Winnebago’s Johnny Strauss earned the honor of being named the Rockford Register Star high school Athlete of the Week, sponsored by Gustafson’s Furniture & Mattress, for the long week of Jan. 12-19.
Strauss, a senior wrestler, pinned all three of his opponents at a dual last week, and then he outwrestled his seed and took third at the 2026 Comet Classic on Saturday. He followed all that up by going out and earning over 61 percent of the vote on our AOTW poll.
To nominate an athlete for our AOTW poll, send an email to jtaft@rrstar.com by 10 a.m. Monday mornings, with information and stats on why you think they deserve to be nominated.
Almost every week for the rest of the school year, we will compile a list of athletes from the Rockford area who had standout weeks and let you, the reader, vote on who you think deserves the AOTW award. Every week you will be able to find the nominees as well as the poll at rrstar.com.
The rest of this week’s nominees were:
Ryleigh Alexander, Pecatonica basketball
Alexander scored a game-high 12 points last Tuesday, but her and her teammates clamped down on defense in a big way during a 37-16 win over Lena-Winslow. Pec, the defending Class 1A state basketball champs, were 15-7 and 5-0 in the NUIC headed into this week.
Brody Carlson, Rockford Christian basketball
Carlson buried a 3-pointer on Monday to pull Rockford Christian within three of the Pecatonica MLK Shootout hosts, and that boosted him over the 1,000-point mark for his career. Pec won 64-61, and Carlson finished with 14 points in the game.
Amir Danforth, Auburn basketball
Danforth, who has been on a tear for Auburn, scored 24 points on 10 of 15 shooting from the field, including a 3-for-5 night from 3-point range, as Auburn (12-6, 7-1 NIC-10) hammered Hononegah (16-3, 7-2) by a score of 72-40 last Wednesday. Hono never led.
Cam Jones, Polo basketball
Jones scored her 1,500th point during Polo’s loss to Eastland in girls basketball last Thursday.
Parker Krogman, Eastland basketball
Krogman scored 24 points in back-to-back MLK tourney games on Saturday
Jeremiah Luke, Lena-Winslow/Stockton wrestling
Luke, who is ranked No. 1 in Class 1A at 285, earned a 35-second pin last Thursday, and a tech-fall victory on Tuesday as he continued to roar toward the postseason.
Mateo Perera, Harlem basketball
Perera, who became Harlem’s all-time leading 3-point shooter and reached 1,000 points just last month, scored 22 and 16 points in a pair of wins for Harlem in the Pec MLK tourney over the weekend, and another 28 points in another win on Monday.
Bailey Westlund, Boylan basketball
Westlund buried three 3s and had 13 points and she led a tough defensive effort as her Titans put the clamps down on D during a 74-17 win over East in girls basketball last week. Westlund also scored 29 in Boylan’s key NIC-10 win over Harlem last week after tallying 22, including six 3s, in a clutch win over Pec.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Here’s the winner of the Rockford-area AOTW, sponsored by Gustafson’s
Reporting by Jay Taft, Rockford Register Star / Rockford Register Star
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