Sports
Conference Change Brings New Life to STC Football Schedule
The next-door neighbors have joined the Upstate Eight Conference party.
Breaking up may be hard to do but the plan certainly has seemed to work over the past decade in St. Charles since then-St. Charles High School split to form two community high schools – St. Charles East and St. Charles North.
There's nothing quite like a cross-town rivalry to help get the competitive juices flowing for student-athletes, coaches, parents and fans.
In addition, the St. Charles split has provided many more opportunities for student-athletes, basically doubling the number of participants in their respective sports/activities.
During this 2010-11 school year, the Upstate Eight Conference will take on a new look with the addition of Batavia and Geneva and first-time varsity
participant Metea Valley.
While the number of schools has grown to 14, the Upstate Eight Conference has split into two 7-team divisions – River and Valley.
The Upstate Eight River Division will have a distinctive Tri-Cities feel to it with Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles East and St. Charles North making up four of the seven schools – joined by Elgin, Larkin and Streamwood.
What does it mean from a football standpoint?
Plenty – if you ask the respective head coaches.
"The four Tri-Cities schools playing in the same conference has been a long time coming," said St. Charles North coach Mark Gould. "Over the past few years, both Geneva and Batavia have gotten as big as us (enrollment) so this seems like a natural fit."
"We're pretty fired up about it," said St. Charles East coach Mike Fields, whose team will begin its Upstate Eight River maiden voyage Sept. 10 at Geneva. "And I know the St. Charles community is excited about it."
Ironically, Fields spent 10 years as an assistant football coach at Geneva before guiding St. Charles East to the outright Upstate Eight Conference championship in his first season as head coach last year.
"I think it'll be a great way to start the conference season. I feel that as the years go on and the current middle school and elementary school students move on to high school, the Tri-Cities rivalry will grow stronger."
Geneva will play three of its first four Upstate Eight River contests against St. Charles East, St. Charles North (Sept. 24 at Burgess Field) and Batavia (away on Oct. 1).
"I see the new conference as nothing but a positive for us," said Geneva coach Rob Wicinski, who has led the Vikings to an impressive 62-12 record the past six seasons.
"We'll miss those other Western Sun schools but I know all of our football boosters are happy about this."
Geneva Athletic Director Jim Kafer is just happy to have a new conference home on the heels of the Western Sun breakup.
"We couldn't have been more fortunate," Kafer said of joining the Upstate Eight. "We were basically a school without a conference for a while there.
"We're really looking forward to it. I see it as kind of formalizing what we have developed over the years with the two St. Charles schools. It will be a good challenge."
