Still Football In Pecatonica This Year

Pecatonica head coach Eric Bergin instructs players during a
special teams drill during practice on Aug. 19.

Contrary to reports, there is still a football program at Pecatonica.

When news of the cancellation of this season's varsity schedule came out in March, the Rockford Register Star offered the ominous phrase, “the Indians will not exist.”

So much for that.

Declining numbers forced a switch to a junior varsity schedule for this season for the Indians, who did not have enough players to play the last three weeks of a winless season in 2012. Nearly 10 months later, the practice field just to the south of the school is being used once more.

On Aug. 19, the first Monday of practice, 16 freshmen, sophomores and juniors suited up for first-year head coach Eric Bergin. That evening, the players worked on running plays and kickoff returns, afterward splitting up so that Bergin could work alone with five linemen.

The practice concluded with sprints across the practice field to and from, with Bergin counting down the seconds until the next whistle for the next sprint. There, the fastest runners always finished first and the slowest runners were encouraged by the rest of the finished teammates. All of which survived to make it to the practice-ending huddle.

With 16 players, most will be seeing duty on both a new-look offense and defense. Obviously all would like to play, but they cannot be overworked. Thus, the never-ending concern for Bergin and his coaching staff.

“We've been practicing hard,” Bergin said. “It's a new process for them, a new offense and a new defense is being installed. We're working on that, and we'll go from there. Hopefully we stay healthy and don't have any dings and stuff like that to avoid the situation we had last year. We'll line up with our 16 kids and we'll play. That's what we'll do and try to build it from here.”

The Indians will open the season on Friday evening at Lena-Winslow against the Panther JV squad. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will mark the first time since September 28 that Pecatonica purple and gold donned the gridiron.

Be it junior varsity or varsity, Collin Viel, one of three juniors on the Indian team, is just happy to play.

“We're very excited because we're getting to play,” Viel said. “We're juniors and we're supposed to be playing varsity this season, but since the numbers and all those problems, we just get to play now. That's a good thing for us.”

“Everyone says that it sucks that we're playing JV, but I'm just excited to be playing games,” junior Alex Thayer added. “I'm glad to have a season.”

Under the junior varsity scheduling arrangement, the Indians will suit up against the junior varsity squads of its Northwest Division foes of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference. Included in the schedule are two Saturday dates with Ashton-Franklin Center (the team's lone NUIC crossover game, as well as the Homecoming game) in Week 5 and archrival Durand in Week 6; as well as a Monday night tilt with South Beloit in Week 3.

Numbers and size may be small, but speed is plenty for the Indians. They will look to use that to their advantage in the nine-week grind.

“We have some kids that can run, so we'll use that to our advantage,” Bergin said. “We have a little bit of speed we can use and we'll try to get them out in the open and do some things off of that.”

Despite an abrupt end to last year's season, the remaining players have worked hard toward erasing the adversity, whether it is putting in the effort physically in the offseason, or trying to recruit more bodies to join the program.

“The tempo has picked up a lot,” Viel said. “We've had harder practices and had more running and lifting a lot. It's just a lot more up tempo now.”

While dropouts have run rampant, additions have been made. One of which is the Indians' third junior, Skyler Alongi.

Having lived in Orangeville at the start of high school, grades were an issue for Alongi until they were finally good enough to earn a spot on the team.

“I'm excited because this is my first year playing football, ever,” Alongi said. “We've been getting in shape the whole offseason, so hopefully we'll be good.”

Asked what would make a great sell to get more bodies out for the program, the three juniors offered their own bit of persuasion.

“It's a lifetime experience,” Viel said. “You don't get to play football again. We're a small school, so a lot of us won't be going to these high-end colleges and playing D-I football. So it's just this experience. You come out, you play as a family, you play with your friends, you get to experience it, love it.”

“Last year everyone didn't want to go out because we were bad,” Alongi said. “It's not going to change your football team around by not going out.”

“I think if you don't play now, this is a part of your life that you're going to regret for the rest of it,” Thayer said.

