kade mentioned, ‘What if we got the face on there, too?’” Palmer recalled. “So the helmet design was settled.”
An added bonus, though, came out of that meeting. Palmer wanted to award stickers to be placed on the helmets, too.
Enter Jones-Watkins.
“Jaden brought up the idea of carrots,” Palmer said. “My response was, ‘Aren’t carrots a little cheesy, Jay?’ When he said, ‘Coach, I’m a little cheesy,’ it was a done deal. We had to do the carrots.”
A move from black helmets to white helmets before the 2018 season was notable, too, in the helmet’s evolution.
“The community seemed to like it the first year with the black helmets, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2018 that we made the switch over to white helmets,” Palmer said. “That was when people really started to notice. The white helmets made the decal really pop.”
The 29-year-old Palmer hopes he can spend a Saturday morning in August 2020 putting on the bunny ear decals on Fisher’s helmet. All of that is up in the air at the moment because of the uncertain nature the pandemic has brought, but the Bunnies are scheduled to open the 2020 season at 7 p.m. on Aug. 28 at Villa Grove/Heritage.
“Starting the season on time is something constantly at the forefront of my mind,” Palmer said. “I try to just take it a day at a time and stay positive. August is still a long time away. This fall’s group of seniors has the chance to be the winningest class in Fisher football program history. I hope and believe that next fall’s group of seniors will still get to pull on that Fisher jersey for one last season.”
Provided
Veteran area soccer coach Mark Sikora and his 12-year-old daughter, Chloe, take a break from practicing at their home this past week.
THE SOCCER COACH
‘The preparation keeps me somewhat sane by having a goal in mind'
Mark Sikora is a fixture on the area soccer scene. Spending most of his life playing the game and later coaching the game in Champaign-Urbana lends him some credibility on the topic.
So this past weekend was a strange one for the 47-year-old.
The coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of Illinois Futbol Club’s annual spring tournament that involves hundreds of youth teams descending upon Champaign-Urbana for a weekend full of soccer.
Meaning no games for Sikora to coach or games for Sikora to watch potential future recruits in either.
“The Spring Cup tournament fulfilled a few needs for me,” Sikora said. “If I was coaching a team, it was a great way to see all the things we were working on in practice. Depending on the teams in the older divisions, the tournament allowed me to see Parkland recruits. From a soccer fan perspective, it is such a great event that highlights the rich soccer tradition in Champaign-Urbana.”
A tradition Sikora, a 1990 Centennial graduate, knows first-hand.
He’s in his 14th year coaching the Parkland men’s soccer team, keeping the Cobras among the most consistent NJCAA programs in the country each fall.
Prior to that, Sikora coached Centennial’s boys’ soccer teams from 1996 to 2006 and the Chargers’ girls’ soccer teams from 1999 to 2004. In addition, he’s helped coach various Illinois FC teams. Plus, he is also co-owner of Soccer Planet, an indoor soccer facility in Urbana.“I want to do everything I can to help the soccer community,” Sikora said.
He’s trying to do that. Only from home with his wife, Nicole, and the couple’s two daughters: 16-year-old Isabel and 12-year-old Chloe. On top of his family and soccer commitments, Sikora is wrapping up his 24th year as a history teacher at Centennial.
“We are still doing school, albeit online, so prepping lessons for that has taken up a fair share of time,” Sikora said. “Like all parents across the country, I’m a tutor for my own kids in their online classes, which is also stressful.”
To help ease some of that stress and to get his share of sports now, Sikora is turning to Netflix for documentaries like ‘Last Chance U,’ ‘Take Us Home: Leeds United,’ and ‘Sunderland ‘Til I Die.’ He’s also enjoying, ‘The Last Dance,’ the new ESPN Films 10-part documentary focusing on Michael Jordan and the Bulls of the 1990s.
“Sadly, I’ve always found myself watching people playing sports video games, something I swore I would never do since I left college when we used to watch others play Madden Football on our Sega Genesis console,” Sikora said. “Desperate times indeed.”
But back to soccer. Sikora is staying connected with his Parkland players the best he can via Zoom calls and Google Meetings. Those can present logistical challenges, though, since several of Parkland’s foreign-born players have returned to their home country during the pandemic.
“We have our players post videos of the work they are doing on the team’s Snapchat,” Sikora said. “Like most in college coaching, I am just trying to plan for the fall 2020 season and continue to recruit, schedule and prepare for it as if we will not be disrupted.”
That means communicating in several different modes, from email, text messages, Skype calls and traditional phone calls.
