The Valleys Are In!
Robin Renner took a couple seconds to collect his thoughts.
For the well respected Neuqua Valley baseball coach, the impending confluence of the three District 204 schools into the DuPage Valley Conference borders on personal.
After graduating from East Aurora in 1976, Renner has enjoyed tremendous success in guiding the Wildcat baseball program from its inception into an Upstate Eight Conference power.
So how does he feel about the trio of 204 schools joining Naperville Central and Naperville North, among others, in a nine-team DVC?
“That’s a very good question,” Renner said. “I’ve been an Upstate Eight guy my whole life, in education anyway. It’s certainly sad not to wear a shirt that says Upstate Eight any more. However, with that said, I think the right thing to do was move into the DVC given our location and the size of the school and quality of programs from up and down from badminton to swimming to soccer to baseball and basketball. Everything.
As a baseball player at East Aurora, Renner recalls winning the first of two consecutive Upstate Eight baseball titles in 1976. The Tomcats would repeat as conference champs in 1977, the last year the program won a conference championship in baseball.
“I think it was the right move for us,” he said. “However, I certainly will miss the Upstate Eight and the St. Charleses and those schools. I don’t know if the word bittersweet is the right word, but I’ll miss that. I’ll miss the Upstate Eight. I won’t miss the bus rides to Elgin, to Larkin, to St. Charles North, to Streamwood. I won’t miss that. Like I said, it was the right move, I believe, for us to make.”
Renner’s first boss at Neuqua Valley, Kathy Birkett, agrees wholeheartedly with the change the three 204 schools are making.
Kathy Birkett Adds Two Cents
A teacher and assistant principal at Waubonsie Valley from 1979 until 1991, Birkett guided Neuqua Valley through its infancy as its first principal from 1996 through 2004.
A 10-year tenure in the district office, highlighted by her stint as the district’s superintendent from 2009 until her retirement in June 2014, gives Birkett unique insight into the transition.
“I really think the timing was right,” Birkett said. “The Upstate Eight is a great conference. We had a great run there. I was around in the days when we were in the Little 7 and had to make arrangements to get into the Upstate Eight. They were so gracious in allowing us to join that. We really considered this very, very carefully.”
Birkett continued, “certainly the principals, the board was involved as we were having those discussions, at least they were informed. I think it was just time. The timing was right. It’s nice now with five high schools between 204 and 203, travel time, there’s natural rivalries. All those kids know each other. So I just think it was a good time.”
1975
Back in 1975, the DVC began as a group of eight, like-minded schools.
Naperville Central and Wheaton Central came from the Upstate Eight while Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville emerged from out of the Tri-County Conference.
Those four schools would be joined by the recently-established Naperville North, having opened in 1975, Glenbard North, Glenbard South and West Chicago.
Neil McCauley, Naperville North’s athletic director from 1977 to 2003, said the basis for the conference was pretty simplistic.
“You really don’t know (if it’s going to work), but we felt all the schools were about the same size,” he said. “Glenbard South was probably the smallest and I’d guess that probably Wheaton Central was the biggest at that time. It’s a shot in the dark. But coming out of the Upstate Eight, both Wheaton Central and Naperville Central had done pretty well and that was a good conference. Wheaton Warrenville and Wheaton North were coming out of Tri-County.”
The same year the two Naperville high schools and the trio of Wheaton high schools came together as part of the DVC, over in Aurora, Waubonsie Valley opened its doors to a few hundred students in 1975.
In 1972, the newly-formed Indian Prairie School District brought together parts of eastern Aurora and western Naperville, resulting in the creation of the district’s first high school.
“I never dreamed Waubonsie would explode that much, that (District 204) would have three high schools, one of 4,500 (students) probably and two of 3,000,” McCauley said. “So I think that’s the biggest surprise and then Glenbard South didn’t grow at all. Glenbard South was the first one to get out.”
1929
Shifting Around
After the 1995-96 academic year, Glenbard South left the DVC and the seven remaining schools operated that way for one year before welcoming West Aurora prior to the start of the 1997-98 academic year.
Fifteen years later, after many years of debate, West Chicago finally made the decision to depart the DVC after being a founding conference member back in 1975.
With news of the Wildcats’ impending move to the Upstate Eight after the 2012-13 academic year, the seven remaining DVC schools casted a wide net in search of a replacement.
According to Naperville Central principal Bill Wiesbrook, the only schools the conference heard back from resided in the Upstate Eight: Lake Park and Neuqua Valley.
After carefully considering both schools, the seven principals unanimously voted to bring the Lancers into the fold as the eighth member with the start of the 2013-14 academic year.
“It might be like if I’m a high school boy,” Wiesbrook said, “and I want to go to the Homecoming dance and there are two girls that say, ‘I’d like to go the dance with you.’ But I’m going to pick one. The one I didn’t pick doesn’t mean I don’t like that person. I’ve just got two choices’ Back when Lake Park and Neuqua Valley raised their hand, we only needed one.
