Oak Park and River Forest High School softball’s come-from-behind 6-5 victory over Lockport in the IHSA Class 4A third-place game in Peoria, June 14, brings the 2024-25 high school sports year to a close.  

It also wraps up my eighth season covering sports for Wednesday Journal. Before I present my “Tatesies” awards, I’d like to thank you for your support and encouragement, not only this year, but since I started. It’s a pleasure to chronicle all the good things about local high school student-athletes (let’s never forget, these are teenagers, not professional athletes). While I feel I have gradually improved over the years, I’m always looking to get better. No, I’ll never be perfect and I won’t always make everyone happy, but I will always do my best. 

Now, without further ado, here are my picks for The Tatesies: 

Female Team of the Year: OPRF softball. The Huskies finished third in Class 4A for the second time in three years. For seniors Maura Carmody, Elyssa Hasapis, Gloria Hronek, Julia Mattiace, and Anna Topel, this was their second trip downstate, and thanks to their efforts, OPRF has reestablished itself as a state power. 

Male Team of the Year: Fenwick boys basketball. The Friars finished 23-11 and advanced to the Class 3A Little Village sectional final, where they lost to St. Patrick (eventual 3A third-place finisher). Four-year varsity players Dominick Ducree, Ty Macariola, and Nate Marshall led the team. 

Female Team Coach of the Year: J.P. Coughlin, OPRF softball. The longtime assistant has taken the Huskies to state twice in three years and has proven to be a worthy replacement for legendary coach Mel Kolbusz. 

Male Team Coach of the Year: David Fergerson, Fenwick boys basketball. Fergerson was named Illinois Basketball Coaches Association District Seven Coach of the Year this season. He has a 41-22 record in two seasons leading the Friars. 

Female Athlete of the Year: Bella Brauc, OPRF girls track and field. The Illinois State signee capped her fourth Class 3A state meet by earning All-State honors in the 400 meters and the 4 x 100 relay. She finished with four All-State medals overall in her career (she was ninth in the 400 and high jump respectively in 2024). 

Male Athlete of the Year: Nate Marshall, Fenwick football and basketball. Marshall starred on the gridiron for the Friars all four years, and the Michigan signee had a standout season last fall. He finished with 60 tackles (11 for loss), 5.5 sacks, 13 quarterback hits, two pass breakups, a forced fumble, and three fumble recoveries. On offense, he had five touchdowns (four receiving, one rushing). 

Marshall was named the Chicago Catholic League/East Suburban Catholic Conference White Division Tony Lawless Player of the Year. He also made the Chicago Sun-Times’ All-Area Team and the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association’s Class 7A All-State Team as Fenwick finished 8-3.  

Moreover, Marshall, whose grandfather is longtime NBA star and University of Illinois alum Ken Norman, provided physicality and muscle in the post for the Friars’ basketball team the past four years. 

Female Game of the Year: OPRF softball vs. Loyola Academy at the Class 4A UIC supersectional, June 9. With the Huskies trailing 3-2 in the top of the seventh and down to their final strike, Sofia Ayala kept the season alive with a game-tying single that eventually led to extra innings. OPRF then scored seven runs in the eighth and went on to punch its ticket to state, winning 10-3. 

Male Game of the Year: OPRF vs. Fenwick, baseball. The Huskies and Friars had a wild back-and-forth battle at Triton College, May 2. After OPRF took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Fenwick scored eight consecutive runs over the next five innings and seemed headed for victory. 

But the Huskies climbed back into the game with three runs in the bottom half of the sixth, then Brady Green’s two-out, two-run single capped another three-run rally in the seventh, giving OPRF an improbable win. 

I hate to end things on a sad note, but I want to pay tribute to Ken Uhlir. Trinity’s esteemed volleyball coach passed away unexpectedly on April 15. He guided the Blazers for 11 seasons, winning four regional titles. Uhlir was also the founder of the Triple Ace Volleyball Club, based in River Forest. 

I have not covered Trinity volleyball often, but whenever I did, Ken was always affable and accommodating with his time. He genuinely cared about his players on and off the court, and his presence will be missed come this fall. 

