New: My Top Week 1 Games.......

[EdgyTim]

Just started to really dig into the schedule this weekend and heere are what I feel are the top games for Week 1 of the IHSA Football season in 2024. I'll next narrow things down to a Top 5 then let you know which games i'm planning to cover in Week 1.

Prairie Ridge at Jacobs- Again I hate locked conferences...but this is a terrific Week 1 FVC matchup

St. Joseph Ogden at Monticello Two small school power programs with a ton of tradition here as well.

Hersey at Warren Township Hersey's top QB Colton Gumino tried to dent the always tough WTHS defense? Yes please.

Batavia at Glenbard West (Sat) The Hitters have two monster non con games in Batavia and Loyola.

Hope Academy at Wilmington Hope could be strong this fall and Wilmington is always strong.

Morgan Park at Marist The Mustangs have state title aspirations this fall and can Marist get back to form after a blip in 2023?

St Patrick at Niles Notre Dame HUGE rivalry game in Week 1....wow

Coal City at Morris Yes this is indeed the Hatfields against the McCoys in Will and Grundy County.

Edwardsville at Glenwood Great non conference game here as the Titans looks ready for a big season. Edwardsville also has state title aspirations in 2024.

Hinsdale Central at Naperville Central This has become an annual game and form good reasons....two very similar programs with a ton of talent and high expectations

Iowa City at Joliet Catholic The Hilltoppers schedule is no joke and Iowa City is a power program in Iowa.

Kankakee at Nazareth Academy Great Week 1 showdown and can Naz get out of ther gates quickly in 2024 and avoid late regular season drama for once

Lemont at Libertyville Anyone else remember when Lemont would open up against Little Flower? those days are long gone and Libertyville looks ready for a big 2024.

Benet Academy at Hillcrest Benet is seeking a good start and a win over the always talented Hillcrest Hawks would be huge.

Metamora at Sterling Talk about two major power programs in Class 5A here. Great teams great football towns squaring off.

Prospect at Lyons Township- Just an interesting matchup here on several levels.

Neuqua Valley at Oswego Local game here that is a great opening game that will tell us a lot about both teams here.

Lincoln Way West at Blue Island Eisenhower Ike is seeking a good start under a new head coach. West has a loaded roster with big expectations for 2024.

Providence Catholic at Wheaton North- Providence will be young but talented and Wheaton North is just always well coached and a hard nosed team.

Richards at Crete Monee Both have Class 6A playoff potential in 2024 and are both bringing back a ton of experience for this season.

Fenwick at OPRF Another local big time game and showdown that gets both sides fired up.

Sandburg at St Rita Sandburg HC Troy McAllister doesn't schedule St Rita unless he knows he has something to work with this summer. St Rita is always so good at home...

Maine South at Lincoln Way East- Best Week 1 game in the state?

Plainfield North at Lockport- North has a lot of weapons and speed. Lockport has numbers and a defense that can always hang with all comers.

The Hun School (New Jersey) at Chicago Mount Carmel- The Hun School is a traditional power in New Jersey and will not be a punching bag for a talented but less experienced Caravan.

Rochelle at Simeon @ Gately Stadium The Rockets get to experience Gately Dogs and a Wolverines team that has a ton of talent and speed.

SHG at Christian Brothers (St. Louis) Huge test for the Cyclones taking on St Louis arwea power CBC.

St Charles North at Palatine Just two very good programs squaring off here.

Sycamore vs DeKalb @ NIU This game is always a huge draw and rivalry game in the DeKalb area.

Loyola vs East St Louis at Illinois State (Sat) Best game in the state for Week 1?

Marian Central Catholic at Richmond Burton Two programs that are very close in distance and a game that's been highly anticipated for over a year.

Have others? List them and talk about it here.

Next: I'll narrow this down to My Top 5 Games and will also pick which games I'll cover.

 

[rocketnation]

Maroa at Athens is a huge Week 1 Sangamo contest between 2A power programs. Both teams lost to Wilmington last year, Maroa in the semi's and Athens in the title game.

