Game faces: Rockford area top players and rising stars for spring 2024: Photos

The high school spring sports season is well underway, and plenty of Rockford-area stars already are making names for themselves.

Rockford-area spring sports: How Byron can top Guilford, Dakota to become Rockford's greatest one-year sports dynasty

Belvidere North's girls soccer star Cortlyn Hefty has 29 goals through the Blue Thunder's first 10 games.

Auburn's Essence Horton-Graves has the seventh fastest time in the 100-meter dash in the entire state in track and field.

Sophomore Caden Considine has the Byron baseball team on a nine-game winning streak.

We asked some of the region's top athletes to stop by for a photo shoot earlier this month to capture both their love for their sports and their passion for playing at their highest level.

Here are the results.

More sports stories

Basketball:Two star NCAA Division I recruits battle it out in Rising Stars game

Softball:A dozen of the Rockford area's top slap hitters and how they change their softball teams

Wrestling:Belvidere and North both have their own wrestling teams back

Baseball:'It's like he has a magnet in his shirt for baseballs.' Byron catcher nears HBP record

AOW Poll:Who should be the Rockford Register Star's Athlete of the Week for April 8-13

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years altogether.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Game faces: Rockford area top players and rising stars, spring 2024