The plan is to try to field a varsity team once more in 2014. But before that, all will hinge on what happens this season.

“We got 16 kids out here that want to play football,” Bergin said. “We're starting ground zero right here, and these kids are a part of it. After this year, hopefully we'll be a team of sophomores and juniors, and hope to keep building from there.”

2013 Pecatonica Indians Football Schedule
Friday, Aug. 30 - @ Lena-Winslow (7 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 6 – vs. Eastland/Pearl City (7 p.m.)
Monday, Sept. 16 - @ South Beloit (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 20 - @ Dakota (7 p.m.)
Saturday, Sept. 28 – vs. Ashton-Franklin Center (12 p.m.)
Saturday, Oct. 5 - @ Durand (11:30 a.m.)
Friday, Oct. 11 – vs. West Carroll (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 18 - @ Forreston (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 25 - @ Galena (5 p.m.)

Four Illinois Sports See Participation Increases

Boys cross country was one of four high school sports in
Illinois to see an increase in the number of participants,
according to the National Federation of High School's
 participation survey.

Whatever the high school sport may be, Illinois has its usual collection of them. Typically, those sports attract the biggest crowds and have the largest number of participants.

The National Federation of High Schools on Monday released data for its 2012-13 high school athletics participation survey. High school athletic participation in Illinois decreased for the second year in a row, falling from 346,896 students in the 2011-12 school year to 339,944. The fall continued from a high of 350,114 students in 2010-11.

All but four sports registered decreases in participation last year. Increasing numbers were boys cross country, girls soccer, boys swimming and diving, and girls track and field.

Participation in boys cross country has increased each year for the past five years. In 2012, 11,319 Illinois high school boys ran cross country, while 10,129 ran in 2008. Two years ago, 10,762 kids ran cross country, marking an increase of 2.76 percent.

Boys swimming and diving saw the largest percentage of increase among high school students in Illinois. In 2012, 6,744 Illinois high school boys participated in swimming and diving programs, an increase from 6,484 from the prior year.

Track and field numbers for girls in Illinois also rose last year. In 2012, 19,283 Illinois high school girls participated in track and field programs, an increase from 19,283 from the prior year.

Girls soccer numbers increased slightly from a year ago, increasing to 16,144 from 16,107 in Illinois.

Participation numbers for girls soccer, boys swimming and diving, and girls track and field were increases last year after decreases from 2010.

Football continues to be the most popular high school sport in Illinois in terms of participation, with 46,889 kids suiting up last year. However, the overall number has decreased in each of the past five years, with 51,334 kids out for the sport in 2008. Volleyball ranks second in terms of participation in Illinois high schools with 22,492 participants, down from 22,329 a year ago.

Among sports in Illinois with over 5,000 participants, boys tennis numbers went down significantly from a year ago. Numbers in boys tennis fell from 7,712 kids in 2011 to 6,670 in 2012.

Illinois ranks fourth in the nation in the number of high school sport participants behind Texas (798,333), California (777,545) and New York (389,475). Ohio is fifth in the nation with 327,919 students, with Pennsylvania (315,492), Michigan (304,438), New Jersey (270,423), Florida (243,397) and Minnesota (230,421) rounding out the top 10.

Of the top 10, only New Jersey had an increase in participants. Thirty of the 51 state high school associations reported increases.

Cutter: Success Multiplier Will Break The Levee

What if you had the power to determine which level of the playoffs your team will compete in?

Just like East St. Louis football, Illinois's winningest prep gridiron program.

When it comes to the Flyers, forget about ineligible transfers and things like that which have put a black eye on the program. What is impressive about the success that they have recently put up is that they are being successful in a different area than what they "should" be in.

They "should" have been in Class 6A in the past few years. With an enrollment this year of 1,438 students, that "should" mean the Flyers are solidly in the middle of 6A.

East St. Louis has participated in Class 7A all of this time - a class that is made up largely of competition from far more resourceful Chicagoland schools.