“Of course, who really knows what the future of COVID-19 holds,” Sikora said, “but the preparation keeps me somewhat sane by having a goal in mind.”
Provided
Uni High graduate Mike Renner is now a lead NFL draft analyst for Pro Football Focus
THE NFL EXPERT
‘It almost feels as if I'm always at work'
Before March arrived, Mike Renner would mainly work from home.
The 30-year-old Mahomet native now living in Cincinnati and employed as a lead NFL draft analyst for Pro Football Focus did indeed work mainly from home in March and all of April.
Because the coronavirus pandemic necessitated the move. Before the pandemic hit, Renner would go into the office a few times a week for a block of videos and podcasts.
“The rest of the time, I’d make my own schedule, for the most part, in terms of when I wanted to get things done throughout the day,” said Renner, a 2008 Uni High graduate and News-Gazette First-Team All-Area boys’ basketball selection in 2008 during his senior season with the Illineks. “Now, it almost feels as if I’m always at work with little in the way of things to distract me.”
Renner — who gained some national attention in the summer of 2018 by appearing as a contestant on the 14th season of ABC’s ‘The Bachelorette,’ — said he would have spent most of March and April in his house anyway, watching film and breaking down prospects.
“Having videos all be remote wasn’t too big of an issue,” said Renner, who cited having no numbers from hundreds of prospect’s pro days as a challenge. “The biggest hassle came with being able to focus. Not having normal activities, like going to the gym or dinner with friends to break up the workweek, led to some struggles with getting work done in a timely manner.”
Renner consumed nearly every minute of the NFL draft during the three days of the broadcast last week.
“I thought it was a refreshing change from the canned interviews that you see every year,” Renner said. “I don’t need to know that every single prospect is excited and can’t wait to get started. Those are obvious. I want to know who they are and what we’re getting on the football field. I think we saw more of that this year.”
Outside of Joe Burrow going with the top pick to the Cincinnati Bengals, he didn’t foresee quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa (Dolphins), Justin Herbert (Chargers) and Jordan Love (Packers) landing with the teams that selected them during the first round.
“I bought into the Herbert to Miami hype,” Renner said, “and never in a million years thought the Packers would trade up to take a quarterback with Aaron Rodgers under contract the next four seasons.”
Closer to his roots of Champaign County, Renner is optimistic Lovie Smith’s program will have a player or two drafted in 2021 after Illinois didn’t have a player selected among the 255 picks last week.
“I’d bet good money that right tackle Alex Palczewski is drafted next year,” Renner said. “Probably not highly, but a solid Day 3 prospect at this point. Josh Imatorbhebhe could with a big year as well.”
Provided
The 2020 St. Joseph-Ogden baseball team posed for a photo in the school’s gymnasium in early March before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Pictured, from left, are (front row) Joe Acton, Keegan McCarty, Blake Primmer, Crayton Burnett, Drew Coursey, Brendan Cooperider, Coby Miller and Robert Gebbink; (middle row) Tyler Altenbaumer, Jaden Miller, Isaiah Immke, John Ehmen, Sam Wesley and Brayden Weaver; (back row) Connor Hodge, Keaton Nolan, Zach Martinie, Ty Pence, Blake Dable, Jackson Rydell, Xander Rieches and Andrew Beyers.
THE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
‘We put so much into the beginning of the season'
Saturdays this spring are difficult days for Josh Haley.
The ninth-year baseball coach at St. Joseph-Ogden is used to having games to coach on the weekend.
Breakfast gatherings with his assistant coaches.
Getting the Spartans’ home field ready or hopping on a bus to play a road doubleheader.
Then, a cookout after the games are done.
“That family atmosphere, we’re just missing it,” Haley said. “I feel like a fish out of water.”
The coronavirus pandemic made those moments Haley treasured in the past nonexistent the last two months. The baseball season for SJ-O, one of the area’s most consistent programs in the last decade under Haley’s watch, never got started except for two weeks’ worth of practices.
“I enjoy the first couple weeks of practice every year,” said Haley, who has compiled a 224-65-2 record at SJ-O and has guided the Spartans to seven straight Class 2A regional titles, including state runner-up finishes in 2016 and 2017. “It’s just having a new group and putting the pieces together. All the planning that went into the preseason and then to see that progress where you take the field for three to four weeks and seeing how that changes. That’s the hardest part for me. We put so much into the beginning of the season.”
The Spartans had high expectations once again this spring. With stout starting pitching, led by junior Crayton Burnett and seniors Keegan McCarty and Zach Martinie, Haley didn’t downplay on where SJ-O thought it would end the season: at Dozer Park in downtown Peoria, the site of the 2A state tournament.
