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It’s time for you to vote in our poll to decide what you think is the top story of 2024

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It’s time for you to vote in our poll to decide what you think is the top story of 2024

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Recently we ran a story highlighting the top 10 sports stories of 2024, and soon you will find out who we select as our top 10 athletes of 2024.

After each story, we will give you, the reader, a chance to have your voice heard by voting on one of our polls.

Here is your football POY: Find out who you picked as the Rockford-area football Player of the Year

As in the past, we broke down our Top Games of 2023, and also announced our Best Performances of 2023 — we are doing it again for 2024. This past summer we came up with our Top Games of 2024 (so far!), as well as our Best Moments of 2024, but now it’s time to wrap up the entire year.

So after reading through our top 10 stories of 2024, it’s time to vote on your favorite. Go to rrstar.com or to the poll below to vote. Voting will last for two weeks, with the results being announced sometime after Jan. 8, 2025.

Here are the nominees for top stories of 2024:

Running scared

With 49 seconds to play in Guilford’s 54-47 win at Auburn, basketball fans burst through the lobby doors and rushed onto the court. Soon, everyone was running. Here’s how it all went down.

Byron’s basketball run

Byron, a state power in more sports than not these days, had never been to a boys state basketball tournament, but then all of a sudden the Tigers started 20-0 last winter. That was following up a record-setting state championship season on the football field. See what else happened.

Hononegah’s wrestling swagger

After three down years, the Hononegah wrestling program jolted back into the spotlight this past year, not only dominating the NIC-10 again, but getting right back into the state title picture. Here’s more.

Three basketball stars

Rockford native AJ Storr; Rockford Christian grad Marcus Hill; former East star Sincere Parker. Rockford had not had three players so successful in men’s college basketball in over 30 years. And then this.

No more school

Freeport Aquin is the home of the Rockford area’s greatest girls basketball player of all time, Sophie Brunner, and more. But one year after winning its only other state title — the 1A girls volleyball title — Aquin ceased to be a high school. Here’s more on Aquin.

North Boone’s softball prowess

North Boone got to the IHSA state softball tournament for the first time in school history last year, and the Vikings nearly pulled out the championship. Led by All-State pitcher Cami Carter and All-State catcher Dani Goodman ― who were each named co-MVP of the softball season by the Rockford Register Star ― North Boone fell to Carterville in the state finals. Here’s how.

Brad Benjamin’s kidney

The biggest golf news in Rockford history, now, may be how former Guilford great Brad Benjamin got his life back with a new kidney. After stories publicized his plight, Jill Powers — the mother to a friend of Benjamin’s young daughter — gave him one of her kidneys so he could return to a normal life.

Tony Cassioppi flips

Former Hononegah star wrestler Tony Cassioppi lost out on his final season of college wrestling over a suspension from a controversial betting probe at the University of Iowa. But a few months later, Cassioppi got the last laugh when he signed on to become an assistant coach at Iowa’s rival, Wisconsin.

Guilford shines

Led by the Rockford Register Star’s Female Athlete of the Year for the 2023-24 school year, Zariah Burnett, the Guilford Vikings soared all the way to the state championship game in the first season for IHSA girls flag football this past fall.

Rockford’s big day

The NIC-10 has never had an NBA player anywhere close to as good as Fred VanVleet. Or three NFL players with key roles at the same time. One day, it all came together. Nov. 17, 2024, was a shining example of what Rockford athletes can do.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star

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