At one time, East St. Louis's enrollment put them on the bottom end of the 7A ranks. However, an enrollment decline (a problem for the city for the past 50 years) bumped them down into the next-lowest class in 2009.

By that time, the Illinois High School Association's class-expansion wave, which started in 2007, was in full swing. With many more classifications of play in the picture, the IHSA created a provision which offered any Illinois high school athletic team to play up one level in classification.

East St. Louis's football team isn't the only sports program to take advantage of this opportunity.

When the provision started, the boys golf teams from Chicago Christian in Palos Heights (1A to 2A) and St. Viator in Arlington Heights (2A to 3A) chose to play up one level of classification. However, after the 2010-11 school year, both teams chose to go back to its normal class.

Since then, a new sport-specific classification rule was established by the IHSA Board of Directors in the summer of 2011. Also new to the fold was the sport-specific private school waiver opportunity, passed in 2011 by the IHSA member schools after years of unsuccessful tries.

The boys basketball team of Chicago's St. Rita of Cascia fell into the 3A field after having been granted a multiplier waiver, based on the fact that they haven't won a regional championship in the past five years. In fact, the Mustang program has only won three regionals in its history: in 1982, 2000 and 2003, and all done falling short of a sectional title.

The Mustangs finished 16-11 in 2012 and 19-8 this past season without regional titles. St. Rita chose to stay in 4A. They fell to DuSable 54-52 in its own regional final on March 1, and fell 64-56 to Whitney Young in the 2012 regional final at Young.

If you don't include the competitive cheerleading programs from downstate Mt. Carmel and East Alton-Wood River, the "play up" tally includes one public school and three private schools. Also remember that the three private schools have already seen its enrollment figure inflated by the IHSA's 1.65 Multiplier.

East St. Louis's football team and St. Rita's boys basketball team have set an example for wanting to challenge themselves. Worth noting, the IHSA's motto reflects what these two programs have done: "Challenge yourself."

Several prep sports teams exist in Illinois that have proven to be successful in recent years, and provoke this thought: "Why don't they choose play up a class?"

When the girls basketball team from Quincy Notre Dame won two straight Class 2A titles in 2011 and 2012, that thought ran rampant among critics statewide given its athletic talent and its schedule strength. Then the Lady Raiders were bumped up to 3A due to enrollment, not by choice, and proceeded to win the 3A championship in February.

In 2010, Boylan's football team won it all in Class 6A. Despite a small enrollment dropoff, the Titans competed in Class 7A the following year due to classification, and not by choice, and proceeded to win it all once more.

Even public schools have proven that playing up a class doesn't make the path tougher. Dakota's volleyball team, after winning Class 1A in 2011, had a small enrollment bump that pushed them across the cutoff line into 2A. The Indians went on to take second place in 2012.

Morris's football team went from being the Class 5A runner-up in 2004 to becoming the Class 6A champion the following year.

Four teams, including two area teams, have proven that the next class up isn't all that scary. That's proof that having a forced success multiplier rule doesn't make things any tougher on schools that have achieved success.

So what is the point for bringing it up?

Washington superintendent and principal Jim Dunnan brought the idea up during the IHSA Football Advisory Committee meeting in November. Then again on June 10 during the IHSA Board of Directors' monthly meeting. At the latter meeting, the Board approved a recommendation to form a committee to review the implementation of a "success factor" formula.

According to the minutes of the Football Advisory Committee in December, "Dunnan delivered a report regarding the Class 5A disparity in non-public school title game dominance of that class over the past 13 years."

"We are beginning to see ‘success factors’ or ‘tradition factors’ being considered or implemented as a part of the formula to determine school classifications at several state associations around the country," stated IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman in a press release. "Dr. Dunnan presented the Board with some well thought-out ideas, and ultimately, the Board felt like forming a committee to further explore this subject was worthwhile."

In the past 12 years (since football's expansion from six to eight classes), private schools have won 11 state championships in Class 5A. The exception was Metamora's win in 2007. Joliet Catholic, New Lenox Providence, Sacred Heart-Griffin, Wheaton St. Francis and Montini have won the other 11 championships. Montini has won the past four titles.

