. . . will be Chicago Marist! I am assuming a two-year series with Rita hosting in '25.
Is Week 2 at MC a go?
Is Week 2 at MC a go?
Interesting: Rita's Week 1 Opponent . . .
- Thread starter Wittymoniker1
- Start date
Game is 8/29/25. I am assuming that is Week 1; BR vs. Marist during Week 2?
I thought all CCL colors will have same teams for next year.
If the schedule is similar to next year regarding opponents, Rita's first four games are a brute:
vs. Marist
@ MC
vs. BR
vs. SF
I am assuming both Marist and BR will be solid next year--I know SF will be. And we all know about MC.
I'm guessing it is 1 year deal since after 2025 they reshuffle the divisions so SR and Marist could be same division or be a crossover. I know SR will be at Barda-Dowling week 2 and host BR week 3. WSF brings everyone back.
i hear they have some transfers coming in from suburbs. Losing Ritter, McAulife and kid who is going to Iowa will hurt. However they have 2 pretty big OLs returning. Will be interesting to see if Stephen Brown (big WR and top hoops player who broke collarbone in football and missed first 10 hoops games) will stick with football - he's a P4 hoops recruit.
I've heard 2 names for week 1. Nothing official yet. Stay tuned. Weeks 2-9 are exactly the same with Home/Away inverted.
So there is a possibility that they will be playing Loyola 2x in the same month…
I thought if anything would change it would be the week 9 game
I really would be surprised if Brown played. He's obviously a threat at 6'8 to difficult to cover but his career is in basketball, he's built for basketball, and this injury probably has him realizing that. The other hoop star Achilles Anderson is losing his whole basketball Senior year because of a football injury, but he's going to Harvard for Football and will land on his feet! Getting Ritter was huge for them last season. They will need another type of splash like that. McAulife is a big loss, and obviously Fitzgibbons and Anderson off the DE's. They lose Ricky Erickson on the DL too, he's a favorite to win State at his weight in wrestling this year. Their lower levels the past couple years haven't been their strongest. We'll see who Fitz brings in out of the IL portal.
I heard possibly ESL at ISU again but that was barstool talk only. I figured it would catch on here if it was bonafide but it hasn't yet.
SR opened with Sandburg last season and I see the latter now has Andrew Week 1. But Sandburg and Andrew were in the same division of the SW Valley conference last year and now they open with each other? I must be missing something, aside from the usual scheduling insanity involving the former SWSC members even now.
3 Home games - easily could be 3-1 after those first four games - only MC is a for sure L
Kind of the opposite for Rita this year as opposed to recent years, the offense returns some playmakers with Armbruster, Jones, and other talented WRs and I liked what I saw from that Soph RB with the awful name that not many Chicago employees like to say 😀. But the defense loses a lot of stronger players with Buckner, Kingsbury, Lacy and Danaher graduating.
From what I've heard, you are correct about the offense. Their O-line should be solid as well.
I think her interior D-line and D-backs will be very good, too. Owen Lynch ('26) is a very good LB.
You are right, though, about the defense overall. I hope SR can replace those DE/LBs, respectively.
In a perfect world could switch BR and LA games weeks 6 and 9. Who knows MC LA could play 2 x in a matter of 3 weeks or something if both go 7-2 etc.
I think Coach Hopkins believes he has a real good team next year that could compete well against these teams--not so sure about MC, but who the hell knows.
Marist may be a little down next year. Not sure what BR brings, but regardless, it's always a competitive game. SF brings back a lot, but I thought SF was going to beat Rita soundly this past year, and the Mustangs won big. In the end, it should be a competitive game at Rita.
Just get one of these victories and with Rita most likely being prohibitive favorites against Patrick IC and Leo Don, there should be five wins there.
Not sure what Naz brings back. Any info?
You probably are correct, and as a result, the Rita/Marist game may (not 100% sure) very well be played at a neutral site like St. Xavier.
BR-SR-MC-Marist should be in one conference.
Have LA-ND-Iggy and DePaul be in the far northside one and have a couple of crossover games with them for parity for LA
You can always have Viator-Marian C Catholic-Carmel and IC be another
Naz-Fenwick-Montini-Laurence be another
DLS-Leo-Marian Catholic and perhaps grab Bishop Mac back in another.
JC-Provy-Benet and Francis in another
Marmion-ACC-Aurora Christian and Wheaton Academy in another
Chicago Christian-Walther-St Edward and Northshore Country Day in another
Have LA-ND-Iggy and DePaul be in the far northside one and have a couple of crossover games with them for parity for LA
You can always have Viator-Marian C Catholic-Carmel and IC be another
Naz-Fenwick-Montini-Laurence be another
DLS-Leo-Marian Catholic and perhaps grab Bishop Mac back in another.
JC-Provy-Benet and Francis in another
Marmion-ACC-Aurora Christian and Wheaton Academy in another
Chicago Christian-Walther-St Edward and Northshore Country Day in another
Are you talking CCL or IHSA? Because as far as I know the CCL colored conferences will stay the same in 2925. They won't up for consideration to reshuffle until 2026.
I REALLY like what has happened on the south side since Marist turned around its program. I remember when they were perennial doormats. Now, Laurence is a power again. If only this could extend to Leo and DLS...
This game would have never happened 20 years ago.
I don't know if I would put Marist as perineal doormats. They had a a stretch where they were perineal average but not doormats. They really started coming around about 15 years ago when intital phase of it becoming Co-Ed ended and it became a popular Co-Ed option. Now Laurence was a doormat program, they started winning again when Blackmon revived it. Despite recent success I wouldn't put them as a powerhouse, they have success in the lower divisions of the CCL and in 4A but they have struggled against the higher division schools. That being said they have come an extremely long way the past 10 years.
Leo, God Bless them, keeps coming out and fighting but they need to get out of the CCL and in a lower conference against schools their size. They are are 1A school that might have success in the 1A playoffs they just don't have a schedule that will allow them to get in the playoffs with 5 wins.
DLS is a wreck as far as football. They can't recruit against MC, SR, BR and now even Iggy which are the 4 main schools in their hub area. Best they can offer is probable immediate playing time for those players that might be on the fence of starting at the above schools.
Okay, maybe not doormats, but average is too kind a word to describe them in the years leading up to the Dunne era. They had a long stretch of mediocrity, going 33-50 with one winning season out of nine, before the Dunne era began in 2008 which is when Marist turned it around and have basically kept it at a strong competitive level since then.
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They have always been outstanding in wrestling for the last 40 years. They're strongest men's sport overall IMO.