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Ten student-athletes from the University of Michigan were named to the 2024-25 Academic All-District At-Large Team, selected by College Sports Communicators on Tuesday afternoon (June 17). To receive the honor, student-athletes must have completed at least one year of classes and have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average while hitting various participation requirements.

Six female student-athletes were honored in Carly Bauman (women’s gymnastics), Katie Easton (rowing), Logan Roeder (rowing), Abby Tamer (field hockey), Leia Till (rowing) and Kasey Umlauf (water polo). On the men’s side, Josh Eernisse (ice hockey), Josh Heindselman (wrestling), Rithik Puri (men’s gymnastics) and Hunter Thomson (men’s golf) were honored.

Carly Bauman

Bauman ended the 2025 season as the NCAA Regional Co-Champion on uneven bars with a score of 9.950 after being named the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Northeast Regional Gymnast of the Year. The West Des Moines, Iowa, native was a first team All-Big Ten honoree for the second straight season and was a three-time Big Ten Specialist of the Week. Bauman won 14 individual event titles across three events and posted 19 scores of 9.900 or better in her fifth season.

Katie Easton

Easton’s Academic All-District honor is the second of her career, following three CRCA Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-Big Ten honors. She graduated this spring with a degree in public health. A team captain and program record-holder on the erg, Easton has been rowing in U-M’s 1V8 since the postseason of her freshman year and helped the boat place 12th at the NCAA Championships this year. The Melbourne, Australia, native is a three-time All-American and secured second-team honors in 2025. Her leadership and on-water contributions have been critical to U-M’s speed throughout her career, leading to her fourth Big Ten medal with the 1V8 in 2025. She has also been part of two Big Ten Championship teams at Michigan and is a three-time All-Big Ten honoree.

Logan Roeder

As coxswain, Roeder has helmed the 2V8 and 1V8 boats throughout her three years with the Wolverines while working toward her degree in psychology. Her first career Academic All-District honor in 2025 follows a season when she and her boatmates earned a bronze medal at the Big Ten Championships en route to an 11th-place national finish. The season earned Roeder honorable mention All-American recognition. As a member of the 1V8 through the entire 2025 season, Roeder’s leadership on and off the water has been vital to the success of the boat and team. The Chicago, Ill., native is a two-time CRCA Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-Big Ten honoree.

Abby Tamer

Tamer earned NFHCA All-America first-team honors and unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten first team after leading the Wolverines in scoring in 2024 with 38 points on career highs in goals (12) and assists (14). Tamer returned to the U-M lineup after redshirting the 2023 season while training with the U.S. women’s national team before representing Team USA in Paris, where she led the red, white and blue in scoring with two goals. Named the NFHCA’s 2024 Division I National Scholar-Athlete, she graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in applied exercise science and will pursue a master’s in sport management in 2025-26. She is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and has earned NFHCA Scholar of Distinction honors three times.

Leia Till

Till, a graduate student who transferred to U-M before the 2024-25 season from Virginia, made an immediate impact in the lineup while working toward her master’s degree in movement science. Rowing in the 1V8’s first four seats throughout the season, Till proved to be an important addition to the roster on its way to an 11th-place team finish at the NCAA Championships. She captured a bronze medal in her lone appearance at the Big Ten Championships. Till is a five-time CRCA Scholar-Athlete (four at Virginia, one at Michigan) and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in her lone season as a Wolverine.

Kasey Umlauf

Umlauf is a graduate student who earned her master’s degree in human genetics after completing her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. Umlauf started all 30 games for the Maize and Blue and tallied a career-high 22 goals in her final season in Ann Arbor. Umlauf was named to the CWPA All-Tournament team in 2025 and is a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.

Josh Eernisse

A junior on the U-M ice hockey team, Eernisse played in all 36 games this season and had 11 points for the Wolverines. He has been named Academic All-Big Ten in both seasons that he was eligible and is a two-time recipient of the Carl Isaacson Award, a team award presented to the player with the highest scholastic average. A 2024 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, Eernisse helped the Wolverines to the 2024 NCAA Frozen Four.

Josh Heindselman

Heindselman earned All-America honors for the first time in his collegiate career with a seventh-place finish at heavyweight at the 2024 NCAA Championships. He boasted a team-best 26-6 record despite joining the Wolverines at the semester and earned bonus points in 16 matches, including 12 technical falls, to rank among the national leaders. Having already earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s in health care law, Heindselman completed several classes in Michigan’s School of Social Work and will enroll in medical school back in his native Oklahoma this fall.