Only one Class 5A title game win has been a shutout: Providence's 42-0 win over Pontiac in 2002. The only other 5A title game decided by more than two touchdowns was Montini's 70-45 win over Joliet Catholic in 2011.

Dominance?

Dominance would be Montini blowing out every opponent in the playoffs in winning its state titles. This past year, only one of Montini's playoff games was decided by more than two touchdowns: its 54-13 opening-round win against Midlothian Bremen. Sycamore came within two points from stopping the streak, but fell 24-22 in the second round.

Notice we're still talking about football here, because that was Dunnan's focus. Whether or not examples were made in other sports, such as girls basketball or wrestling (two of Montini's other successful sports), are not known.

The only "dominance" that exists is that of the accumulation of state championship trophies each year.

If the state championship trophy has become the point of the need to change everything, then we have a serious problem in Illinois high school sports.

If the state championship trophy has become the point of the need to change everything, then we have forgotten about the primary purpose of these particular extra-curricular offerings: and that is an educational experience. When the statements on the public address system mention something about an "extension of the classroom," it's not just filler statements or a warm-up paragraph for the announcer's voice.

In recent years, especially after 2007's class expansion wave, we have seen an increase in student transfers from one high school to another. With that general increase is the increase of sports-related transfers.

Having a success multiplier will eventually pave the way for other, less fortunate schools to add to its trophy cases. This also creates the opportunity for more athletic transfers, judging on the strength of a certain team with potential. It has also increased the desire for winning against the educational setting.

While the proposal does absolutely nothing to stop the bleeding that is the increase of athletic-related transfers, an even bigger problem would come up if this were to take place.

That is a public-private split within the IHSA.

I would sure hope that Dunnan isn't paving the way for a football team or two to be in a situation that Brentwood Academy of Tennessee was in nearly 20 years ago. In a five-class football playoff system, Brentwood - whose enrollment figure would have meant playing in Class 2A - played up to 5A and kept on winning, taking home the 5A title in 1995. This was one of the prime factors in Tennesee's public-private split.

By forcibly bumping up successful teams that have a tenancy to reload instead of rebuild, you give them a reason to find a way to come back and compete. As mentioned before, Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball, Boylan football, Dakota volleyball and Morris football are four teams that have proven that the step up is not a fatal blow to a program's goals and determinations.

East St. Louis football has proven to be competitive in Class 7A as well.

Going back to a splitting scenario in Illinois: If this is done, the classifications and tournament structures would be unique enough to where all of the less-fortunate private school teams would have to find a way to compete with the more successful ones. In turn, this would exponentially push the gap between publics and privates to a whole new level. And if you do split publics and privates in just postseason competition, privates in public conferences would create more of a dominance gap.

Such a split would decimate Chicagoland public sports programs that have the potential of losing athletes to more stronger means of athletic competition in the private school setting. While this could increase the enrollments of private schools, it also increase the potential for undesirables in the religious sense in their hallways.

So the rosters would grow to epic proportions, but issues such as negotiations for playing time and the like would redistribute the bodies to the other, closer private schools.

Also, areas not effected by private school influence would feast on the shells of the rest come postseason.

Privates would crush publics if a split were to occur. The quality of public sports competition would be at an all-time low. Then comes, between that large gap between public and private, the rise of club volleyball, ASA softball and other non-school-associated sports competition for those who don't feel challenged and attend public schools (because of many reasons, including finances).

This would bring about something that has been feared for many years in the IHSA: The demise of school sports and the rise of club sports.

If state champions - dynasties, that is - were dominating every game en route to their trophies, then it would be a problem. But that's not happening in Illinois. The "domination" only exists in the form of the accumulation of trophies, in particular those that read "state champions". Hence obsession with winning increases and the will to learn decreases.

High school sports is an educational experience outside of the traditional classroom setting. Let's keep it that way. Schools can say all they want about stuffed trophy cases increasing student morale, but stuffed trophy cases do not bring schools an increase in state aid from Springfield. Whether you're 14-0 or 0-9, no season is a failure. Those are just numbers.

