As the gulf between the Joneses and those unable to keep up with them widened, the have-nots decided they’d had it.
This decision has been made throughout Illinois in recent years, most notably in the DuPage Valley Conference. They begged out of the league: West Chicago first, followed by Glenbard East and West Aurora.
Widely considered the strongest public-school conference in the state — the Chicago Catholic League is the only conference worthy of being mentioned in the same breath — the DVC saw its membership dwindle to six teams last fall.
This was a problem because it has become increasingly difficult for strong programs to find non-conference games in a state that requires a minimum record of 5-4 to qualify for the playoffs.
The band-aid solution had every team in the league playing one conference rival twice last season.
The DVC fixed that by adding three thriving programs, creating what veteran Wheaton Warrenville South coach Ron Muhitch called “the strongest (league) in the history of this conference, and that is trying to be fair to history.”
But the more permanent solution — sister schools Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley will make their league debuts on Friday night — raises a question that will be answered as the Friday nights turn from mild to cool to downright frigid.
Is the DVC too good for its own good?
Ignoring for the moment the logistical nightmare of having an odd number of teams, all nine will play eight tough conference games and have to find a non-conference opponent willing to schedule them when the DVC’s crossover-game agreement with the Upstate Eight ends after this season.
Not even the Catholic League’s Blue Division, a power five of Mount Carmel, Loyola, Providence, St. Rita and Brother Rice, places such physical and mental demands on its players, because the four-division league provides crossover games against lesser, albeit reluctant, opponents.
“The last seven years we’ve gone 13 or 14 games without a break every year, which is more than colleges,” said Loyola coach John Holecek, a former Marian Catholic and Illinois star who played seven seasons in the NFL. “And these are high school kids trying to get into colleges with stringent academic requirements.
“If you don’t have a game you can at least pull the starters for a half, it is such a grind it is almost not fair to the players these days. This is not professional or college. It is too stressful, I think.
“A bunch of quality starters are going to be out by the end of the year. But they are going to be much better for the competition. If they survive and are healthy at the end, those are going to be great teams.”
To two of the DVC’s most successful programs, Naperville Central and Wheaton South, this is much ado about nothing.
Naperville Central had Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley on its non-conference schedule before they joined the DVC, and Wheaton South’s take-on-all-comers approach included games against Maine South the past six seasons and Glenbard West from 2011-14.
Naperville Central shook off a three-game losing streak late in the regular season to win the Class 8A title with a victory over Loyola in 2013, while seven-time state champion Wheaton South has made a habit of overcoming slow starts to advance deep into the playoffs.
“For us it’s not as big of a deal as everyone makes it,” said Naperville Central coach Mike Stine, whose team had the benefit of non-competitive conference victories over Glenbard East and West Aurora during the state-championship season and beat Hubbard 59-0 during last year’s 9-3 campaign.
“It’s doable. It’s tough. You’ve got to be a little bit lucky with health, and the players have to be mentally prepared for it. It’s hard, but I believe this: any team in the playoffs from our conference has to be quarterfinal-caliber or they’re not going to make it. A lot of teams don’t get a chance to play in a quarterfinal- or semifinal-type game, and we get five or six a year.”
Stine and Muhitch admit the situation is less than ideal.
Finding a non-conference opponent in the first two or three weeks of the season is difficult but manageable; the current environment forces elite teams from different conferences to meet earlier than they would like, which is great for fans.
But doing so late in the season likely means looking beyond Illinois borders, which is why Wheaton South is without a week eight opponent for 2016. Other DVC teams face the same problem.
“That is a unique issue we never had to deal with,” Muhitch said. “But things happen. It is ever-changing.”
Indeed, the landscape has changed drastically in recent years as schools have changed conference affiliations, almost exclusively with the football playoffs in mind.
Metea Valley wouldn’t have dreamed of competing against the Wheaton Souths and Naperville Centrals of the world during the young school’s first varsity season in 2010, and Metea went 2-7 as recently as 2012.
But the Mustangs scored more than 40 points five times and made their first playoff appearance last year, and they continue to grow in numbers and quality at a time when overall participation is down.
They’re about to find out whether they’re ready for the new DVC.
“When it first came about, my initial reaction was, ‘The DVC? Really? All these teams together?’ ” Metea Valley coach Ben Kleinhans said. “There was a little bit of concern. We’re trying to build a program, we had momentum with the program and this could slow it down.
“But the more you dig into what the conference is about, I don’t see how you cannot be excited about being in the DVC. Talking to other coaches, if you get five wins you’re ready for the quarterfinals. Kids like the spotlight of being in the DVC, the outside attention it brings.
“I think it has already made us better without competing yet.”
Helfgot is a freelance reporter.
