New week, new changes!
- Urbana has forfeited their game to Richwoods (forfeiting all season). The Peoria paper implies Richwoods will take the forfeit win. They took a forfeit win last week - their first of any sort this year.
- Juarez is forfeiting their season and this week Gage Park is the team without a game. No word on what they will do.
- Vienna-Goreville has forfeited their season, so Flora has no game this week.
- Sullivan-Okaw Valley has forfeited their season, so Shelbyville has no game this week. According to Maxpreps (I can't get any confirmation on this otherwise, though the Mattoon/Charleston newspaper last week did say they were talking), Flora and Shelbyville have scheduled each other.
- Watseka has cancelled their season so Dwight now has an open week. No word on what will happen - Dwight has homecoming so they will want a game.
- Tuscola has had to forfeit to St. Teresa due to Covid, so St. Teresa has an open week. St. Teresa is looking for a game. (I don't know how competitive St. Teresa at Dwight would be, but it's an option.)
- Benet has an open week. Not a forfeit, just never filled the week - I think this was originally supposed to be St. Joe's before they closed.
- To me, the biggest question mark is Breese Mater Dei. They are still apparently set to play True Divine Word Academy out of St. Louis. As best I can tell, TDW is a school that offers part-time on-campus schooling and at least one day a week of remote learning. They are a little unusual but evidently not a Bishop Sycamore reboot. They originally had a nice schedule with multiple Missouri teams, but all of those games have gone away, and now Maxpreps only lists them with two wins over nameless "non-varsity opponent" teams. Their Twitter claims they are 3-1 but doesn't show who they have played. TDW's only remaining games against actual teams are supposedly Breese Mater Dei this week and Cahokia in Week 9. I have found no news for TDW, no word, nothing. I have significant doubts about whether these games will happen. I don't know how the IHSA will treat them. If these games are forfeits, fine for Mater Dei and Cahokia. If not, then they need to find someone right away. (Especially Cahokia, who is currently sitting at 2-4 and likely will be 4-4 going into Week 9. They are a legitimate state championship contender based on their skill if they make the playoffs - one loss was to COVID and the other three lossses were close losses to huge teams.)
If Mater Dei has an open week and needs to schedule someone, I think they have a couple of options:
1. St. Teresa-Breese Mater Dei would be a gigantic matchup. Two 6-0 teams? That's beautiful, and it might just be a preview of a playoff game. St. Teresa has already picked up one game this year against a strong opponent when they could've easily sat home and taken the forfeit win.
2. It seems that Benet and Breese Mater Dei had an agreement in preseason that Benet would go to Breese this week. The game was listed on Benet's IL8to18 schedule for a long time, and briefly was on Maxpreps before it was taken off. It would make sense for both teams, if they have open weeks, to get that game back. Beats an open week.
All speculation, of course. If anyone has any reschedule/forfeit news, or knows anything about the Breese Mater Dei/TDW situation, please let us know. Thanks y'all!
- Urbana has forfeited their game to Richwoods (forfeiting all season). The Peoria paper implies Richwoods will take the forfeit win. They took a forfeit win last week - their first of any sort this year.
- Juarez is forfeiting their season and this week Gage Park is the team without a game. No word on what they will do.
- Vienna-Goreville has forfeited their season, so Flora has no game this week.
- Sullivan-Okaw Valley has forfeited their season, so Shelbyville has no game this week. According to Maxpreps (I can't get any confirmation on this otherwise, though the Mattoon/Charleston newspaper last week did say they were talking), Flora and Shelbyville have scheduled each other.
- Watseka has cancelled their season so Dwight now has an open week. No word on what will happen - Dwight has homecoming so they will want a game.
- Tuscola has had to forfeit to St. Teresa due to Covid, so St. Teresa has an open week. St. Teresa is looking for a game. (I don't know how competitive St. Teresa at Dwight would be, but it's an option.)
- Benet has an open week. Not a forfeit, just never filled the week - I think this was originally supposed to be St. Joe's before they closed.
- To me, the biggest question mark is Breese Mater Dei. They are still apparently set to play True Divine Word Academy out of St. Louis. As best I can tell, TDW is a school that offers part-time on-campus schooling and at least one day a week of remote learning. They are a little unusual but evidently not a Bishop Sycamore reboot. They originally had a nice schedule with multiple Missouri teams, but all of those games have gone away, and now Maxpreps only lists them with two wins over nameless "non-varsity opponent" teams. Their Twitter claims they are 3-1 but doesn't show who they have played. TDW's only remaining games against actual teams are supposedly Breese Mater Dei this week and Cahokia in Week 9. I have found no news for TDW, no word, nothing. I have significant doubts about whether these games will happen. I don't know how the IHSA will treat them. If these games are forfeits, fine for Mater Dei and Cahokia. If not, then they need to find someone right away. (Especially Cahokia, who is currently sitting at 2-4 and likely will be 4-4 going into Week 9. They are a legitimate state championship contender based on their skill if they make the playoffs - one loss was to COVID and the other three lossses were close losses to huge teams.)
If Mater Dei has an open week and needs to schedule someone, I think they have a couple of options:
1. St. Teresa-Breese Mater Dei would be a gigantic matchup. Two 6-0 teams? That's beautiful, and it might just be a preview of a playoff game. St. Teresa has already picked up one game this year against a strong opponent when they could've easily sat home and taken the forfeit win.
2. It seems that Benet and Breese Mater Dei had an agreement in preseason that Benet would go to Breese this week. The game was listed on Benet's IL8to18 schedule for a long time, and briefly was on Maxpreps before it was taken off. It would make sense for both teams, if they have open weeks, to get that game back. Beats an open week.
All speculation, of course. If anyone has any reschedule/forfeit news, or knows anything about the Breese Mater Dei/TDW situation, please let us know. Thanks y'all!