Rithik Puri

A senior on the men’s gymnastics team, Puri competed in nine of the team’s 10 meets. A biomedical engineering major, he helped lead the Wolverines to their fifth straight Big Ten championship and seventh NCAA championship. The Chicago, Ill., native finished sixth on the still rings at the NCAA Championships to earn All-America honors with his second-highest score of the season (13.966). Puri is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and a 2023 Big Ten Scholar of Distinction.

Hunter Thomson

A unanimous All-Big Ten first team and two-time All-America selection, Thomson concluded his U-M career as the program’s all-time scoring leader with a 71.53 average after breaking his single-season record with a 70.24 per-round average. He became the second Wolverine to lead the team in scoring average for four straight years. Thomson paced U-M in 13 of 14 events, including the final nine tournaments, and recorded 10 top-10 finishes, with seven in the top five. A PING All-Midwest regional selection, he won three individual titles, including the Canadian Collegiate Invitational (202, -14), the Boilermaker Invitational (203, -10) and the NCAA Urbana Regional (203, -10).

• CSC Release

Juneteenth may mark the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed, but thousands of people in Oklahoma are still fighting for full citizenship in the tribal nations that once held their ancestors in bondage.

Several tribes practiced slavery, and five in Oklahoma — The Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Muscogee nations — signed reconstruction treaties with the U.S. in 1866 abolishing it three years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. They granted the formerly enslaved, known commonly as Freedmen, citizenship within their respective tribes.

Only one of those tribes, the Cherokee Nation, continues to fully grant the rights of citizenship.

For descendants of people who were enslaved by tribal nations, Juneteenth is both a celebration of freedom for people of African descent and a reminder of their struggle to be fully embraced by the Indigenous communities with whom they share history and in many cases ancestry.

Muscogee Nation

Traditionally, Freedmen in the Muscogee Nation celebrate emancipation day on August 4, marking when the tribe’s council drew up a law to declare them free, said Rhonda Grayson, the founder and director of the Oklahoma Indian Territory Museum of Black Creek Freedmen History.

She traces her lineage to formerly enslaved people listed on a 1906 U.S. census of Native Americans who had been forcibly removed to Oklahoma. Known as the Dawes Rolls, the census created two lists – those who appeared Native and those who appeared Black. Those with African ancestry were put on the Freedmen rolls, although many also had Native ancestry.

Last week, the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by Grayson and Jeff Kennedy, who are fighting for their citizenship rights and recognition within the Muscogee Nation.

“Our ancestors were Muscogee people of African descent,” said Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney representing Grayson and Kennedy whose ancestor was also a Freedmen in the tribe. “We were transformed into ‘Freedmen’ by the Dawes Commission.”

Their ancestors were also forced on the Trail of Tears, and after the Civil War they were granted citizenship and served in the tribe’s legislative bodies, Kennedy said.

“We believe that the (Muscogee) Nation would not be what it is today without the bloodshed and tears of those African people,” he said.

But, in 1979, the tribe adopted a new constitution restricting citizenship to Muscogee people “by-blood.” Grayson and Kennedy’s lawsuit countered that citizenship requirement is a violation of the 1866 treaty, and in 2023 a Muscogee Nation district court agreed. The Muscogee Nation’s citizenship board appealed and is asking the Supreme Court to overturn that decision.

“That provision has guided our Nation for decades and reflects the will of the people through a democratic process,” Jason Salsman, a spokesperson for the Muscogee Nation said in a statement. “We believe that any change to our citizenship laws must come from our own citizens—not from outside interpretations.”

The court’s ruling is expected later this year, and it could open the door for thousands of new members to the tribe.

For Grayson, the legal battle is about more than their birthright to citizenship she said, it’s also about setting straight the historical record.

“We weren’t just slaves,” Grayson said. “Our people need to know that. Our young people need to know that.”

Seminole Nation

In 2021, following pressure from Congress and the administration of President Joe Biden, the Indian Health Services began allowing Freedmen citizens in the Seminole Nation to access healthcare at IHS facilities after several reported that they had been denied COVID-19 vaccinations.

