Mount Carmel and Loyola have done it again. The top two teams have stampeded through the first eight weeks undefeated and will meet up on Saturday afternoon in Wilmette.
The game feels even bigger than last season’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown because neither team has lost to anyone else since. Loyola went on to win the Class 8A state title after losing to Mount Carmel last year. The Caravan rolled to the Class 7A crown.
New Loyola coach Beau Desherow deserves some credit. It is remarkable how smooth the transition has been for the Ramblers. Replacing John Holecek was a massive task so it wouldn’t have been a surprise if there were some speed bumps along the way. But Loyola has steadily improved throughout the season and is the Class 8A state title favorite no matter what happens on Saturday.
Mount Carmel vs. Loyola isn’t the only showdown of undefeated teams in Week 9. Unbeaten Morris hosts unbeaten Sycamore on Friday.
Another merger
The conference merger trend continued this past week, with the DuPage Valley and Southwest Suburban announcing they will combine to form a 15-team league in 2024. It’s only for football.
Bolingbrook is leaving the Southwest Suburban for the Southwest Prairie next year. The new football conference hasn’t been named yet. It would be a shame to lose the DuPage Valley moniker, one of the few conference names around that doesn’t sound like word salad.
The new conference will have four divisions, chosen by enrollment and success.
The Blue has Homewood-Flossmoor, Lincoln-Way East, Lockport, Naperville North and Neuqua Valley. The Red includes Andrew, Lincoln-Way West, Metea Valley, Naperville Central and Sandburg. The White contains Bradley-Bourbonnais, DeKalb, Lincoln-Way Central, Stagg and Waubonsie Valley.
A conference featuring the Boilermakers and the Barbs, separated by 108 miles, is wacky. But that’s where all the jockeying for teams to get five wins and qualify for the state playoffs has taken the sport.
Football is back
The National Federation of State High School Associations releases sports participation numbers every year. Football is in the midst of a significant comeback nationally and locally.
There was a 6% increase in football participation in Illinois last year with 1,089,880 students playing. That’s the first uptick for football since 2013.
Football participation increased 5.6% nationally. The numbers are still significantly lower than the peak 15 years ago, but before COVID it appeared football was on a permanent decline.
Illinois is fourth overall with 335,801 high school sports participants. That’s behind Texas, California and New York.
Never done before?
Joliet West’s win against Plainfield East in Week 8 gave the Tigers seven wins for the first time since 1969. The school, as Joliet West, has never hosted a state playoff game.
The community’s football success isn’t quite that far in the past, however.
Joliet West and Joliet Central combined athletic teams for 17 years starting in the 1993-94 season. The Steelmen were 7-4 that first year and 8-3 in 1995. They hosted and won state playoff games at Ray Klootwyk Stadium in both of those seasons.
