Fall sports are almost here: what to watch across west-central Illinois

Last updated August 16, 2026.

The wait is over. Illinois High School Association fall practice opened August 10, and football kicks off Friday, August 21 — a week earlier than usual, because the IHSA expanded its playoff field from 32 qualifiers per class to 48.

Football: three different structures

This is the thing that confuses people every year, so it is worth stating plainly. The seven programs we cover do not all play in the same competitive structure.

• Galesburg Silver Streaks play in the Western Big 6, alongside Geneseo, Moline, Quincy, Rock Island, Sterling and United Township. Alleman is not fielding a varsity team in 2026, which forced every other school in the league to find a replacement opponent.
• Monmouth-Roseville Titans play in the Three Rivers Conference (Mississippi Division) — not the Lincoln Trail or Prairieland. Their league opponents are Princeton, Hall/Putnam County, Mendota, Sherrard and Kewanee.
• Knoxville, United, Abingdon-Avon and ROWVA/Williamsfield play in the Lincoln Trail-Prairieland football league, which merged the two conferences’ football operations in 2023 into a single 17-team league split into Large and Small divisions.
• West Central Heat play eight-man football in the Illinois 8-Man Football Association — a different game with its own playoff structure, entirely separate from the IHSA.

Where things stand

Monmouth-Roseville is coming off the best local season in years: 10-2, a No. 5 seed and a run to the Class 3A quarterfinals. West Central went 7-3 and made the I8FA playoffs for a second straight year. Knoxville reached the Class 1A field at 5-5 under a new coach in Marty Turner.

Galesburg (2-7), ROWVA/Williamsfield (2-7), Abingdon-Avon (3-6) and United (1-8) are all chasing a postseason that just got 50 percent easier to reach.

The rest of the fall

Volleyball, boys and girls cross country, girls swimming and boys soccer round out the fall calendar. Golf started first — Monmouth-Roseville and United met at Gibson Woods for the Maple City Trophy before football practice was fully underway.

College

The Knox College Prairie Fire and Monmouth College Fighting Scots both open Saturday, September 5 in the Midwest Conference, which added Luther as its tenth core member on July 1. Monmouth is the defending league champion and preseason favorite; Knox has a new head coach in Adam Gonzaga.

They meet November 14 at noon at Knosher Bowl in Galesburg for the Bronze Turkey, a rivalry dating to 1888.

How we cover it

Live scoreboard every Friday night. Recaps and a Player of the Week every Saturday morning. Power rankings every Monday. Got a score or a tip? Send it in — we post them as they come.