How about a ride down the Three Rivers for NCIC?
Call me a traditionalist or a sentimentalist, if you will. I admit to shedding a tear or two when Busch Stadium II was torn down in 2005, after attending the final regular season game there under the Arch.
I would probably cry if the wrecking ball ever comes to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.
I know time marches on and things change over time. But some things, like the North Central Illinois Conference, are worth fighting for.
The grand old conference has stood the test of time for 80 years, originating in 1929. Charter member schools were Belvidere, DeKalb, Dixon, Mendota, Rochelle and Sterling. Princeton, Rock Falls and Spring Valley joined in 1941 and Kewanee came aboard in 1958.
The NCIC was a strong, viable conference for more than seven decades. Then, suddenly, in the past few years, schools have been abandoning ship.
First in 2005, when Rochelle left to join the new Western Sun.
The NCIC was split into divisional play in 2006, with the addition of newcomer Chillicothe IVC, but the members of the Reagan, the large school side, elected to bolt the conference to form the new Northern Illinois Big 12 with Western Sun schools beginning in 2010-11 school year.
Then in 2008, Kewanee opted to join the greener pastures of the Three Rivers for the start of the 2010-11 school year.
Now, this week, Rock Falls was expected to accept its invitation to join the Big Northern.
That will leave the NCIC, as it stands, with just five schools, including 2010-11 newcomer St. Bede, but just four for football. (The Bruins will remain in the Big Rivers for football).
Who’s to blame?
I know everyone has to look out for No. 1 and do what’s best for their own school. And I know there are good people making these decisions.
Rochelle felt all its growth was leading it in the direction to the schools in their area with the Western Sun, but will now be reunited with old pals from the NCIC.
After years struggling to win across the board in the NCIC, Kewanee wanted to become more competitive in a conference with smaller schools, overlooking all the strong teams and athletes the Boilers have had over the years.
Rock Falls wanted to find a more secure avenue for scheduling nonconference games.
My question is, why abandon something that has meant so much to your school and athletes for so many decades. When you’re a part of a conference, you’re really part of one big team.
By leaving a conference you have been in for so long, one that your grandfathers and fathers played in, it’s like abandoning your family.
So where does the NCIC turn? Ever since Kewanee made its decision in November of 2008, I’ve been tossing some ideas around for the NCIC, including a merger with the Three Rivers. League president Guy Gradert of Prophetstown told the BCR last week the Three Rivers has received inquiries from the NCIC schools, but they are not interested in expansion.
I think what I’ve drawn up is at least worth looking into. I’ve proposed two seven-team divisions for football, which would provide six conference games and three non-conference crossover games on a rotating basis. With Ottawa Marquette playing football only and Erie and Prophetstown co-oping for football, these divisions could work in other sports as well.
In what I’d call the South Division, I’d match the NCIC standbys Princeton, Hall, Mendota, IVC and Kewanee with St. Bede and Bureau Valley. That would preserve longstanding rivalries, renew some old ones (Hall-St. Bede) and ignite new ones for football with BV.
The North division, would consist of Three Rivers holdovers Amboy, Newman, Fulton, Riverdale, Morrison, Erie, Prophetstown and Ottawa Marquette.
The average enrollment of the South would be 473. For the North, it would be 311, 339 for football.
Princeton football coach/AD Dave Moore notes PHS’ actual enrollment is about 660, rather than the 701 listed by the IHSA as PHS picks up 40 or so students due to the one player it gains from Ohio in their football co-op.
I contacted officials from every school in each conference via e-mail for their thoughts on my proposal and received little feedback. The sentiment I did get was the NCIC would like it and the Three Rivers would not.
I got no response from Kewanee, but I can surmise this would be the last thing the Boilers would want because they elected to bid the NCIC schools farewell.
Amboy track/cross country coach Bob Halberg would love it for his sports, but can’t see it flying for football.
Andrew Mitchell of Port Byron Riverdale, who says their enrollment is 360 and shrinking, said as an AD he would not go for it because of costs with the distances involved in traveling. But if you stuck to these divisions across the board for all sports, there would be no extra travel, except for the occasional long road trip in crossover football games between Riverdale to places like Spring Valley (76 miles) and Chillicothe (91).
As a football coach, Mitchell, a Geneseo grad and former L-P assistant coach, says he has no need to play three larger schools like Princeton, Mendota and IVC. He notes four Three Rivers schools have won state championships in football and would stack the likes of Morrison, Newman, Amboy and Bureau Valley with anyone.
The only advantage he says would be adding variety with divisional play, but that’s “about the only advantage.”
The big hang-up in this proposal appears to be football. If that’s the case, how about making an “A” division with the big/football schools like Newman, Amboy, Morrison, Bureau Valley, Princeton, Hall and Mendota. The “B” division could include Fulton, Kewanee, Riverdale, Erie, Prophetstown, St. Bede and Marquette. Of course there would be crossover games involved in these divisions that schools would not find favorable.
We reported last week Hall, Mendota and Princeton have contacted the Interstate Eight for possible expansion/merger talks. The I-8 consists of two six-team divisions currently, with enrollments ranging from 485 (Wilmington) to (Sandwich) 799.
It may be the only viable conference out there for the NCIC to look into, and I could see a scenario with something like Princeton, Hall, Mendota and IVC joining the likes of Sandwich, Plano (643), Seneca (500) and Dwight (559). I would surmise IVC would not be interested because of the travel, but the addition of an even number of teams is essential for this to work.
Princeton would face a 78-mile trip to Dwight and 63 to Sandwich.
Eureka, a former Tri-County member, now in the Corn Belt, has been mentioned as a potential suitor for the NCIC. Eureka principal Richard Werley submitted a by-law proposal in which the IHSA would create regionals to schedule football games around the state. If that falls through, he says the Hornets plan sticking it out in the Corn Belt and suggests maybe the NCIC should look that way.
The Corn Belt is from my neck of the woods and its schools are father than the I-8.
Looking at the map, one neighboring school to the NCIC is Fieldcrest, but AD Dan Wierczorek says the Minonk school is perfectly happy in the Heart of Illinois.
In any case, the NCIC is up the crick and likely won’t be in the Three Rivers.
Kevin Hieronymus is the BCR Sports Editor. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com.