While the descendants of formerly enslaved Seminole Nation tribal members had previously been granted citizenship, in 2000 the tribe voted to restrict citizenship to those who had one-eighth Seminole ancestry according to the Dawes Rolls, thereby disenrolling more than 1,000 citizens of African ancestry.

In 2002, a U.S. district court ordered the tribe to reinstate their membership, however, today the descendants of those on the Seminole Nation’s Freedmen rolls are only allowed to vote and sit on tribal council and are thereby not full citizens.

“They’re using something that the United States used to separate us, and now they’re using it to keep us in a very bad position by putting a lot of our people at a disadvantage,” said LeEtta Osborne-Sampson, a Freedmen member of the Seminole Nation and one of four who sit on its tribal council. She said members like her are not given access to others services provided by the tribal nation, such as education and housing assistance. There are about 2,500 Freedmen citizens of the tribe today, she said.

Seminole Nation Chief Lewis Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.

Choctaw Nation

Starting in 1885, the Choctaw Nation had given citizenship to Freedmen descendants, but in 1983 the tribal nation adopted a constitution that restricted membership to those with Choctaw ancestors “by blood” according to the Dawes Rolls.

In 2001, the House Financial Services Committee threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in housing funds from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee, and Seminole nations if they did not honor their 1866 treaty obligations and fully recognize the descendants of Freedmen as citizens. In response, Chief Gary Batton issued an open letter promising to confront the issue.

“The story of Choctaw Freedmen deserves our attention and thoughtful consideration within the framework of tribal self-governance,” Batton wrote. “Today our tribal membership is based on the Dawes Rolls — a poisonous legacy from 125 years ago that took root and caused a myriad of membership issues for tribal nations, including Freedmen.”

Batton, who remains in office, called for an open dialogue between Choctaw Freedmen, tribal citizens, elected officials, and the federal government. But since then, Freedmen descendants say that dialogue hasn’t taken place.

“It became obvious, unfortunately, that it was an empty gesture,” said author and genealogist Angela Walton-Raji. Like many Freedmen descendants, Walton-Raji said her ancestors were both Black and Choctaw but were forced to enroll on the Dawes Rolls as a Freedmen only. “It’s very clear that there was an anti-Black sentiment then, as there is now,” she said.

Randy Sachs, a spokesperson for the Choctaw Nation, said in a statement to The Associated Press that the tribe set up an internal committee and asked tribal members for comment on the issue, but over that two year period they only received about 20 calls – more than half of which were from a single family. “Determining our membership is an essential part of defending our sovereignty, and we will continue to listen to a variety of voices,” he said.

There has never been a legal challenge to the tribe’s 1983 constitution, and Walton-Raji said many Freedmen descendants either don’t know that part of their history, because it is not taught in schools or fully acknowledged by the tribe, or do not have the funds to mount a court case that could last decades.

Chickasaw Nation

The Chickasaw Nation jointly signed its 1866 reconstruction treaty with the Choctaw Nation. However, unlike the Choctaw, the Chickasaw Nation never recognized the people it held in slavery as citizens of the tribe.

“They broke the treaty, they never gave citizenship to their Freedmen. So up until statehood, Chickasaw Freedmen had no country, they were never citizens of any nation,,” said Walton-Raji, who is also a co-founder of the Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Association. Oklahoma became a state in 1907.

The Chickasaw Nation did not respond to requests for comment.

Since they were never granted citizenship, their descendants are at the greatest disadvantage when it comes to any legal claim to citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation, Walton-Raji said.

In 2021, following the Cherokee Nation’s amendment to its constitution that granted full citizenship to Freedmen descendants, Dept. of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland encouraged other tribes “to take similar steps to meet their moral and legal obligations to the Freedmen.”

Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby responded by saying that the tribe’s citizenship is a matter of tribal sovereignty.

Missouri wrestling has added a two-time NCAA Championship qualifier to its roster for the 2025-26 season.

Coach Brian Smith announced the signing of Northwestern transfer Evan Bates on Monday. Bates will join the Tigers as a redshirt senior with one year of eligibility remaining.

