TriCounty Gigi Macintosh realized the task confronting her after leaving the coaching staff at Mt. Zion High School for Morton when one of her early softball teams stumbled badly.
"But we went from 10-40 to 40-10," she recalls, a won-loss shift that points out dramatically the job she has done in her 11 years at Morton.
Last spring her Potter softball team went 35-4 and finished third in the Class AA state finals, following up a 36-4 year the season before that earned Morton a second place state finish.
MacIntosh, who began her sports career as a student at Mt. Zion, went on to play softball, field hockey and swam at Eastern Illinois University.
She then coached basketball and volleyball at Wilmington High School for one year and spent two years at Mt. Zion as softball and basketball coach before moving to Morton where she has forged a softball power.
In 11 seasons she is 240-115, despite a few bad early seasons, and has won three consecutive Mid-Illini conference titles.
| Dawdy Hawkins "Dawdy" Hawkins, one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in the nation, directed his teams to state titles in two different states. His Lincoln Northeast High School team won a Nebraska state prep crown in 1948, just before he left to take over at Peoria Central. He quickly forged a powerhouse at Central, his 1952-53 team, led by brilliant center Hiles Stout, making it to the championship game of the Illinois state finals at the University of Illinois' old Huff Gym before bowing to LaGrange, 71-60. Hawkins took three other Peoria Central teams to the state tournament (1954, 56, 59) and then, switching to Pekin, had five other state appearances (1964, 65, 66, 67, 73), including state championship teams in 1964 and 1967. |  |