I was reading a story in the Southtown Star about the sad closing of Rich East.It mentions that they will be attending Central & South which will be under 1 athletic department.My question is this.Are they going to be like Bloom/Bloom Trail & be 2 schools 1 athletic team? That is sadly what it sounded like.Rich Township I guess.Star Olympians? Lol. Olympian Stars? Don’t laugh.Trail Blazers & Trojans became Blazing Trojans
Rich Township?
- Thread starter superac777
- Start date
Stupid.Yes better than nothing but the kids get cheated.I wonder why Southland College Prep Don’t start football
My grandson plays football at Rich East. He is a junior. From my understanding. Half of East kids are going to Rich Central. And the other half to Rich South. One athletic program between both schools. I think this helps football. The marching band had already combined. For this football season. They played at each school football game. Writing was on the wall.
I think this will be a huge help down there for athletics, but it's going to make the Southland Conference a nightmare.
Crete-Monee
Kankakee
Thornton
Thornwood
*Rich Township
Bloom Township
Thornridge
I'm sure the others are already looking around for another school to jump in to go from 7 to 8 schools. I don't see much to choose from without causing another road of dominoes to fall.
Bishop Mac anyone?
I don't see McNamara wanting any part of this mess...This is going to drive the next round of the old SICA revolution...I'm not sure the conference can be stable with the Rich & Bloom conglomerates at 3000 kids, Crete / Thorton / Thornwood 16-1800, and Thornridge & Kankakee around 1200...I just don't see the geographic advantages of the Southland core - Kankakee & the 3 Riches - lasting. I'm guessing Kankakee really wants out...the Kays wanted into the I-8 before ICE left...
Not happening. Too expensive and school would be much smaller than everyone else. Plus the Rich schools would never let them join the Southland.
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Do you think they ever will start football? Mac would never join.Seeing they forfeited to Hope Academy due to nearby violence & these schools once were but are no longer in safe areas
Not to get off topic but what happened to the closing of Thornridge? Remember they were doing the farewell tour several years ago? And just like that...*snap* all that talk went away....Feel bad for Rich East....never like seeing a school close....
You know what kept it open? Parents or Parent deep fear of rival gangs going to school together!!!! I want to say a lot more but I don’t want to get flushed.Unreal is all I can say.I am glad it didn’t close
They still haven't fully recovered from an enrollment standpoint and it cost the super her job.
Southland Prep to the Southland would not be very logical. But, if the Rich schools are going to do the combined athletic program like Bloom, I can see selling facilities at Central to the hospital for some serious cash to invest into the buildings. But what to do with East? I could see Southland Prep perhaps leasing the stadium for track, football and soccer...
Southland Prep then could be looking for smaller enrollment schools to jump to a new conference...Maybe try collecting some of the 5A schools from conferences with bigger enrollment spreads? Evergreen Park might be interested in not being the runts of the South Suburban any more...Elmwood Park and Norridge Ridgewood might want to get away from the private schools in the Metro...Kankakee probably would like a better option than the revised Southland conference.
And think about it, the Rich combined program might fit in perfectly with the Southwest Prairie East...
4-5 conference champion...Running on the “track” at Rich East, with no lighting, goose crap, and poor drainage from the grass football field is akin to the “olde” cinder tracks of pre-Nike days circa 1970 something. Using the venue for training I can tell you there is nothing there at Rich East Park Forest other than a tranquil creek, lagoon and dandelions.
Even combining the 3 Rich high schools into one athletic program would not likely produce the wide spectrum of participation in multiple sports, boys and girls, that would may them an attractive addition to a new or existing conference. Filling even 2 competitive levels in sports across the seasons is not likely to happen. Increased travel to and from practice and contests at a more distant site from one's former community school will not help either.
... until you hit one of the unforgiving hurdles of decades past, fall and need to pick out the cinders caught under your skin.
I don’t know lol.Ask Sandburg what they thought about East St Louis Cinder Football Field In 1982.Anyone on the south side remember 34th Rockwell area in Brighton Park? National Starch Little League aka Cinder Field
I was not aware that Rich East and Peotone were on the same facility improvement schedule...at least Rich East has what appears to be an all-weather track, home and visitors bleachers on the aerial picture...Peotone still has the original cinder track from when the building was built - and still use it...
When Manteno first started the youth football program, the first field they played on was behind the middle school...the old cinder track had infrastructure inside it, like light posts for the MS softball field / little league diamond and a mobile classroom, so the field had the north side straight of the cinder track running diagonally thru it...there were a lot of happy parents when the Wildcats left that field.
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