“Evan is graduating with an engineering degree and has outstanding wrestling accomplishments,” Smith said in a news release. “His maturity and experience on and off the mat will be valuable to a young team this year. His leadership will help us do great things.”

Bates has a collegiate record of 69-48 at 197 pounds, with nine wins over ranked opponents. He defeated No. 25 Nick Stemmet of Stanford by 13-10 decision in the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Championships. Bates finished the 2024-25 season ranked No. 20 by InterMat.

The Chesterton, Indiana, product won a high school state championship and went 124-12 record in three prep seasons. He earned Indiana Class 3A all-state honors and team MVP honors as a sophomore and junior.

Mizzou signed fellow Northwestern transfer Max Mayfield — a graduate student — on April 17, meaning he and Bates will be teammates again.

“I chose Mizzou because of the great team culture and amazing people,” Bates said in the news release.

Bates will try to help the Tigers bounce back from a 5-10 dual campaign — the program’s fewest wins since the 1998-99 season.

By Billy Baker
•
June 17, 2025

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Columbia —In this Modern Turf recruiting article we will focus on Gray Collegiate rising junior softball player Aspen Boulware , her highly regarded rising senior football playing brother Michael Boulware , Jr., and Southside Christian junior left-handed pitcher Carson Boleman who struck-out 19 batters in his team’s state championship win over Oceanside Collegiate . As always, we would like to extend our appreciation to Mark Grainger and the fine folks at Modern Turf, in Irmo and Rembert, for sponsoring our monthly recruiting feature page. Having covered two recent Gray Collegiate softball games, this writer of 52 years, truly feels like rising junior Aspen Boulware, who plays shortstop for the War Eagles, was the best softball player in the state of South Carolina this past season, from any grade level. In all honesty, I think she may have been the top prep sophomore player in the United States, and that covers a whole lot of ground. This past season Boulware led the state of South Carolina in home runs (22), RBI’s (44), and runs scored (67). She hit .573 and was easily chosen the AAAA Player of the Year by the South Carolina Softball Coaches Association . She was the Region Player of the Year also.  And if we can all keep this a secret, due to the fact the HSSR, will not officially release our Spring Sports all-state teams until Monday, June, 16, Boulware was the top vote getter on all-state ballots returned from head softball coaches all around the state for 2025 Miss Softball honors. She will indeed be named Miss Softball in the state of South Carolina when the lists of honorees are made public by the HSSR at hssr.com in mid-June. After watching her play “live” on May, 6 in an early round play-off 15-0 win over Bluffton, it was time to meet this truly gifted athlete, and have her share some of her hopes and dreams she has as a softball player. “Absolutely, my number one goal right now is to help my team win a state title,” said Boulware after the Bluffton win. “My role is to help carry the team offensively and defensively. We are not a one- person team. It takes all of us playing together to have success. “I love being a part of this team, and we are all focused on competing hard, and hopefully winning a state title,” she said. “I have been playing softball competitively since I was 8 years old, and softball is the only varsity sport I play. I take a lot of pride in trying to lift up, and support my teammates. “One of my strong goals is to be on the USA softball team in the 2028 Olympics,” said Boulware. “That would be a dream come true if I could accomplish that goal.” Boulware has already played on the USA National 16-U softball team, and she has been promoted to the 18-U USA National team this summer, and this group of the best-of-best will play against other top teams for a three- week period over the summer. Less than 24 hours after helping her team defeat York 5-2, to capture the state title, with a towering home run over the right field fence in the first inning, Boulware has joined her elite travel team known as the Thunder Bolts based in Alabama. In that game she blasted another home run! By the way, after her first inning bomb against York she was walked the next two times she came to bat. In fact, Boulware was walked 35 times during her sophomore season, making her stats even more impressive. How many more home runs and RBI’s might she have had if teams were willing to pitch to her? Doug Frye is the highly regarded head softball coach at Gray Collegiate . He is an old school coach who rarely gets carried away talking about any one player he coaches. He breaks his own rule when talking about Aspen Boulware. “Her work ethic is what blows me away,” said Coach Frye. “Who gets in a car with her mother (former Florida State Softball Hall of Fame member Jessica van der Linden , who was named the National Softball Player of the Year