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FITHIAN — Richard Vetter has been a coach and physical education teacher since 2008, and recently, he’s been ready to step into his first administrator role. When Oakwood High School’s athletic director position opened up this summer, he knew that would be his ideal next step.
“I am really excited for this opportunity,” Vetter said. “I have been wanting to move into an administrative/athletic director role for a couple years now, so this job was the perfect opportunity for me.”
Vetter officially started work as Oakwood’s new AD on July 1, replacing Zach Steele, who became the high school’s principal and said it was “a pleasure” leading the Comets’ athletic program.
Vetter got his start in education during the 2008-09 academic year at Drauden Point Middle School in Plainfield, where he was a PE teacher and junior high wrestling coach. The following year, he moved to St. Joseph-Ogden and coached the high school wrestling and boys’ soccer teams. He stayed there for 13 years before going to Unity West Elementary School, coaching wrestling at multiple levels.
“I have been familiar with Oakwood athletics, coaching against them for a number of years, and thought I would fit in well with some of their current coaches,” Vetter said. “Building relationships is an extremely important part of this job, and already having ties will be a big plus for me. Meeting some of the other coaches and talking with people in and around the school, I can tell there is a lot of pride in Oakwood, and I am looking forward to building on what is already here.”
The Comets are fresh off another overall successful athletic year, seeing numerous teams have winning seasons as well as some postseason success. The football team qualified for the Class 2A playoffs for the first time since 2019, the Oakwood/Salt Fork boys’ soccer team won a second straight 1A regional title while winning a program-record 22 games and the O/SF wrestling co-op won its third 1A regional title in a row and produced four All-State finishers.
Vetter is aware of Oakwood’s successes and believes he can help it grow even more. While at SJ-O, he coached the boys’ soccer team to its first regional championship, and had a solid dozen-plus seasons at the helm of the wrestling program. Being around the Spartans’ programs for so long, as well as Unity for the last three years — both schools have plenty of success from nearly all of their sports year in and year out — Vetter knows what it takes to win, and he’s confident Oakwood will continue to do so.
“I have no doubt that some of my experiences in other school districts can help support what we already have here in Oakwood,” Vetter said. “The coaching staff as a whole wants nothing more than to continue to grow and compete at the highest levels. I look forward to working with and supporting the coaches in any way I can to help their programs achieve the successes they think are possible.”
A look ahead
Preps Year in Review ongoing
Now that our spring sports All-Area packages are officially done — congrats to everyone honored in the last month — there’s only one more loose end to tie before we can put a cap on the 2024-25 athletic calendar: Preps Year in Review.
The weeklong look back started on Tuesday with the top 10 teams from the past school year, continued today with a look at 10 teams to watch out for during the 2025-26 school year (B-1), 10 athletes who deserved more recognition this past school year (B-2) and 10 athletes who got the most publicity during the 2024-25 school year (B-3).
The countdown continues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, culminating with our Program of the Year, Male Athlete of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year in Saturday’s edition.
Shoutouts
Zoe Goodreau
Centennial softball
Broke her own single-season Charger strikeout record with 203 this spring, beating last year’s total of 187.
Tate Sigler
LeRoy football
Earned offensive MVP honors for the Blue squad in the Illinois High School Shrine Game on June 21.
Stateline Pride volleyball team
The Vermilion County-based club team, featuring a number of area players, won an AAU national championship in the 17U Classic Division in late June in Orlando.
Ava Yeakel
Illini Elite volleyball
The soon-to-be senior at Mahomet-Seymour was one of just 14 players in the country to earn a spot on the 2025 AAU All-American Team in the Club 17 Division for her standout performance for the Illini Elite 17 Black squad at the AAU National Girls’ Volleyball Championships from June 21-24 in Orlando, where she led her team to a third-place finish.
Rantoul Rockets
Track and Field Club athletes
Seven area athletes from the Rockets performed well enough at the AAU Region 13 Qualifier meet during the last weekend of June to punch their ticket to the AAU Junior Olympics that will be held July 26 through Aug. 2 in Humble, Texas.
Alaina Kimble of Centennial won the women’s 800-meter run in the 17-19 age group, Caaliyah Matthews of Edison Middle School won the girls’ 14 high jump and Shekina Lokango of Urbana Middle School won the boys’ 13 3,000.
Centennial’s Aaron Kneller was runner-up in the men’s 17-19 800, and 2025 Centennial graduate Jake Geissler had the same placement in the men’s 17-19 1,500. Urbana’s Kaleigh Bell finished fifth in the women’s 17-19 100, and Urbana Middle School’s Vinnie Kisuba took fifth in the boys’ 14 800.
Ainsley Whitaker
Mahomet-Seymour softball
Announced her commitment to continue her softball career at Heartland Community College on July 3.
Max Young
Yard Goats baseball
The rising Mahomet-Seymour senior pitched a six-inning no-hitter with eight strikeouts for his travel team last weekend.
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