Interesting development here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024...thletes-make-emotional-appeal-for-his-return/
Niles West
- Thread starter PowerI66
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I know!! That's absolutely insane.
Maine East beat Niles North 30-7 Thursday night.
Last week Niles North beat Highland Park 15-13.
Last night Highland Park beat Niles West 21-14.
Maine East has Highland Park and then Niles West to end the regular season.
Currently at 3-4, Maine East has a real shot at 5-4. I think their playoff points would be low - currently at 20. But if all the 5-4 wind up making it, it would be East's first playoff berth since 1977.
And if they do... their new coach is automatically named coach of the year, decade, century and millennium
What has happened at New Trier and Evanston??? Not so long ago powerhouses and today I don't know what to say.
The coach at Evanston has 7 state championship rings so he has to know how to coach. The coach at New Trier has a great reputation but again, why so few wins??
The coach at Evanston has 7 state championship rings so he has to know how to coach. The coach at New Trier has a great reputation but again, why so few wins??
They must be "woke" too (he said sarcastically)
Most of Evanston and New Trier feeder programs now are basically Loyola feders. Loyola has decimated Evanston and NT in my opinion. Also NT and Evanston parents don't push kids to football as much anymore - its crazy
My guess is that it's way more the latter than the former.
If LA decimates any single school, it's Glenbrook South, yet they still manage to be competitive when they get good coaching.
A lot less kids are playing youth football. I remember back when Park Ridge had an in house program and the falcons were the travel team. Between concussions and parents just not wanting to make the commitment, numbers have fallen off
Is it really "not wanting to make the commitment"? I see kids in all kinds of other sports/activities with insane commitments...
Numbers are waaaay higher than 6-7 years ago. It’s making a comeback. At least at the youth levels.
all travel sports have big commitments. Most youth football teams are practicing 3-4 days a week plus games on the weekend. A lot of parents don’t want to be bothered to take their kid to practice every day. It’s a lot easier to sign up for fall ball and have a commitment that’s 1 day a week.
Now a lot of the top youth teams of spring football. Here is an example what the year is like for Joliet ravens
July - Dec fall season
Jan- march winter work outs
March - June - spring football and 7on7.
Hopefully with the excitement around the bears is gets more kids playing. The other issue is kids playing one sport year around
I guess I don't see how this is much different from other sports and commitments that I see all kinds of kids participating in.
It is the same if not more for my girls and competitive cheer.
I think the current high school seniors were the kids whose parents kept them playing when concussion stuff was running wild. The past few graduating classes were the ones that got hit hardest from that. You will see certain schools return to their old selves. IMO the concussion worries had zero impact on private schools. It had a huge impact on the wealthier suburban families who decided to stop playing. Like I said it’s coming back though and numbers are very high.
I do agree the wealthier areas felt it the most. At the same time now both proviso schools don’t have freshman football and they’re really struggling. I feel like this has actually strengthened private schools.
Demographic changes in both of the Proviso schools.
Not as many kids who like football. Look at historical report card data.
Also, anyone who is a great athlete is not going to either school. Look at the rosters of the west suburban private and you’ll see where they’re going
Very big demographic change in proviso. They also lose a lot of kids to Iccp and other public schools. Last year proviso wests freshman team was a yard away from beating York and winning conference. Since then they’ve lost several kids to other schools
Yes I know one stud wrestler left for a better wrestling school. Happens often at certain schools.
Not trying to hijack a thread, but since it Evanston was discussed a bit.
As an Evanston parent, I think the latter is more important than the former at this point. There are definitely many parents who rule out football for their boys. Also, the CSL has become a great basketball conference and very few boys play both football & basketball in the CSL. I firmly believe that the difference between an ok team & a pretty good team can be 3-5 good players, so these things matter. We only have 50 kids on varsity in a school with 3,600 kids 😱
Disappointed we lost to Deerfield (on extra pts) this past week, but otherwise we lost to St. Laurence, Palatine (tied into 4th qtr), Prospect (within 1 score into 4th), and GBS (within 1 score into 4th). I don't think we're a bad team.
Believe me, I wish the program was stronger. Comparing to Maine East, or Niles West is not fair comparison, schedules are crazy different. Per Massey ranking, Evanston's weakest opponent is GBN. Maine East plays 7 teams ranked worse than GBN and Niles West plays 6.
| Primary Team | Opponent | Opp Projected Wins | Opp Massey Rank |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Zion (Z.-Benton) | 1 | 195 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Burbank (St. Laurence) | 6 | 60 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Palatine (H.S.) | 7 | 24 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Mt. Prospect (Prospect) | 7 | 45 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Glenview (Glenbrook South) | 5 | 54 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Winnetka (New Trier) | 3 | 99 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Deerfield (H.S.) | 5 | 105 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Northbrook (Glenbrook North) | 2 | 203 |
| Evanston (Twp.) | Park Ridge (Maine South) | 6 | 14 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Aurora (East) | 0 | 446 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Round Lake | 0 | 467 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Hoffman Estates (H.S.) | 6 | 93 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Wheeling | 2 | 354 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Vernon Hills | 2 | 343 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Des Plaines (Maine West) | 8 | 170 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Skokie (Niles North) | 2 | 348 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Highland Park | 3 | 252 |
| Park Ridge (Maine East) | Skokie (Niles West) | 5 | 215 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Riverside (R.-Brookfield) | 5 | 219 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Berwyn-Cicero (Morton) | 2 | 310 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Elk Grove Village (E.G.) | 3 | 200 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Schaumburg (H.S.) | 5 | 151 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Skokie (Niles North) | 2 | 348 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Vernon Hills | 2 | 343 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Highland Park | 3 | 252 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Des Plaines (Maine West) | 8 | 170 |
| Skokie (Niles West) | Park Ridge (Maine East) | 3 | 405 |
It’s stupid bodies need time to heal. In the West burbs it’s still non existent but the 7 on 7 on the other hand is booming.
Spring football is big in the city and south suburbs. Besides for injuries you have to worry about kids burning out. I know of programs where including spring and fall they played over 30 games in the year. A lot of those programs will play double headers or multiple games a weekend.
UYF and Ayf are very different than bill george. A lot of those programs will cut their roster off at their hand picked 20 kids and just put everyone else on a waiting list or send them away. Bgyfl does a very good job at getting kids out to play.
Proviso has kids at pats, Iccp, brother rice mt Carmel,Loyola and other public schools that I know of. The area still has talent they just don’t keep it. You also can’t blame parents for wanting a better situation for their kid.
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Not as many games as football. 4 days a week practice, practice started before football practice started and add in private tumbling lessons (which most do) and you have a hell of a commitment. Not trying to compare to football just my personal example of other sports being a heck of a commitment.
I'd venture to say more options available (a good thing) and kids that would be bottom of roster players not wanting to come out are more the issue. But that is just my opinion.
What is going on at Niles West?
The problem with program like this is they don’t have 2-4 teams per level. They recruit the best kids and the other kids are left without a team.
There are multiple teams at the older levels, up to 8th grade, though I’m not sure about the younger levels. My point is that many other sports also require significant commitments. Various factors have contributed to the decline in football numbers, but it’s encouraging to hear that participation seems to be increasing again from certain posters.
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