“This group wanted to get back to Peoria because they felt they were on the cusp last year,” Haley said. “They were geared up for that, and this senior class had a lot of opportunity early in varsity action. It is a disappointment because the first two weeks of practices, there were three to four guys that could really throw it on the mound. Everybody saw that early. We were going to have some dominant pitching on the mound.”
Like Burnett.
The right-hander went 6-3 with a miniscule 0.40 earned run average to go along with 96 strikeouts and 15 walks in 69 1 / 3 innings during his sophomore season, but his junior season was lost.
Haley isn’t worried, though, about the potential college recruitment for Burnett, even though he wasn’t able to showcase his skills this spring at SJ-O.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of recruits in his boat a little bit,” Haley said. “The junior year is important and even the summer of his junior year, but it’s not like he’s an unknown commodity. He’s known.
“For right now, it’s just finding the right fit and the relationships that he’s built in the last year. He’s still going to have opportunities, and the whole junior class is going to have those opportunities. It’s just the unknown right now, though.”
While the Illinois High School Association canceled state events for all spring sports, the governing body for high school athletics in the state is letting individual school districts decide if they want to play any games later this summer if the conditions are safe to do so.
Haley said SJ-O athletic director Justin Franzen is leaving open the possibility for the Spartans to compete this summer if the situation improves.
“The door is still open for us to do something this summer if the state allows it,” Haley said. “We know that door is probably only a slight crack right now, and it doesn’t look all that good, but that possibility is still there until we’re completely shut down.”
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Veteran sports photographer Craig Pessman near Memorial Stadium in Champaign on Thursday.
THE SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER
‘I try to go into every event hoping to get the defining image of the event'
Put a camera in Craig Pessman’s hands, at an Illinois sporting event no less, and the 60-year-old Champaign resident is more than content.
“I recognize I have a front-row seat to some great action, and I enjoy the challenge of capturing a special moment we can share with others,” Pessman said. “I try to go into every event hoping to get the defining image of the event. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t, but I love that challenge.”
Pessman has helped regularly photograph Illini athletic events for almost the last decade for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. For the 1981 UI graduate who grew up on a farm between Fulton and Morrison in northwestern Illinois, photography was a hobby he picked up during his high school days.
“I didn’t play football, but the fall of 1976 was the year Fulton won its first of two state football championships,” Pessman said. “I was there with a camera shooting for the high school photo club in the days of film. My parents always had a camera, and my mother had boxes of slides and family photo albums, so taking photos was just something we always did.”
His passion for photography continued at Illinois, where he managed the journalism department’s darkroom his senior year at UI. And it’s where he saw one of his first photos appear in a publication, with his shot of Eddie Johnson during an Illinois men’s basketball game against Minnesota running in the Chicago Tribune.
“That was pretty exciting for a small-town kid,” Pessman said.
Another notable early sports photography moment transpired with one of Johnson’s Illini teammates in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 6-foot-11 center Derek Holcomb.
“Holcomb got shoved on a play and went flying my way through the photographer’s row under the basket,” Pessman said. “Fortunately for a 6-11 guy, he was still pretty graceful. Other than my skinned-up elbow, no athletes, photographers or cameras were hurt.”
Pessman’s full-time job is working in the software industry on the sales and marketing side, working his photo gigs around his daily work schedule. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Pessman’s spring took a different route than he anticipated.
“I had about 15 sports, concerts or community events canceled within about an hour one afternoon a few weeks ago,” said Pessman, who was scheduled to take photos at Illinois baseball’s annual Bleacher Bums barbecue and Illinois softball’s World Largest Tailgate event the final weekend in April. “That was a big part of my life in the spring that is gone.”
The Illini sport Pessman has photographed more than any is volleyball. He started taking photos informally near the end of Mike Hebert’s coaching tenure at Illinois in the mid-1990s and has continued to do so, including during the 2011 season that ended with the Illini playing in the national championship match. He was The News-Gazette’s photographer on the ground at the Alamodome in San Antonio for the Final Four.
“My first more official role came when former News-Gazette photo editor Darrell Hoemann called me before the volleyball team’s appearance in San Antonio,” Pessman said. “He asked if I would shoot photos of the Illini experience and matches for The N-G. Shortly after, I started regularly photographing for Illinois athletics.”
Needless to say, he is familiar with every nook and cranny at venerable Huff Hall. Eager is an understatement for when Pessman can take his first photos there of the 2020 Illini season.
