Annawan Braves Boys Basketball: 2026-27 Schedule and History
Annawan Braves · Annawan, Illinois · Lincoln Trail Conference
Coach: Alex Coppejans · 2025-26: 20-7 · All-time: 1,245-864 (.590)
In March 2018, Annawan played for the Illinois Class 1A state championship. They lost to Okawville 59-48, finishing 31-4. The coach who took them there is still in the job.
Two state trophies
2017-18 — second in Class 1A, 31-4, Alex Coppejans. Thirty-one wins from a school in a village of roughly 800 people, and a state final that got away.
2008-09 — fourth in Class 1A, 27-8, Ryan Brown. Annawan won a regional and a sectional, came through the super-sectional, and lost the third-place game at the finals.
Nine years apart, two different coaches, two trips to the last weekend. Only Galesburg and Bureau Valley have brought home more boys basketball hardware from a state finals in this coverage area, and Bureau Valley’s three all came in consecutive years from one team’s cycle.
The full record
Across 79 recorded seasons since 1938-39 — the first, a 20-10 year under Harold Ferris:
Regional titles (11): 1980-81, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1987-88, 1990-91, 2002-03, 2008-09, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2024-25.
Sectional titles (3): 1985-86, 2008-09, 2017-18.
Super-sectional titles and state finals appearances (2): 2008-09, 2017-18.
District titles (5), pre-regional era: 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63, 1970-71.
The pattern is worth noticing. Annawan won five straight district titles in the early 1960s, then nothing at all for a decade, then clustered again — five regionals in the 1980s, and four in five years between 2015 and 2019.
Where the programme is now
Consistently good, and consistently good is harder than it sounds at this size of school.
2023-24: 24-9. 2024-25: 24-7 with a Class 1A regional title. 2025-26: 20-7. Three straight twenty-win seasons. Only Abingdon-Avon, who went 29-4 last year, finished ahead of Annawan among area programmes.
Annawan’s IHSA filing is also completely current through 2025-26, which puts them in a minority — six of the fourteen area boys programmes have gaps running from three to thirteen years.
Annawan and Wethersfield are not the same team here
This confuses people every winter, so it is worth stating plainly.
In football, Annawan and Wethersfield play as a co-op — the Annawan-Wethersfield Titans. In basketball they do not. Annawan field their own Braves; Wethersfield field their own Flying Geese. They are separate programmes with separate records, separate coaches, and they play each other.
The same applies in volleyball. If you are looking for an Annawan-Wethersfield basketball result, you will not find one, because there is no such team.
2026-27 schedule
The 2026-27 schedule is barely posted — two games at the time of writing, which is a posting lag rather than a two-game season. Annawan and Ridgewood have the thinnest listings in the conference. IHSA boys practice is scheduled to open Monday, November 9.
We will publish the full schedule on this page as soon as it is posted, and update results through the season.
What we are still chasing
- The full 2026-27 schedule, which is almost entirely unposted
- The 2026-27 roster
- Whether any member of the 2017-18 state finals squad is still connected to the programme
- March 2027 state series dates
How it compares to Annawan football
Basketball is where Annawan stand alone, and the contrast with the school’s other sports is sharp.
In football, Annawan do not exist as an independent programme — they play as the Annawan-Wethersfield Titans, a co-op with the school eleven miles away in Kewanee, because neither school can reliably field eleven-man teams alone. In basketball they need no such arrangement, and neither does Wethersfield.
That is the practical reality of a school this size: enough boys for five on a court and a bench, not always enough for eleven on a field. It is why the basketball record runs 79 unbroken seasons back to 1938-39 while the football identity is shared.
Where to find results
Lincoln Trail basketball is thinly covered. MaxPreps carries schedules and scores when schools update them, which is inconsistent at this level; the IHSA’s record pages are authoritative but often years behind. There is no local outlet running a nightly area scoreboard.
We will post Annawan results on this page through the season. If you have a score before we do, send it.
Where Annawan Braves rank in the area
Across the fourteen boys basketball programmes we cover, Annawan Braves sit sixth by all-time wins (1,245), sixth by winning percentage (.590) and fifth by regional championships (eleven).
The nearest programmes by wins are Galva Wildcats above (1,281) and ROWVA/Williamsfield Cougars below (898).
Annawan Braves have converted three of those eleven regional titles into a sectional championship, losing at that stage eight times.
The two state trophies in the cabinet are among only eight won by area boys basketball programmes in total.
Full comparisons for every programme, plus conference structure, season dates and how the Illinois postseason works, are on our area boys basketball guide.
By the numbers
| Games on record | 2,109 |
| Recorded seasons | 79 |
| Average wins per season | 15.8 |
| Average games per season | 27 |
| Regional titles | 11 |
| Share of all area regionals | 8.1% |
| Years since last regional | 1 |
The most recent regional title is the freshest in the area — a live piece of form rather than history.
Coppejans and continuity
Alex Coppejans coached the 2017-18 state runners-up and is still in post nine years later. That is unusual in this conference, where four programmes cannot currently confirm who their head coach is and several have changed hands twice in five years. Continuity is part of why Annawan keep turning up in the postseason.
Send us results
Rosters, schedules, scores, corrections, photographs — send them and they go up with credit. We correct errors the same day we learn about them.
All-time record, championship years and state finishes from the IHSA’s per-school record page at ihsa.org, with the school total arithmetically verified against its individual season rows — the 23 coach subtotals sum exactly to 1,245-864 across 79 years. Coaching and schedule detail from MaxPreps team pages, retrieved September 2026. Corrections posted the same day.