in 2004), and drives 250 miles to Alabama to play with her travel team the next day? “Last year, the day after we won the AA state title, she and mother went to a local rec field and Boulware asked her mother to hit her 500 ground balls as hard as she could,” said Coach Frye. “I can say with confidence that she is the best high school softball player in South Carolina. With everything she brings to the table I do not think any other player can match her all around play. “She could easily play center field for us, and she can throw a softball 64 miles per hour, but she would rather play shortstop,” said Coach Frye. “You might say there is a little competition between she and her mother. Aspen studies pitchers like no player I’ve been around. She takes pride in knowing when the change-up is coming for example. “Well, one day her mother is pitching to her during one of their many practice routines, and Aspen tells her Mom (who won 67 games in the circle at FSU) that she could hit a home run against her best pitching,” said Coach Frye. “Well, the competition between the two began and after 30 pitches, or so, the Mom was winning the challenge. “Aspen figured out that her Mom’s next pitch would be a change-up and she guessed right,” said Coach Frye. “She blasted the ball over the fence, and deep into the woods, and I don’t even think they even went to look for the ball, as that was the end of that batting practice.” In conclusion, Coach Frye says Aspen is the fastest player he has ever coached. “Teams that walk her have to deal with the fact she will be on third base before they know it,” said Coach Frye. “As a shortstop she can get to balls hit deep into the hole, that few other shortstops can get to. She can make a very challenging play look routine and she throws many batters out by two steps from deep short.” The HSSR considers the top junior baseball prospect in South Carolina to be Carson Boleman a 6-3 LHP pitcher from Southside Christian who recently stuck-out 19 batters against Oceanside Collegiate to lead the Sabre’s to the AAA state title. Boleman is a commitment to Wake Forest but the Deacons could be competing with major league baseball for his services after he graduates next year. Southside Christian is head coached by Scott Freeman , and he was just appointed the athletic director for the Sabres as well. Coach Freeman has won five baseball state titles and he finished the 2025 with 307-110-1 career record. He has help develop numerous major college prospects, particularly when he heads coached Mauldin baseball for six years, earlier in his career. When asked if he had ever coached anyone better than Boleman, Freeman had a quick response, “No, I have not and I doubt that I ever will.” In the first inning of the state finals second game with Oceanside Collegiate, Coach Freeman said Boleman’s fastball was clocked at 95 mph. “Carson just doesn’t over power you on the mound because he has command of several pitches and he is very effective with his off-speed pitches as well. “He throws a slider, curve ball, and change-up and he is just a student of the game,” said Coach Freeman. “He began pitching for our varsity in the 8 th grade when he pitched game one against Johnsonville in the state championship series. He had elbow surgery his 9 th grade year and he returned to hit some late in the season, but he did not pitch at all his freshman year. “He came on strong his sophomore year on the mound and has been even better as a junior,” said Coach Freeman. “Coaches love it when their top player is also the hardest worker on the team. Carson never lets anything go to his head. The day after he had 19 strike-outs in the championship game he was back in the gym the next day working out.” As a junior, Boleman finished 12-0 on the mound. He had an unreal 135 strike-outs in 55 innings of work. He had an ERA of 0.00. Teams batted .039 against him. These are some impressive stats for any baseball pitcher. Boleman is a first baseman when he is not on the mound. He hit .352 with seven home runs and 38 RBI’s this season. He is under serious consideration for the Gatorade SC Player of the Year according to Coach Freeman. “I knew Carson was going to be a special player when I first heard about him in like the fourth grade,” said Coach Freeman. “You will never meet a more humble kid. He does not let success go to his head. He is a great team mate. In the class room he carries like a 4.65 GPA. “I would use adjectives like focused and confident when he is on the mound,” said Coach Freeman. ”He is smart on the mound and he is always thinking ahead of the batters he is facing. He is a kid that was born to play baseball at a very high level. If he does not get early round consideration for the major league draft, after next season, there should not even be a draft. He is everything you are looking for in a pitcher and he has been a pleasure to coach.” Boleman plays on a well-respected National Showcase travel team known as the Canes and his coach says he will be active with the canes this summer where he is surely to get scouted by numerous major league