The beast known as Mt. Carmel. While I like them more now than used to, I had a lot of hate for them in the mid to late 90s. I was the ballboy at a school and the first time I got a chance to see the mighty caravan was in the second round of the playoffs. They came to our place and I will never forget the never ending amount of players that they had. There were four separate entrances to our field and there were players coming out of all 4 spots. They must have had 90-100 guys on the playoff roster and I don't think they had a single guy going both ways. We had a very talented team, and were actually up 17-7 going into halftime. Then we ran out of gas about half way through the third and eventually lost 42-23. They went on to complete the perfect season going 14-0 and winning 5A. Being at a public school, I was told at a young age that the private schools get to recruit players and so I had great disdain for the private schools but especially Mt. Carmel. Now being much older and more mature, I still don't love the privates but I certainly don't hate them like I used to. Furthermore, the CCL is by far the best high school football conference in Illinois and I enjoy watching the matchups week in and week out.