We don't need a "success multiplier" in the IHSA. It distorts more than it helps.

2013-14 Area Enrollments and Classifications



The Prophetstown Girls Basketball team will move
from 1A to 2A next season.

 The Illinois High School Association on Tuesday released its list of enrollment figures to be used for the 2013-14 school year.

Enrollment figures used were tallied in 2012-13 Fall Housing Report, which tallied school enrollment as of September 30.

With the release of the enrollment data, the IHSA has also announced several classification changes that affect some area teams. Included in such changes were the announcements of multiplier waivers either granted to or eliminated from certain private school teams.

In all, 43 area teams were affected in IHSA playoff classification either through enrollment changes or through waiver status.


Fall Sports

In volleyball, Forreston, Indian Creek, Newman and Rockford Christian Life fall from 2A to 1A. North Boone falls from 3A to 2A, while Ottawa moves up from 3A to 4A.

In both boys and girls cross country, Sandwich falls from 2A to 1A, Alleman moves up from 1A to 2A, DeKalb falls from 3A to 2A, and Rockford East and United Township move up from 2A to 3A.

In boys golf, Byron, Kewanee and Oregon fall from 2A to 1A, while Belvidere North and Boylan fall from 3A to 2A.

In boys soccer, East also moves up from 2A to 3A.


Winter Sports

In both boys and girls basketball, Somonauk falls from 2A to 1A, Prophetstown moves up from 1A to 2A, Stillman Valley falls from 3A to 2A, and Ottawa moves up from 3A to 4A. In only boys basketball, St. Bede moves down from 2A to 1A via the multiplier waiver.

In wrestling, the Polo/Milledgeville/Eastland cooperative falls from 2A to 1A, while East moves up from 2A to 3A.


Spring Sports

In baseball, Belvidere North and Boylan fall from 4A to 3A.

In softball, Belvidere North falls from 4A to 3A, while Boylan moves up from 3A to 4A.

In both boys and girls track, North Boone falls from 2A to 1A and Ottawa moves up from 2A to 3A.

In girls soccer, Marengo moves down from 2A to 1A and Boylan moves down from 3A to 2A.


Enrollment Trends

The combined Northern Illinois Sports Beat area enrollment fell from 57,447 to 56,270.

Of decreases of eight percent or more, Newman's enrollment fell from 262 to 228, Boylan's enrollment fell from 1,151 to 1,055, and Guilford's enrollment fell from 1,950 to 1,769. Of increases of eight percent or more, East's enrollment rose from 1,509 to 1,741.

According to NISB data, enrollment continues to fall at Amboy, Bureau Valley, Byron, Forreston, Hinckley-Big Rock, Orangeville, Princeton and Sandwich - schools with noteable decreases in enrollment in the past six years.

Amboy's enrollment has fallen from 354 in 2007 to 257 in 2012. Bureau Valley has fallen in the same time period from 434 to 335, Byron from 611 to 506, Forreston from 348 to 242, H-BR from 272 to 209, Orangeville from 168 to 119, Princeton from 701 in 2008 to 551, and Sandwich from 832 to 724.

The area's two eastern-most athletic divisions, the Northern Illinois Big 12 East and the Big Northern East, has seen an overall drop in enrollment from last year. The area among both divisions had been growing steadily over the past decade. The NI Big 12 East fell from 7,712 students to 7,670. The BNC East fell from 4,951 to 4,846.

Chief among the BNC East's enrollment decline was Marengo's fall from 821 to 777 this past year. Marengo, located on the southwest corner of McHenry County, has seen its enrollment fall from a high of 908 students in 2007.

Yorkville, the area's fastest-growing school, rose from 1,565 to 1,622, and has grown from a tally of 1,295 in 2007.

(You can view the area's six-year master enrollment chart by visiting this link to NISB's General H.S. Discussion Forum, and downloading the enrollment chart from there.)