teams. “Honestly, Carson is really committed to Wake Forest and he loves the coaching staff in place in Winston Salem,” said Coach Freeman. “His family has ties to the Winston Salem area also. “”Carson has had interest from many major colleges like Clemon and South Carolina,” said Coach Freeman. “He has been to a lot of prospect camps over the past two summers but he fell in love with Wake Forest and the baseball staff and it would be hard for any college to get him away from Wake Forest right now.” When you watch film of Gray Collegiate 2026 linebacker Michael Boulware (6-2, 220), or watch him play on Friday night, it’s like a flash-back to the days his father ( Michael , Sr .) and uncle ( Peter ) played at Spring Valley, back in the 1990’s. Peter and Michael, Sr. went on to play at Florida State and both brothers went on to play in the NFL after college. The younger Boulware had 155 tackles, 8 TFL, two sacks, 11 hurries, and four interceptions as a sophomore when he helped lead Gray Collegiate to the AA state title. He followed up those outstanding accomplishments with 103 tackles, five sacks, 9.5 TFL, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and two blocked kicks as a junior. Unfortunately, his team was put out of the play-offs by the SCHSL for using an ineligible player so he only played in 10 games as a junior. The question this writer has is likely the same questions the Boulware family has, now that the off-campus Spring evaluation period has come and gone. Despite his hard-work as a sophomore and junior, Boulware is yet to receive a major college football offer. He was even left off the 247 2026 in-state watch list for South Carolina. This writer had an in-depth conversation with Boulware’s high school coach DeAngelo Bryant and he is little disappointed also. After graduation from Silver Bluff Coach Bryant went on to enjoy a college career at Wake Forest . In fact, he played against Michael’s father in college. “Back in February I watched Michael play in a junior all-star showcase game at Airport High School with most of the top rising seniors involved in the game,” said Coach Bryant. “Michael had 12 tackles and he was the best linebacker in the game, on either team, hands down. “A couple months later he attends a Coaches Combine at Woodland High and he runs a 4.25 shuttle that measures how well at athlete runs from side-to-side and in all directions,” said Bryant. “When you run a shuttle that fast, carrying 218 pounds of weight, that is really separating you from the pack. No one at that event came close to that shuttle time.” Boulware runs a 4.65 laser times forty. He dead lifts 500 pounds with a 425 squat. He powers cleans 290 with a vertical of 32 inches. He has a 295- pound bench press. Having reported on top football players in South Carolina for nearly 40 years I companion with the Boulware family in asking this question. What else does Michale Boulware need to do on a football field to merit an offer from a major college football program? During the May evaluation period Coach Bryant said 32 different colleges came by to see him and he said several came by only to talk to him about Boulware. “I got the impression that while a lot of major colleges said they like the sheer athleticism of Michael, they have yet to elevate liking him, to loving him” said Coach Bryant. “There is no doubt in my mind that he is a power five football player. On a football field he has a high motor that all coaches love. “I think what has been lost by major college coaches is the fact that no one is going to out-work Michael Boulware, and I mean no one when I say this,” said Coach Bryant. “Trust me, this will be verified by the college that is fortunate to sign in.” At the present time Boulware has serious interest from Wake Forest , Virginia Tech , and Coastal Carolina . South Carolina has told him that he is on their radar and to date Clemson has not shown little interest but he did camp with the Tigers recently. He will be attending numerous one day prospect camps over the summer. The HSSR currently ranks Boulware as the 15 th over-all 2026 prospect in South Carolina. He is expected to have a monster senior season at Gray Collegiate and we wish him well. With football scholarships increasing from a total of 105, compared to the old allotment of 85 one would hope there is an opportunity for a truly talented player like Boulware to land a spot in a power five program. So, in this Modern Turf recruiting feature we have talked in-depth about top sophomore softball prospect Aspen Boulware of Gray Collegiate, rising senior football prospect Michael Boulware also of gray Collegiate, and Carson Boleman , one of the nation’s top junior pitchers this past season. The state of South Carolina continues to be a hotbed for next level prep talent as exemplified by these three outstanding athletes.

The 2025 New Jersey softball season was a historic one in myriad ways, both on the individual and team fronts.

It was also a season with plenty of upheaval and intrigue from opening day until the last out of the season’s final game — the Group 1 final.