OP_110719

OPPrairiedaily.com sports
the orland park prairie | November 7, 2019 | 47
fastbreak
THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Even proposals about nothing are something
JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY
MEDIA
1st and 3
STATE CROSS COUNTRY
TALK
1. Back on track?
Sandburg’s cross
country team
finished 16th in the
state in Class 3A
last year, breaking
up a five-year streak
of Top 10 finishes.
The Eagles are gunning
to make that
right this year.
2. Twin killing
Twins Will and
Ben Giblin (above)
finished 2/100ths
of a second apart
at the Hinsdale
Central Sectional
on Saturday, Nov. 2
as Will took second
and Ben third.
3. Look out for Leonard
Orland Park’s
Thomas Leonard,
a senior at Marist,
finished 48th in the
state in Class 2A in
2017 and 98th in
the state in Class 3A
last year. Leonard
is back in Class 3A
this year.
Jeff Vorva
Sports Editor
was
billed as a TV
“Seinfeld”
show about
nothing.
Jerry, George, Elaine
and Cosmo (Kramer)
may not have written a
proposal to the Illinois
High School Association
about nothing, but one
was written, and it is an
interesting concept.
Oct. 30 was the day the
IHSA released 25 proposals
on a wide variety
of topics, and two take
direct aim at zapping the
recently approved football
district and revamped
playoff plan.
Proposal 16 was a
topic of discussion in this
column a few weeks ago.
That proposal, which has
an army of administrators
backing it, including
former Sandburg Athletic
Director Mark Krusz and
former Andrew administrator
Jennifer Doede,
wants to expand the
playoffs from 32 to 48
teams in each of the eight
classes and replace the
district model with the
current system of conferences.
Proposal 15 is sort of a
proposal about nothing.
Minonk (Fieldcrest)
Principal William Lapp
and El Paso Principal
Brian Quam spend most
of their 400 words in safe
and nice executive-ese
basically saying how
much the district system
stinks.
Their solution to some
of the problems of the
current system? Nothing.
Come 2021, they want
things to stay the same as
they are now. That’s not
crazy.
In late December, the
district proposal narrowly
passed with 324 schools
voting yes, 307 voting no
and 69 school turned in
ballots with no opinions.
There were 116 schools
that did not turn in ballots.
All of that was voted
on without any clue of
who would be in which
district.
In May, the IHSA released
a mockup of what
the districts could look
like and some schools
had some sticker shock.
Around here, it was a
mixed bag.
The Class 8A South
District C group featured
Andrew, Sandburg, Stagg,
Marist, Brother Rice,
Homewood-Flossmoor,
Simeon, Curie and Bloom
Township.
The 5A North District
D found Tinley Park
mixed in with St. Laurence,
Brooks, Chicago
Vocational, Marian
Catholic, Evergreen Park,
Rich Central, Rich East
and Rich South.
But the geography got
a little wild with some of
the other schools in 22nd
Century Media land
The Class 6A South
District A group had
Providence Catholic
lumped in with Bloomington,
Hinsdale South,
Kankakee, LaSalle-Peru,
Lemont, Normal West,
Ottawa and Wheaton St.
Francis.
And in the Class
8A South District D,
Lincoln-Way East was in
with Joliet Central, Joliet
West, Minooka, Belleville
East, Edwardsville and
O’Fallon.
The smart money is
on Proposal 16 passing,
and there will be
more teams making the
playoffs. But Proposal 15
of leaving things just as
they are might pick up a
little steam. It is human
nature that people do not
like change, and now that
some schools have seen
the dark side of districts,
what we have now just
might be OK.
The current system has
problems. With the pressure
of trying to win five
games to be playoff-eligible,
we have scenarios of
Sandburg playing a nonconference
game in the
St. Louis suburbs a few
years ago and Andrew
It appears that the SouthWest Suburban Conference
Blue, featuring Lockport and Sandburg, will stay intact
in 2021 if a proposal can knock out the district plan.
JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
opening this season at
Kewaskum, Wisconsin.
But it looks like districts
are not going to be
the answer.
Proposals will be
hashed out at meetings in
the state through Nov. 20.
Those proposals still on
the board will be voted on
in early December.
Come 2021, we will
either have more teams in
the playoffs. Or the quo
will remain status.
Public vs. private schools
If it gets on board for
a vote, Proposal 12 will
spark some debate. Carlinville
Principal Patrick
Drew drew up a proposal
requesting separate
state tournaments for
boundaried (public) and
non-boundaried (private)
schools.
Drew compared private
vs. public school competition
to a coin flip.
“If a fair coin was
flipped 7,454 times,
the chances it would
land heads 3,343 or
fewer times is about 1
in 3,440,000,000,000,
000,000,” he wrote. “To
put it another way, the
chances that the coin was
actually fair are not as
good as a person
winning the Illinois
Lotto game two days in
a row. It is, simply put,
nowhere close to a fair
system.”
I get it, I guess. The
bottom line is that private
schools have a bigger
advantage because they
have bigger pools of students
to choose from.
It will be interesting to
see if this proposal gets
any traction.
LISTEN UP
“I think the highest we were ranked in the preseason
was ninth. Now we are near the top of the state and
might be competing for a trophy.”
John O’Malley — Sandburg boys cross country coach
WHAT2WATCH
CROSS COUNTRY
Various times, Saturday, Nov. 9
• The state finals take place at Detweiller Park in
Peoria for three classes of girls and three classes
of boys.
Index
43 - Athlete of the Week
42 - Athlete of the Month
Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva,
J.vorva@22ndcm.com