Auburn Knights

Staff Report ROCKFORD - Auburn High School officials named a new girls basketball coach Tuesday, someone familiar to the game and the program. Assistant coach Taylor Griffin will take over as head coach for the 2020-21 season, pending approval from the Rockford School Board. Griffin helped Auburn Knights finish the 2019-20 season as NIC-10 Conference champions for the first time in school history, and earned the regional title for the first time in 33 years. "I'm very excited for the…

Staff Report MACHESNEY PARK – Mariah Hill and DaSani Hannah spearheaded the Auburn defense to roll past DeKalb 52-32 and capture the Class 4A Harlem Regional here Thursday. Hannah had 18 and Hill 14 as the Knights won their first regional title since 1987 and just third in program history. Zhakyla Evan Evans had 10 and her biggest basket was when the Barbs had cut the lead to five, 25-20, early in the third quarter. Evans hit a three-pointer and then stole the ball and scored on a layup…

Staff Report ROCKFORD -The Auburn Knights, who clinched the NIC-10 championship earlier this week, ended their conference schedule with  a 62-31 win over Jefferson Thursday. It was senior night and the Knights have seven. The coaching staff started five seniors and the first two off the bench were seniors as well. That relegated its top two scorers, Zhkylah Evans and Brooklin Gray, to the bench for much of the first quarter. It didn’t matter against the rebuilding J-Hawks who have no…

Staff Report ROCKFORD - Four Rockford Public Schools boys basketball programs will begin 2020 in a tight race for to the top of the NIC-10 Conference. The fact that Guilford (4-2) and Jefferson (4-2) are competing for conference championship isn’t a surprise. Both teams returned all of their top scorers from last season when the Vikings were 18-14 and the J-Hawks 15-17. The fact that East is alone at the top (5-1) and Auburn is in the mix (4-2) is a little bit of a surprise. The E-Rabs…

Staff Report BUFFALO GROVE – Belen Nevenhoven of Auburn got off to a strong start in her bid to become the first IHSA girls tennis champion in NIC-10 history. Leading 4-2 with a break point, she missed a volley that turned the match. Defending state champion Kiley Rabjohns rallied to win 10 of the next 13 games. The final score was 7-5, 6-2 for Rabjohns. That left Nevenhoven, who is a junior, with the distinction of being the first Rockford Public Schools player to make it to a girls…