“So the DVC principals’ vote was that Lake Park, of the two, was a better fit for the DVC. It wasn’t a vote that Neuqua Valley will never join the DVC or we can’t live with Neuqua Valley. It was ‘we’ve got two choices (and we’ve got to pick just one).’”
Neuqua Valley didn’t get a majority of the votes to gain entry into the conference upon West Chicago’s departure.
“Back when West Chicago left and Neuqua Valley said, ‘We’re interested,’ apparently their superintendent at the time or their school board must have said, I wasn’t there, ‘It’s okay with us if Neuqua goes to the DVC and Metea and Waubonsie stay in the Upstate Eight,’” Wiesbrook said. “You know that there are districts with more than one high school that do that. Glenbard North is a good example. They’re in a school district that includes Glenbard East and Glenbard West and Glenbard South. They’re all in different conferences, so that Glenbard school board doesn’t care.”
“Valley View is a neighboring school district with two high schools: Romeoville and Bolingbrook. They’re in two different conferences. So their school board doesn’t mind splitting, so years ago the 204 school board must of said, ‘It’s okay with us.’ But now, they’re all three coming in the DVC, which probably their school board likes it that way, it’s better.”
The conference operated with six teams during the 2014-15 academic year with the departures of Glenbard East, which joined the conference in 1983, and West Aurora to the Upstate Eight.
Wiesbrook confirmed the vote in late 2013 to bring in the three 204 schools prior to the start of the 2015-16 academic year was unanimous at 6-0.
Speculation about any or all of the three 204 schools possibly joining the DVC has been rampant since the mid-1990s when Neuqua Valley was established in 1997 as the district’s second high school.
“Oh, yes,” Birkett said when asked if District 204 approached the DVC in 1997 when Neuqua Valley first opened. “There have been discussions for a long time, on and off. … Waubonsie and Neuqua together, at that time (in 1997) and there were times where maybe Waubonsie was more desirable than Neuqua, for the very reasons that you’re talking about, you know, size. I think, over time, this really was the most formalized process. There have been times, certainly, where the DVC has been approached before. But I think this was a time where they had to make some moves and I think there were some very good discussions, certainly by the principals and the athletic directors.”
Football Powerhouse
A conference that has been synonymous with operating within an eight-school structure will transform into arguably the best conference in the state.
That’s how Naperville North athletic director Bob Quinn bluntly puts it.
“It’s certainly going to be different, but it’s going to be great, I think, from the standpoint of as far as talking great leagues,” Quinn said. “I’ve always believed since I was a student-athlete to now that the DuPage Valley Conference is the best conference in the state and I think adding the 204 schools absolutely solidifies it. There’s no way you could argue that. The league will be as good as it gets and I think people argue all the time, ‘football’s going to be unbelievable.’
“Yeah, there’s no question it’s going to be unbelievable, but you talk about any sport—it’s going to be unbelievable. Look at badminton: Neuqua Valley the state champs, Naperville North third in the state. Two of the top three teams in the state in badminton. So any sport is going to be unbelievable.”
Quinn, who came from Loras College to Naperville North in July 2014, should know of what he speaks.
Upon graduating from Wheaton Warrenville in 1982, he spent 23 years at Wheaton Warrenville, which eventually became Wheaton Warrenville South in 1992, highlighted by 12 years as varsity baseball coach and eight as athletic director.
As with all the conference realignment that has been going on throughout the state of Illinois the last several years, football has been the driving force.
Four schools have won football state titles as members of the DVC, with Wheaton Warrenville South’s seven leading the pack.
Wheaton North claimed a pair of Class 4A state titles in 1979 and 1981 while adding a Class 5A state title five years later in 1986.
From a Naperville-perspective, Naperville Central and Naperville North have combined on seven state title game appearances, with each program owning a pair of state titles.
Naperville Central and Naperville North have combined on 23 double-digit winning seasons.
All 12 of the Huskies’ 10-win seasons came under Larry McKeon, including state titles in 1992 and 2007.
Meanwhile, eight of the Redhawks’ nine 10-win campaigns were led by Joe Bunge, highlighted by the 1999 Class 6A state title.
Fourteen years later, Mike Stine guided Napervile Central to 11 victories on its way to winning the 2013 Class 8A state title with an upset of Loyola Academy.
For the three 204 schools, entering the DVC marks a significant step up in competition on the football field from what life in the Upstate Eight featured on a weekly basis.
All told, the three 204 schools have combined for just two state semifinal appearances, with Waubonsie Valley losing to Naperville North in a 1992 Class 6A state semifinal and Neuqua Valley falling to Mount Carmel in a 2012 Class 8A state semifinal.
