Southwest Suburban Conference

Southwest Suburban Conference
Data
Established 2005
Members 9
Sports fielded 17 (14 boys', 14 girls')
Region southern Chicagoland
Division Red Division
Blue Division

The Southwest Suburban Conference is an athletic and competitive activity conference consisting of public secondary schools located in the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

The conference was formed in 2005 when most of these schools split off from the South Inter-Conference Association (SICA). The division resulted in a lawsuit claiming that schools that were majority white in population were abandoning the schools which were majority black. The lawsuit was eventually settled and paved the way for the conference to expand.

History

For 33 years prior to 2006, most of the public high schools in the south and southwest suburban Chicago area were a part of the South Inter-Conference Association (SICA) which by 2005 had reached a membership of 33 schools split into five divisions.[1] The conference covered a large geographic area and sociological spectrum "from the Indiana border to Joliet, from impoverished Ford Heights to affluent Frankfort, from virtually all-black Hillcrest to almost all-white Lincoln-Way Central and from Joliet, enrollment 4,993, to 1,066- student Rich South"[1] In 2004, the athletic directors voted 30–3, the principals' board of control voted 6–2, and the district superintendents voted 16–3 to approve a new conference realignment which was to take effect in 2006.[1] The realignment had been pushed because of long travel times and a reduction of sports offerings at some schools. The realignment split the association into three roughly equal and geographically contiguous conferences, one of which, the southeast, contained most of the predominantly African–American schools (compared to one school in the remaining two conferences).[1] It was from these schools that a majority of the votes against the realignment had come.[1] Leaders from these schools demanded an investigation from the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, and petitioned the Illinois State Board of Education to investigate as to whether this action violated rules on equity.[1]

In March 2005, ten schools announced that they were unilaterally leaving SICA to form a new conference, the Southwest Suburban Conference.[2] These ten schools collectively were among the largest in student population.[2] Shortly after the announcement, a board member from Lincoln-Way Community High School District, a district representing two of the schools leaving to form a new conference, was forced to resign after racially insensitive statements were left on a reporter's voice mail.[3]

Shortly after this, eleven more schools split off to form the South Suburban Conference.[4]

In April 2006, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against the schools which had left claiming that "(an) apartheid-like realignment used public funds to regress to separate but equal".[1] The suit was settled out of court with the three schools of Thornton Township High Schools District 205 joining the Southwest Suburban Conference, and the two schools of Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 joining the South Suburban Conference.[5] The remaining six teams would remain known as SICA.[5]

Member schools

School Town Team Name Colors IHSA Classes (2/3/4)[nb 1][nb 2] Reference
Victor J. Andrew High School Tinley Park Thunderbolts           AA/3A/4A [6]
Bolingbrook High School Bolingbrook Raiders                AA/3A/4A [7]
Carl Sandburg High School< Orland Park Eagles                AA/3A/4A [8]
Homewood-Flossmoor High School Flossmoor Vikings           AA/3A/4A [9]
Lincoln-Way Central High School New Lenox Knights           AA/3A/4A [10]
Lincoln-Way East High School Frankfort Griffins                AA/3A/4A [11]
Lincoln-Way West High School New Lenox Warriors                AA/2A/3A [12]
Lockport Township High School Lockport Porters           AA/3A/4A [13]
Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School Bradley, Illinois Boilermakers           AA/3A/4A [14]
Amos Alonzo Stagg High School Palos Hills, Illinois Chargers           AA/3A/4A
Thornton Township High School Harvey, Illinois Wildcats           AA/3A/4A
Thornridge High School Dolton, Illinois Falcons                AA/3A/4A
Thornwood High School South Holland, Illinois Thunderbirds           AA/3A/4A

Sports

The conference sponsors competition for young men and young women in basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo.[15] The conference also sponsors competition for young men in baseball, football, and wrestling; and for young women badminton, cheerleading, and softball.[15]

Activities

The conference sponsors competition in Individual Events, Chess, Drama and Group Interpretation.

State placers

Since 2005, the following teams and activities have finished in the top four of their respective IHSA sponsored state tournaments:

Notes

  1. ↑ The state series class which a school competes in not only depends on the school's student population, but on the sport or activity. Some activities divide schools into two classes, some into three, and others into four. The listing here is in the order of two class, three class, and four class. The more "A"s in a class, the larger the schools competing. For more information on this, see Illinois High School Association#State Series Format.
  2. ↑ Schools are not assigned a classification for football until they have qualified for the playoffs each year. A school's classification not only depends on their student population, but on the populations of the other schools who have qualified. Thus, some schools routinely move between classes. SWSC schools are routinely in the highest classes; 8A, 7A, or 6A.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Temkin, Barry (6 February 2005). "SICA struggling for perfect balance". Chicago Tribune. p. 17.
  2. 1 2 Sakomato, Bob (1 March 2005). "10 bail on SICA, form new league". Chicago Tribune. p. 6.
  3. ↑ Ziemba, Stanley; Greco Jr, Carmen (4 March 2005). "School board member resigns ; Derogatory remarks attributed to official". Chicago Tribune. p. 1.
  4. ↑ Ziemba, Stanley (16 November 2006). "Districts likely to settle SICA divisions ; New athletic groupings address diversity issue". Chicago Tribune. p. 1.
  5. 1 2 Napolitano, Jo (30 December 2006). "Dispute ends over athletic league split". Chicago Tribune. p. 24.
  6. ↑ "Tinley Park (Andrew)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  7. ↑ "Bolingbrook". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  8. ↑ "Joliet (Twp.)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  9. ↑ "Joliet (Twp.)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  10. ↑ "New Lenox (Lincoln-Way Central)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  11. ↑ "New Lenox (Lincoln-Way West)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  12. ↑ "Lockport (Twp.)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  13. ↑ "Burbank (Reavis)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  14. ↑ "Wilmington (Wilmington)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  15. 1 2 "Sports Guidelines". Southwest Suburban Conference. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  16. 1 2 "IHSA Season Summaries for Andrew HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 "IHSA Season Summaries for LW Central HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  18. ↑ "IHSA Season Summaries for Thornwood HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  19. 1 2 "IHSA Season Summaries for Thornton HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  20. ↑ "IHSA Season Summaries for Bolingbrook HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  21. 1 2 3 4 "IHSA Season Summaries for L-W East HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "IHSA Season Summaries for Sandburg HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  23. ↑ "IHSA Season Summaries for Bradley-Bourbonnais HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  24. ↑ http://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/DramaGroupInterpretation/RecordsHistory.aspx
  25. 1 2 "IHSA Season Summaries for Homewood-Flossmoor HS". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 16 November 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2009.

External links

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