Highland at Breese Central is a also good matchup. Breese faced Rochester in the second week of the 4A playoffs in '22 and the quarterfinals in '23. They return their QB, top RB, and top WR. Highland made it to the 5A quarterfinals last year.

 

[Kevin JCHS 81]

Coal City at Morris Yes this is indeed the Hatfields against the McCoys in Grundy County.

Which one of these 2 schools is representing Will County?

 

[Silver Rain]

The Huns are overreaching with MC. Neither Massey or MaxPreps show any love for the New Jersey prep school, which charges 50K for tuition and 75K with room and board. With a single phone call to Jordan Lynch, the Huns improved their strength of schedule by 7.2 points, from last year's anemic 3.0 to this year's 10.2.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Loyola vs East St Louis at Illinois State (Sat) Best game in the state for Week 1?

Obviously, it is. But the question is do you go there or quadrouple dip the next weekend at the Classic?

 

[King MJ]

The Huns are overreaching with MC. Neither Massey or MaxPreps show any love for the New Jersey prep school, which charges 50K for tuition and 75K with room and board. With a single phone call to Jordan Lynch, the Huns improved their strength of schedule by 7.2 points, from last year's anemic 3.0 to this year's 10.2.

I think it will be a better game than you think. However, I am shocked the IHSA approved the game. Hun is a top NE prep school which has post-graduate kids. I always thought that disqualified you from playing an IHSA school. I can name games in other sports which were cancelled for this reason.

 

[Silver Rain]

post-graduate kids

Yeah, you're right. It could be a factor. They call it a gap year. Getting ahead by staying behind.

 

[King MJ]

Yeah, you're right. It could be a factor. They call it a gap year. Getting ahead by staying behind.

PGs are different than holdbacks. Lots of these are kids who want to go to higher academic schools (like Ivy or Patriot League) but need another year of grade before they will get admitted.

 

[Silver Rain]

PGs are different than holdbacks

The Hun website says that grads can repeat a year for athletic or academic reasons. It's a good move, if you can afford it. An extra year of study could significantly improve a student's GPA or SAT. But an extra year to develop physically seems to provide, as you implied, an unfair advantage.

 

[stl705]

Not a lot of hype and I understand why, but Glenbard East Rams at Willowbrook Warriors is a huge local matchup featuring two good programs trying to scratch and claw their way into the discussion of primetime West Suburban Football.

Rams have a lot to replace including a new QB, but made 3rd rd of playoffs last season. Willowbrook had a nice playoff run a few years prior. Is the big QB Palicki back for WB or did he graduate? Regardless this game will be an absolute dogfight.

Not sure if I’ll be swayed away from LWE-MS, but if so, I know where my backup plan is!

 

[MMA_Det]

The Hun website says that grads can repeat a year for athletic or academic reasons. It's a good move, if you can afford it. An extra year of study could significantly improve a student's GPA or SAT. But an extra year to develop physically seems to provide, as you implied, an unfair advantage.

Especially if you are on the older side of your grade

 

[King MJ]

The Hun website says that grads can repeat a year for athletic or academic reasons. It's a good move, if you can afford it. An extra year of study could significantly improve a student's GPA or SAT. But an extra year to develop physically seems to provide, as you implied, an unfair advantage.

My biggest point is 'why will the IHSA allow this game?' I can name multiple out-of-state matchups in hoop, lacrosse and wrestling where the IHSA canceled the game last minute.

 

[King MJ]

The Hun website says that grads can repeat a year for athletic or academic reasons. It's a good move, if you can afford it. An extra year of study could significantly improve a student's GPA or SAT. But an extra year to develop physically seems to provide, as you implied, an unfair advantage.

To be fair, at that income level, most kids, especially east coast private ones, will choose to repeat 8th grade, not 12th grade.

 

[Silver Rain]

8th grade, not 12th grade.

I think there would be more advantage at an older age. I never learned anything until I got out of school. Which is not remotely the fault of my teachers.

 

[King MJ]

I think there would be more advantage at an older age. I never learned anything until I got out of school. Which is not remotely the fault of my teachers.

The reason is that many athletic associations (including Illinois) only allow 4 years of eligibility. If you repeat 8th grade, you can play your senior year. If you repeat junior year, you can't.