“I think the biggest change for us, Metea and Neuqua is our kids got to be of the mindset that every week’s a playoff game because you’re going against quality opponents,” Waubonsie Valley football coach Paul Murphy said. “You’re not going to see 40-point blowouts and running clock at halftime that you could see in the Upstate Eight. You just got to be prepared to play every week and you got to develop some depth because guys get hurt. Just because a guy gets hurt on your team doesn’t mean the other team’s going to let up.”
“They’re going to be (ready). You got to be ready to go to a 48-minute war every Friday night in the DVC. So I think that’s the biggest change is getting their mentality that we got to be ready to play every week. There are no breathers. There are no games that you can just show up and win. You got to be prepared. You got to be playing your ‘A’ game if you want to win.”
Murphy, who came to Waubonsie Valley in 2005 and was head coach at Marmion from 1987 to 2001, was an assistant at Naperville Central in the 1980s and has led the Warriors to five straight eight-win campaigns.
Buoyed by its three state titles won in the late 1970s and 1980s, Murphy remembers a time when Wheaton North controlled the conference.
Five times in the 1980s, the Falcons won at least eight games under Jim Rexiliuis, the father of current Naperville Central quarterbacks coach J.R. Rexilius, and George Turnbull.
Jim Rexilius, who coached Wheaton North’s football program from 1968 to 1980 and then again from 1983 to 1995, guided the program to two of its three state titles.
Meanwhile, an 11-win campaign in 1989 under John Thorne gave Wheaton Warrenville South its first double-digit winning season.
Seven seasons of double-digit wins in a span of the next nine years followed for Thorne and the Tigers, who made six state title game trips in the 1990s—winning four state titles.
In that stretch from 1990 until 1998, the only season Thorne and the Tigers won at least 10 games and didn’t get to a state title game was 1993.
After Thorne left to take over the North Central College football program in 2002, Ron Muhitch picked up where his predecessor left off.
In 13 years entering this season, Muhitch has led Wheaton Warrenville South to seven seasons of at least 10 wins and state titles in 2006, 2009 and 2010.
Enrollment Imbalance
As the conference welcomes Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley into the fold this fall, it does so with full knowledge of enrollments being thrown out of whack a bit.
At 3,858 students, Neuqua Valley immediately becomes the largest school in the DVC, with Naperville Central next at an enrollment of 2,888 for the 2015-16 academic year.
Contrast that with Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South bringing up the rear with 2,133 and 2,100 students, respectively, it doesn’t take long to tackle the idea of competitive advantage.
“Where do you find that fifth offensive linemen that you’ve been missing?” Muhitch said in Oct. 2014. “If you’ve got a group of 2,000 kids to pick from, you can find an additional offensive linemen if you got another 1,000 kids to choose from. … “I think that’s the biggest issue with those schools because they’re going to bring in more kids and more opportunities to field a team with depth.”
“I’ve never been a guy that feared competition and I’ve never been a guy that ever took an easy route on a schedule. That’s pretty evident, but I do think, with the numbers game going down in football a little bit, I’m concerned about that.”
Concerns have been raised about the addition of Neuqua Valley because of its sheer size.
Glenbard North, at 2,256 students, and the Wheatons are the three smallest schools in the conference.
Those three schools don’t necessarily have the history of playing the Wildcats in nonconference across different sports that Naperville Central and Naperville North have had.
“I think it’s a better thing for the three 204 schools,” McCauley said. “I don’t necessarily think it’s better for the DuPage Valley. I think it’s going to help their programs grow because they’re going to have more levels and be able to compete. It’s going to be a good conference. It’s going to be tougher than hell, to be honest with you, in everything because the baseball programs, the track programs—all of them are good and they’re just going to get better.”
“I think what happens is you bring somebody in that is as strong, it tells everybody else, ‘We can sit back and whine about it or we can suck it up and compete.’ So I think the coaching is going to get better. I think the coaches are going to work harder. I think the kids know that if they want to compete, they’re going to have to work harder.”
“So I think there are advantages to it. I just wish Neuqua was the same size. That’s the thing that bothers me the most is that they have a bigger choice. It’s easier to find five kids out of 4,000 than it is of 2,000.”
For those who may be concerned with Neuqua Valley’s size, Birkett is quick to fire back.
“I’m a coach’s daughter,” she said. “I’ve been competitive all my life. I’d want the challenge and absolutely, I’m very proud of what Neuqua’s done. I’m very proud of Waubonsie and Metea Valley, as well. I think someone will always be the largest school in a conference and someone will always be the smallest. It doesn’t matter what conference you go to, that will be the case. I certainly think Wheaton North has had great success in a number of sports. I’ve seen Glenbard North certainly (has had success). You can look at their football or wrestling and certainly other sports, as well. I’d say a little competition is always good.”
