Had a blast following the games and going to Normal to watch Loyola ramble on to victory. I'm obviously happy that private schools went 8 for 8 including St. Ignatius winning the Prep Bowl. Let me be clear, though: While I am happy that private schools won, I am not happy that the games weren't close.
I'm enjoying the administrators and athletic departments and fans from public school runners up who claim their schools are public school champs. Mt Zion beat a private school by two scores in round two, and I'm sure all was right with the MZ school superintendent's world then and up until his school got thumped in the finals by DePaul, at which point he gave us this gem: "We have the best public school team in 4A!" Then there's this Monticello Football tweet after their team experienced a 42 point drubbing by Montini: "Public school state champs."
The bloodbath we saw last weekend was all on the IHSA. They screwed up big time. If nothing else happens before next year's playoffs, and given existing IHSA rules, some of the competitive imbalance will be addressed. There has been plenty written about teams moving up and down for various reasons. For example, this year's 7A champ will be in 8A. The 4A champ will be bumped at least two classes because of growing enrollment. There are others, but I'm not going to list them all. However, here's the thing: The public school whiners don't want to hear that the IHSA screwed up. All they know is that their schools were beaten by the big bad private schools. Even schools like Antioch, Tuscola, and Arcola (that don't have a dog in this year's fight) posted tweets containing quality whining in support of their public school brethren.
Despite the fact that next year will be different from a classification standpoint, the whiners are out to extract their pound of flesh. They want to assuage their hurt feelings in the form of more rules discriminating against private schools. I say no thanks to that. If they are so happy with their public school titles, then I say let them have 'em, and we'll take the NIPL!
I'm enjoying the administrators and athletic departments and fans from public school runners up who claim their schools are public school champs. Mt Zion beat a private school by two scores in round two, and I'm sure all was right with the MZ school superintendent's world then and up until his school got thumped in the finals by DePaul, at which point he gave us this gem: "We have the best public school team in 4A!" Then there's this Monticello Football tweet after their team experienced a 42 point drubbing by Montini: "Public school state champs."
The bloodbath we saw last weekend was all on the IHSA. They screwed up big time. If nothing else happens before next year's playoffs, and given existing IHSA rules, some of the competitive imbalance will be addressed. There has been plenty written about teams moving up and down for various reasons. For example, this year's 7A champ will be in 8A. The 4A champ will be bumped at least two classes because of growing enrollment. There are others, but I'm not going to list them all. However, here's the thing: The public school whiners don't want to hear that the IHSA screwed up. All they know is that their schools were beaten by the big bad private schools. Even schools like Antioch, Tuscola, and Arcola (that don't have a dog in this year's fight) posted tweets containing quality whining in support of their public school brethren.
Despite the fact that next year will be different from a classification standpoint, the whiners are out to extract their pound of flesh. They want to assuage their hurt feelings in the form of more rules discriminating against private schools. I say no thanks to that. If they are so happy with their public school titles, then I say let them have 'em, and we'll take the NIPL!
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