JOLIET – Beginning in 2021, the Illinois High School Association is doing away with conferences in football and moving schools into geographical districts.
On Wednesday, Joliet Herald-News Sports Editor Steve Soucie published a hypothetical projection of what those districts might look like in 2021. The projection takes into account what school enrollments could look like leading up to 2021.
Soucie has Waubonsie Valley’s football in an eight-team district with the following schools:
- Neuqua Valley
- East Aurora
- Bolingbrook
- Oswego
- Oswego East
- Plainfield North
- Plainfield East
Missing in that projection is Metea Valley, Naperville North and Naperville Central, who show up together in another district with West Aurora, York, Downers Grove South, Glenbard West and Glenbard East.
Soucie released the projections as part of a subscription-only article. He is known on Twitter for his weekly IHSA football playoff projections leading up to Selection Saturday. He has made appearances on NBC Sports Chicago during the selection shows. However, his projections have been open to skepticism from fans and school officials.
I think it genuinely helps some schools. I think it hurts quite a few more than weren't having many problems to begin with. I'd like to say its a wash and just deflects the issues to different schools, but I don't think that's really the case.
— Steve Soucie (@thesouc) January 2, 2019
Before 2021, anything and everything could change, including school enrollment numbers and even the IHSA proposal itself, that was voted in by a total of 324-307-69 back in December.
Districting will only affect the high school sport of football. All other sports will continue to compete within their conferences in 2021.