By Jeff Vorva

Crete-Monee soccer player Omar Romo is pretty good on the field as in three years on the varsity, the junior scored 17 goals and added 15 assists in 29 games.

He’s even better off the field and behind a monitor.

Romo put an exclamation point on a huge season in esports.

He won the Illinois High School State championship in the EA Sports FC division of the esports state finals on April 27 at Evergreen Park High School.

EA  Sports FC is an esports soccer game, so his knowledge on the field came in handy.

It didn’t come easy, however.

In the double elimination format, Romo won his first four games by a combined score of 18-2, including a 4-1 semifinal win over St. Laurence’s Adrian Diaz.

But Diaz came up from the loser’s bracket and knocked off Romo 5-1 to set up a winner-take-all final which Romo won in exciting fashion, 4-3.  

During the regular season, Romo and the Warriors participated in five tournaments, and he won championships in four of them and second in the other. He also won a sectional title before taking the state title.

Coaches honored

The Illinois Basketball Association honored many coaches throughout the state, naming a long list of coaches of the year.

This area had its share of hardwood mentors making the list.  

Beecher High School coach Tyler Shireman, whose team reached the Class 2A superectional, was on the IBCA list for boys hoops.

Peotone’s Steve Strough made the list among the girls coaches.

Grade school coaches in the area also picked up some honors.

Sean McNamara of Manteno Junior High was on the list in the boys division and Beecher Junior High Coach Kayla Hise was selected for the girls.  

Soccer seeds

The Illinois High School Association announced its postseason seeds for girls soccer and Peotone picked up the top seed in sub-sectional A at the Class 1A Herscher Sectional.

Beecher is seeded second in sub-sectional B at Herscher and Manteno fifth.

In Class 2A, Crete-Monee was seeded 11^th in the 17-team Kankakee Sectional.

Class 1A regionals begin on May 7 and Class 2A and 3A regionals open on May 10. The state championships are May 30-June 1.

Sports bits

–Beecher’s Ethan Rydberg signed a letter-of-intent to play soccer at Governors State University.

–Beecher’s Nate Diachenko was honored for being the River Valley Conference Male Scholar Athlete of the Year and Emma Tiltges was runner-up for RVC Athlete of the Year.