 

[MMA_Det]

Malcom Gladwell wrote a book in 2008 called Outlier’s

It’s an incredible read and cemented my oldest child NOT starting school early.

In essence he uses a lot of different successful as his subject material and the one common denominator linking them together… all of them were the oldest in their class growing up.

One of the examples
- In junior hockey over 70% of the kids playing all have birthdays within the same 3 months

 

[SiuCubFan8]

Malcom Gladwell wrote a book in 2008 called Outlier’s

It’s an incredible read and cemented my oldest child NOT starting school early.

In essence he uses a lot of different successful as his subject material and the one common denominator linking them together… all of them were the oldest in their class growing up.

One of the examples
- In junior hockey over 70% of the kids playing all have birthdays within the same 3 months

It is a very interesting read, that is for sure.

 

[Golden Warrior]

An interesting tidbit regarding the Metamora at Sterling game. Sterling coach Jon Schlemmer, a Metamora grad, could become the all-time winningest football coach at Sterling HS with a win in that contest. He is currently tied with Jim Scott at 96 career wins.

 

[ChiTown Chuggers]

Agree with Edgy that LWE vs MS is the Week 1 Game of the week...

MS Returning QB Coines (some unfortunate confusion out there as to 'who' is the starting QB) is a SR who's 2023 stats were 2831 passing yards, 26 passing TDs, 967 rushing yards with 13 rushing TDs, a 63% completion rate, and 10-2 W-L record while MS retook the historical leadership of the CSL South Conf. by going 5-0. QB Coines is an all-around athlete supported by an outstanding returning SR-led OL and RB, while DEF, STs and WRs were largely reset this season out of a very large and 'deep' roster.

Coach Inserra helped schedule possibly the most difficult public high school football schedule that I've seen in my years watching IL HS football, where MS returns to LWE on Game 1 and most Park Ridge families will soon be questioning the distance / timing to get there on a Friday night down a congested I-294 - for those who don't remember visiting the Griffins a few years back in a windy Nov 8A playoff game, sparked by an outstanding A.J. Henning as I recall.

MS will apparently get to see the starting LWE QB again after he has since transferred from Bolingbrook after losing to MS on the field in the 2022 playoffs, but ultimately getting a win in the end due to student-player ineligibility issue on the MS team at the time. Regardless, LWE is powerhouse monster to play anywhere/anytime, and MS will have a lot of work to do if they're able to pull out a W down there.

Barring significant injuries, the MS Hawks should be soaring again in 2024 given their talent, culture, and coaching. Week 1 will be the true barometer as to how good are these MS Hawks IMO...and maybe a test for both programs before possibly seeing each other again in November.

 

[WBWarriorWatcher]

Not a lot of hype and I understand why, but Glenbard East Rams at Willowbrook Warriors is a huge local matchup featuring two good programs trying to scratch and claw their way into the discussion of primetime West Suburban Football.

Rams have a lot to replace including a new QB, but made 3rd rd of playoffs last season. Willowbrook had a nice playoff run a few years prior. Is the big QB Palicki back for WB or did he graduate? Regardless this game will be an absolute dogfight.

Not sure if I’ll be swayed away from LWE-MS, but if so, I know where my backup plan is!

Palicki is off to Winona State. Willowbrook returns a bunch of experienced linemen and defensive players. This matchup hasn’t been played in a long time and will be interesting to watch. WB is staying close to home with weeks one and two with Glenbard East and Glenbard North.

 

[skeetz45]

To be fair, at that income level, most kids, especially east coast private ones, will choose to repeat 8th grade, not 12th grade.

Does this happen in the Chicago area?

 

[King MJ]

Does this happen in the Chicago area?

Has it happened before? Yes, but noone near as much as in Texas, Florida or DMV area.

 

[mantle2626]

Ramblers vs. Flyers - game to watch ! For sure ! 15 state championships between the 2 programs and each team a storied program on their own ! Should be a great game ! Good luck and no injuries to both teams !

 

[WIU78]

Edgy- A bit early for asking any favors but you are always welcome in Frankfort for LW East vs. Maine South. Should be the usual great game and MS4Ever and the Griffins would be honored!