The NW side battle of the titans goes to the Cowboys this year. Great game, unbelievable atmosphere at Brooks Park today. It doesn’t get better than this.
IC over Juliana’s
- Thread starter eireog
- Start date
A couple of schools (SMOW, IC, Thecla) had been playing in a south side conference for a while. They have now taken what remains of the NWCC and merged with the North shore league (OLPH, Evanston Cath, etc). I know Tars, Thecla, Borgia no longer field teams but funnel them to schools that play. I believe CCD kids are allowed to play too.
Queens, IC , Juliana’s and St. Ed’s. SMOW started a team after the longtime Wildwood coach retired. They joined that south side league , where I believe St. Thecla was already playing, and used CCD kids. IC joined them for a short time until this new league/merger started. I believe that the member teams use CCD kids and they have sister schools also (other neighborhood Catholic schools that don’t field teams). The leagues have been fighting declining enrollments, school closures and the down turn in kids playing football and kids opting to play in Pk. Ridge and other travel teams (Oriole Pk, restarted Wildwood program). They are adapting and continuing on.
Speaking of Park Ridge, it's interesting to note something that I'm not sure was ever discussed on this board is the formation of a second Park Ridge Falcons program with identical logos and uniforms. One Park Ridge Falcons program is in Pop Warner and the other is in Bill George. I believe one of them plays at Maine South. @MS4EVER care to chime in? Sounds like it was an odd split between the two programs and a lawsuit was even involved.
There are 11 teams in the league for varsity & 13 on JV with two schools fielding JV teams:
St. Ed’s
Queen of All Saints
SMOW
St. Juliana
IC
OLPH 8
OLPH 7
Evanston Catholic
Wilmette Catholic
Faith Hope & Charity
St.Norbert/Scared Heart
St. Ed’s
Queen of All Saints
SMOW
St. Juliana
IC
OLPH 8
OLPH 7
Evanston Catholic
Wilmette Catholic
Faith Hope & Charity
St.Norbert/Scared Heart
FYI
Wilmette Catholic consists of St Joseph and St Francis
Evanston Catholic consists of St Joan of Arc, St A's and Pope John
Um….ummm…. Not sure what you speak of. There was a split? Yah I gotta go.
Seriously though I know some but not all of the story. So I’d prefer not to comment.
I appreciate the candor and un-willingness to speak without knowing the full story.
I think the addition of Park Ridge to BGYFL is great, and will hopefully expand BGYFL to the north-west suburbs and city.
I view BGYFL as your home town travel baseball, but they take everyone. Pop Warner is more like your elite travel ball squads - upper levels of Sparks and Top Tier and the like.
I’m not sure how they determine which schools feed into which schools. Doesn’t seem like that long ago I remember you trying to get a program going at Celestine’s. With all of the sister schools and CCD kids being involved it might be worth looking into if you still have the itch. I know it takes a lot of money and time and I respect all the coaches that do it for nothing but the love of the game.
I did try. We could never get the principal on board. We sent kids to Borgia for a few years, but a lot of kids chose to play for the EP Rush rather than the school. I don't think Celestine has had anyone play at Borgia in over 5 years now.
These are the only real Falcons....
Capture-2021-10-05-23-41-20-2 hosted at ImgBB
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With all this talk about the northwest side (and burbs) and the south side Catholic grammar school leagues, I think the old North Side Catholic League should not be forgotten. Most of these programs supported the old Gordon Tech program and arguably were the reason they won the 1980 6A title. And to some smaller extent they supported St Pats and Weber as well.
NSCL (of the top of my head):
Queen of Angels
St. Hilary
Hardy Prep
St. Margaret Mary
St. Ita
St. Jerome
St. Gregory
St. Ignatius
Our Lady of Mercy
Our Lady of Grace (briefly)
The football programs mostly died out late 70s through early 90s.
The first three are still open, along w/ OLG. OLM is closed, and the rest all either merged into Northside Catholic Academy or are hosting another school now (St. Ita was part of NCA but now hosts the St. Thomas of Canterbury school).
St. Hilary kept football going for quite a while, ran jointly with St. Margaret Mary. I think that program died out only recently.
Additionally, Welles Park, River Park, and Hamlin Park all ran youth football - probably some more north side parks too. I THINK only Welles remains.
There was some good football in the old NSCL.
On the plus side, flag football has started up over the last decade. QofA and Hilary don't have it yet, nor surprisingly does St Bens - but Hardy Prep does (along w/ Andrews, Clements, ICSJ, Mt Carmel, Josaphats, Alphonsus, and FXW).
NSCL (of the top of my head):
Queen of Angels
St. Hilary
Hardy Prep
St. Margaret Mary
St. Ita
St. Jerome
St. Gregory
St. Ignatius
Our Lady of Mercy
Our Lady of Grace (briefly)
The football programs mostly died out late 70s through early 90s.
The first three are still open, along w/ OLG. OLM is closed, and the rest all either merged into Northside Catholic Academy or are hosting another school now (St. Ita was part of NCA but now hosts the St. Thomas of Canterbury school).
St. Hilary kept football going for quite a while, ran jointly with St. Margaret Mary. I think that program died out only recently.
Additionally, Welles Park, River Park, and Hamlin Park all ran youth football - probably some more north side parks too. I THINK only Welles remains.
There was some good football in the old NSCL.
On the plus side, flag football has started up over the last decade. QofA and Hilary don't have it yet, nor surprisingly does St Bens - but Hardy Prep does (along w/ Andrews, Clements, ICSJ, Mt Carmel, Josaphats, Alphonsus, and FXW).
Thecla still is open? I thought they were being consolidated into the already consolidated entity of Tars, Pascals, OLV, and Cornelius?
Thecla is closed, any kids from Thecla either went to St Paul of the Cross, St John Brebuf or Onahan (public school) maybe a few went to St Elizabeth of the Trinity (Tars)
Crazy that Tars has been under 3 different names in less than a decade now. Feel for guys like Frank Monaco and others who were with the Raiders for decades. Sad.
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