Football50dad

Morris, IL. About 20 mins SW of Joliet. Nice town with a decent football tradition at the HS. I honestly don't think I will ever move from Morris. What about you?

Ok, I am a Hoosier who relocated to Illinois 15 yrs ago. Now I am stuck here! Lol I don't have a ton of knowledge yet on HS sports here, mainly football, but my son will be entering HS next year, and it has made me start paying attention the last few seasons. First off, the Illinois season starts one week later than Indiana. So any changes to the playoff format, would likely simply be addressed by moving the start of the season up one week. The new proposed plan has many parents scratching their heads here, as most fans truly don't understand the idea of more teams making the playoffs (God forbid they all make it). The high number of High Schools in Illinois is balanced out with 8 classes of roughly 32 playoff teams in each class. So basically cut out one round of Sectionals (which here is Regionals the. Sectionals). The ultimate goal is to cut down the amount of travel in the first two or three rounds of playoffs. I personally believe they all end of pre-assigning Districts of 8 teams, and the top 4 in each will make playoffs. I do NOT think they will ultimately end up having a set deal where those 8 teams will be required to play during the regular season. Lastly, some asked why football playoffs should be set different than any other sport. The answer is simple. You can play 4-5 heck even 6 basketball, soccer, baseball, etc games a week. 3-4 wrestling meets with a wrestler having 10+ matches in a week. But playing more than one football game a week is too much to ask a HS kid. My kid plays 8th grade football and is starting on both Defense and offensive lines. Even at that age, he takes at least two days to recover and ice the bruises. We have all either seen or felt that exact thing.

Any score for the Chatard Southport game?

I live in the far SW Chicago burbs (Joliet area). Prior to this year, most schools in this area, to my knowledge played two games Friday night, Sophomore game followed by Varsity. However, in this area, this year they switched from Varsity, Sophomore, Freshman model to Varsity, JV, and Freshman. The change no or means Freshmen play Friday night before the Varsity, with JV playing Mondays. I thought the change was made across the state, but I can't confirm that. I am not sure if the same crew does both games, but I suspect they do.

Any Chatard/Cathedral update?

Someone asked on the Copper Kettle thread about the origins of the Kettle. Made me wonder how many other trophies are played for. So: Teams involved? What is the trophy? Why? Maybe, how old? I believe Lawrence Central and Lawrence North at least use to play for the Bell trophy. If memory serves me, it was named after a coach who had been at both schools during his coaching career.

I couldn't believe it when I moved over to Illinois to find that a nearby high school had the names Injuns! Lemont High School were named the Injuns until 2005.

As a Chatard alum, and one who has been relocated out of state for 15 years now, this comes with a large grain of salt, but I think it is fair the say whichever 3A school wins Sectional 28, should be the favorite to hoist the hardware at the Oil Can Thanksgiving weekend.