“It has been way too long since a big Illini volleyball kill shot from an outside hitter has filled my viewfinder in Huff Hall,” Pessman said. “I am more than ready to see what the fall edition of the team looks like and see how they compete in the challenging Big Ten. I am sure our community and the university will do the right thing for the safety of our fans and athletes, but I will sure be happy when I can walk into Huff with a bag of camera gear behind me. It will be time to go back to work.”
Provided
The staff at Bricks and Ivy Sports poses with former NBA player Dennis Rodman when Rodman visited the Hoopeston store for a signing appearance last June.
THE SPORTS MEMORABILIA STORE
‘Our business is more about sharing our passion about sports'
For Bob and Emily Brown, part of the allure of owning Bricks and Ivy Sports in Hoopeston is the in-person interaction with their customers.
Discussing sports. Sports cards. And sports memorabilia, among other items.
Interaction the owners of the store haven’t had since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve tried to continue to engage our customers through social media, but it’s been rough not seeing people in the store on a day-to-day basis,” Bob said. “We miss the conversation and the sports talk.”
The Browns closed the store to customers once the stay-at-home order was issued March 20, but continued to take orders online and ship them out. This past Friday, they were able to start curbside service with some of the restrictions relaxing.
“We’ve had a lot of people worried that we are going to close for good,” Bob said. “We assure them that this isn’t going to happen. We are a family-owned card shop. Our son, Nick, is the full-time manager and my wife I both have full-time jobs. As soon as we are allowed to open, we will, and we hope that those loyal customers are the first ones through the door.”
The business has attracted notable current and former sports starts to stop by the Vermilion County town for meet-and-greet appearances with fans. Like Dennis Rodman, Kerry Wood, Ben Zobrist and Devin Hester, among others, since the store opened in 2017.
Bricks and Ivy was slated to have former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on March 22 and former Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez on May 9 for signings, but had to cancel those events. They are planning to reschedule both signings in the future.
“When we are allowed to re-open, it will be a huge celebration for us,” Bob said. “Our business is more about sharing our passion about sports and giving people experiences. We cannot wait to get back at it.”
Provided
New Illinois women's basketball assistant coach Vernette Skeete hasn't moved to Champaign yet and is still living in Milwaukee, where she worked as an assistant coach with the Marquette women's basketball team for the past six seasons before being hired with the Illini in mid-April.
THE NEW ASSISTANT COACH
‘I thought it felt like I fit here'
Vernette Skeete knows she’ll have to move to Champaign soon.
The new Illinois women’s basketball assistant coach, currently living in Milwaukee after spending the last six seasons as an assistant at Marquette, has checked out future houses. Mostly online, though, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be down there by the end of May or the early part of June,” Skeete said. “My housing situation is almost figured out, but it hasn’t been as much of a priority with everything going on. It’s a little harder when you have to rely on virtual tours and the internet a little more.”
Along with getting acclimated to her new job at Illinois under these unusual times, the 36-year-old Skeete also has plenty to juggle at home, too, with her fiance Dee Holland. She has a 16-month-old daughter, Dihyadior, and is six months pregnant. The couple is expecting a son this summer.
Add on the fact Skeete has only gotten to know her new players at Illinois and her new staff mostly via Zoom during the last three weeks since her hiring by Illinois coach Nancy Fahey was announced on April 13. Skeete already had a built-in connection, though, with fellow first-year Illini assistant Scott Merritt since both were on staff at Marquette.
Skeete said the relationship she has with Merritt’s wife, Ashley, helped make her decision to leave Marquette easier.
“She basically told me we weren’t going to be friends again if we didn’t come,” Skeete said with a laugh.
All kidding aside, Skeete seems to relish the challenge she’s walking into at Illinois. The Illini are 30-61 in Fahey’s three seasons and haven’t reached the NCAA tournament since 2003. At Marquette, Skeete coached in three straight NCAA tournaments in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
“Being able to speak to Coach Fahey and hear her passion and her vision for the program,” Skeete said, “I thought it felt like I fit here.”
Skeete has adjusted to her new job and the techonological requirements right now during her first three weeks working with the Illini.
While still taking care of Dihyadior during the day. It’s a time in her life she won’t likely soon forget.
“That’s one thing I really love about Coach Fahey is she has a great sense of family,” Skeete said. ““When my daughter sees me starting at my laptop, she wonders, ‘Why can’t I play with it?’ It’s different in that dynamic of keeping her engaged, but it’s been cool.”
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Sunday Special | Impact of coronavirus on local sports community, part VI - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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