ChimpersCage

Two years ago, the idea for Best Look Magazine was launched.  A Central Illinois, Bloomington Normal based sports and leisure magazine to feature local athletics, athletes, travel, and entertainment.  August 2012 saw the first issue published. The magazine has a motto of a photo for every story, a story for every photo. The magazine is a product of Alan Look Photography and featured stories and photos by Alan Look and John Power.  John has been on a hiatus for a few issues, but Alan carries on. This issue contains more text for the readers in our following, more great photos of Bloomington Normal and McLean County Sports, a Double Cover - a great image on both the front and the back, and a short editorial on the freelance sports photography business.  This issue continues the tradition of a photo feature of Referees, Umpires and other officials that has been a constant in all the previous issues. We thank all our followers, supporters, readers and especially o...

It wasn't cutting edge 25 years ago, but not a lot of communities had a facility quite like the one being built in Bloomington Normal.  Through joint cooperation between the two cities and a series of fortunate events, a trail was built that spanned the central area of both.  The right of way held by the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad was being vacated by the railway and the cities opted to buy it.  Adding some pavement, bridges and entry points, a trail was created for walkers, runners, bicyclers and rollerbladers.  The original trail has been expanded and is still expanding since that initial project was completed.  On Saturday May 10th, several past and present dignitaries, press, users and people happening by the Connie Link Amphitheater celebrated the 25th birthday for the trail. 25th Birthday Celebration of Constitution Trail in Bloomington Normal Illinois. - Images by Alan Look  - chimper -

The softball season for the Missouri Valley Conference wrapped up at Illinois State this season.  The hosting Redbirds played their last game on Friday May 9th, losing to the Loyola Ramblers.  It was the Ramblers 1st year in the Valley.  Regan Romshek, a terrific talent from Gibson City pitched the last game.  A short gallery of the game is linked below.  More Redbird images are available for viewing and licensing at Alan Look Photography and a summary article will appear in the August issue of Best Look Magazine . 20140509 Loyola at Illinois State softball - MVC Tournament - Images by Alan Look  - chimper -

Illinois Wesleyan Titans hosted a portion of the 1st round of the NCAA D3 Basketball Tournament. The action took place at IWU Field in Bloomington, starting on Friday May 9th and ending on Sunday May 11th. Anderson, Fontbonne, and Lake Forest were the other competitors in this part of the bracket. IWU beat Lake Forest 5-1 on Friday, shutout Anderson 14-0 in six innings on Saturday and repeated against Lake Forest again on Sunday beating them for the 2nd time 3-2 in a come from behind situation. Grabbing Tournament honors for the Titans were Hannah Bowen (Most Outstanding Player), Sara Rogers, Jenna Noland, Molly McCready, Kyley McKeown. From Fridays IWU v Lake Forest game: 20140509 Lake Forest at Illinois Wesleyan softball - NCAA tournament - Images by Alan Look

It was a fairly windy Saturday, but lots of beautiful people showed up at Duffy Bass Field to watch the middle game of the series between the Salukis of Southern Illinois and the local Redbirds of Illinois State.  The Redbirds didn't let them down, defeating the foes 2-1 in a 15 inning marathon.  It was the second straight extra inning game as Friday evenings contest went 12.  Fridays game ended with a walk off homer, Saturdays with a sac fly driving scoring a baserunner. Southern, over all is a game under .500 but their 3-11 record in the Valley shows the struggles they are having this season.  The Redbirds are 28-12 and 8-5 in the Valley after the win on Saturday.  At Duffy Bass Field, the Redbirds are 10-2. The highlight in the first 8 innings was a home run hit by Paul DeJong over the right field boards. 20140426 Southern Illinois at Illinois State baseball photos - Images by Alan Look

NCAA Men's D3 Championship slimmed down to 8 teams after action on Friday evening.  At Illinois Wesleyan, the Dickinson Red Devils trumped the Wheaton Thunder and shortly after the host Titans of Illinois Wesleyan thumped the Knights of Calvin.  The Titans and Red Devils meet on Saturday night at Shirk Center in Bloomington. 20140314 Wheaton v Dickinson NCAA D3 Sweet 16 game @ IWU - Images by Alan Look 20140314 Calvin v Illinois Wesleyan NCAA D3 Sweet 16 game at IWU - Images by Alan Look  - Chimper -

Basketball season is starting to wrap up and March Madness is getting underway, so it's a bit hard to begin to think about football.  Let's think about it anyway.  The NFL Draft this year begins on May 8 and ends on the 10th.  That's under 2 months away.  It's also good to start talking about it before we all get headed outside to do all those chores and activities we haven't done since October. Looking through our archives and the web listings of Draft Prospects, we came up with about 20 that played in Normal at Hancock Stadium.  Of course, with transfers and such we may have missed a couple.  In our archive of that near 20, we found images of 11. Rankings can be found on the web, but the number 5 sticks in our head as the highest listed for a position that played here.  Include in listings are:  Jimmy Garoppolo, Erik Lora, Colton Underwood, Ray Agnew, Josh Aladenoye, Greg Hardin, Kurt Hess, Winston Wright, Cole Jirik, Doug Peete, Billy Turne...