Birkett cited Stevenson as an example of a school roughly the same size of Neuqua Valley.
The Patriots, who currently hold state titles in both football and boys’ basketball, has 3,840 students and is the second-largest school in the North Suburban Lake.
“One school is going to have to be larger and that’s the case,” Birkett said. “That doesn’t always necessarily equate to that school dominating in everything. You can look at Stevenson. It’s the size of Neuqua Valley and they’re very good in some sports. They’re not as strong in others and their conference, there’s varied numbers. So I think we wait and see. But I’d hope everybody would be looking at it as a challenge, both we are going in. We’re joining a storied tradition, just like the Upstate Eight, and that’s always a good thing. I hope that those that voted to allow us to join them are glad we’re there.”
Location and Proximity
Much like with real estate, the DVC’s early days back in 1975 were about location, location, location.
“I think the impetus to the whole thing was location,” McCauley said. “The trips were short. We’re all close together. There’s some conferences in the state where they almost have to go overnight. But our longest trip was to Glenbard North and that’s nothing.”
For the three 204 schools, life in the Upstate Eight has been about anything but “nothing” when it comes to travel.
Frequent, exhaustive trips to Elgin, St. Charles, Larkin, Streamwood and Bartlett are a rite of passage for student-athletes in the Upstate Eight.
Waubonsie Valley athletic director Chris Neibch, a 1997 Wheaton North alumnus, is frank when asked about the biggest advantage of making the move over to the DVC.
“I’ll be honest: that was some of the main reason,” he said of the travel. “We play Napervilles in everything. We play the Wheatons in a lot of stuff and it just seemed like it would be a good fit. I’d say that was one of the main reasons. And some of the others were just kind of … it’s really important for our families and our community to see their kids play, too. And a lot of times, going to those long trips didn’t allow them to do so.”
Expansion or Contraction?
As athletic director at Naperville North for 26 years, McCauley is well-versed in the conference’s consistent eight-team structure.
When asked about what the future may hold for the DVC, McCauley doesn’t mince words.
“I hope they lose one to go to eight,” he said. “Eight’s perfect because eight, you get nonconference football games, you get four in basketball. It just works out so well to have eight. If you get to 10, that gives you two divisions of five. So you don’t qualify anybody else in football anyway. You got to be six (wins).”
Whatever happens as conference musical chairs continues to play out across Illinois, most everyone agrees about one thing: nine schools won’t work long term.
Whether it be 10, 12, 14 or 16 teams, the need for the DVC to get to an even number is imperative.
“I’d say 10, 12, 14—any of those numbers work,” Quinn said. “Any number from eight to 16 works, going to divisions if you get up to the big numbers or no divisions if you stay at the low number. Yeah, I think we got to get to an even number. That’s the key. Certainly it’s daunting to look at who’s in our league and like I said when I started this conversation that you and I are having, it’s the best league in the state of Illinois. When I say the best, I mean it’s the best. It’s also the toughest, right? You could be a hell of a football coach next year and go 4-5 and not make the playoffs. That’s the reality of it. When you look at who we’ve got to play week in and week out, there’s no days off.”
“Most leagues, you get a week off where you get a school you know you’re going to beat and you’re going to be able to compete with at a high level. That doesn’t happen in our league right now and so you could be a great football coach and go 4-5. And so, to have somebody come in and say, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of that,’ that’s kind of daunting. But let’s find somebody who wants to compete at the high level that we’re competing at–somebody that takes pride in the DuPage Valley Conference. The DuPage Valley is the best conference in the state. People ought to want to be a part of it.”
Special thanks to Robin Renner, Kathy Birkett, Neil McCauley, Chris Neibch, Bill Wiesbrook, Bob Quinn, Paul Murphy and Ron Muhitch for taking the time to talk with PN for this article.
Little 7 to Upstate Eight and DVC
Naperville Community High School played its first football season in 1910 and had of record of 2-2, according to IHSA records.
NCHS’s original rival was Wheaton, now Wheaton Warrenville South. Wheaton first played football in 1912 and went 3-0-1.
Both Naperville and Wheaton were in the Little 7 from the mid 1920s, with several Kane County schools, until the formation of the Upstate 8 in the 1960s. During the Great Depression, Wheaton left the Little 7, but rejoined several years later.
Records from 1970 basketball standings indicate the Upstate Eight included the East Aurora Tomcats, DeKalb Barbs, West Aurora Blackhawks, Elgin Central Maroons, Elgin Larkin Royals, St. Charles Saints, Naperville Redskins and Wheaton Tigers.
And the irony is, Waubonsie Valley – the original “Valley” – was once in the Little 7. As enrollment grew, Waubonsie joined the Upstate Eight.
The only conference Metea and Neuqua have ever known is the Upstate Eight. Now all five public high schools serving the greater Naperville community is one happy family – all in the same conference.
