Every high school year brings with it new experiences.
Sometimes historic ones.
For the first time, there were eight playoff classes in football and two classes in girls soccer.
Water polo enjoyed a state-sponsored championship for the first time.
Lincoln-Way East won the Class AA girls softball title in the school’s first year of existence.
Westinghouse won its first boys basketball title while Hinsdale Central won its first girls basketball title. Sandburg captured its first baseball crown; Prospect and Downers Grove South each added a football title to its resume.
Candace Parker became the first girl to dunk in an Illinois high school basketball game.
New Trier’s Adam Rubenstein and Mack Reynolds became only the second duo to three-peat in doubles, and Reynolds became the first player to win the doubles title four times.
Leo sprinter Ryan Shields three-peated in the three sprints (100, 200 and 400), a feat never before accomplished in 108 years of Illinois track.
And the Chicago Public League decided to give up its automatic berths in the state quarterfinals and individual finals to allow its smaller schools to compete in Class A.
