On a sun-splashed afternoon while standing on the Memorial Stadium turf, Naperville Central coach Mike Stine turned and pointed to his left.
“It’s up to the bigwigs in that building right there,” Stine said, pointing in the direction of the District 203 Administrative Center – a stone’s throw from Memorial Stadium.
For both Naperville Central and Naperville North, the school district’s decision to move its annual showdown to Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium at North Central College in 2000 was one of necessity.
By the time the penultimate week of the 2000 season rolled around on Oct. 14, 2000, both programs were rolling while both being ranked in the top four and a crowd of around 10,000 expected.
Naperville Central was a perfect 7-0 while squarely looking at a repeat in Class 6A despite quarterback Owen Daniels being lost for the year in Week 3 with a torn ACL.
Naperville North, meanwhile, was also sitting at an unblemished 7-0 as its offense came in averaging 28.7 points and had scored more than 30 points four times despite the loss to injury of Bill Jurjovec and Kevin Hahn.
The Redhawks’ 31-14 victory – which would be avenged four weeks later by the Huskies in a Class 6A state quarterfinal – began what we know now as the two programs playing annually at North Central College.
“I like the game over there for us,” Stine said. “It’s a little bit different atmosphere for a lot of our kids. It’s an opportunity to play on a college campus and they don’t always get that. So I enjoy the change. I know that some people don’t like it as much in the community. But – again – it’s just another game and we’ll play wherever they want to play.
“Right now, they’re playing at North Central College. As long as we’re playing there, we’ll go there. If the district ever changes it and we don’t go there, that’d be okay, too because we love playing here at Naperville Central.”
Starting in 2003, Indian Prairie School District 204 got in the act by moving the annual game between Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley over to North Central College and the two schools had played there 12 straight years prior to this year.
IPSD 204’s decision to allow Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley to return to playing on-campus was a welcomed development by both teams’ head coaches.
The Wildcats’ 28-7 victory over the Warriors on Sept. 11, their 13th victory all-time in the series, was the first time the Wildcats had hosted the Warriors in a regular season game since 2002.
Three years ago, Paul Murphy and Waubonsie Valley traveled to Neuqua Valley to play in a Class 8A state quarterfinal – marking Murphy’s first visit to Neuqua Valley as a head coach.
Murphy – a former North Central College assistant – was quite frank when asked what he thought about the move to return to playing back on campus.
“When this first started, North Central needed to get students on their campus to try to get their football program going,” he said. “They’ve got their football program going and this isn’t taking anything away from North Central – they don’t really need us anymore.”
This week, the Warriors will meet Metea Valley at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium for the first time ever as the three 204 schools enter a rotation where they’ll play a game there two of every three years.
While the concept could be getting stale and losing luster for the two Naperville schools, the Mustangs are going into this with eyes wide open.
In its sixth year as a varsity program, Metea Valley is still working on developing its brand and the type of football program it’ll be with its move to the DuPage Valley Conference.
The opportunity to play at North Central College could be construed as another step for Ben Kleinhans’ program.
“I think it’s going to be great for the kids,” he said. “I think the kids are fired (up). I think the school is going to be and the students going to the game – they’re really excited about it. It’s going to create a lot of energy for the week playing Waubonsie. There’s things to be said for losing a home game and not playing at your stadium. As coaches, you’d like to be at home and that kind of thing.
“I think it’s a good experience for the kids and that’s really the most important part of it. And us being our first time – it’s not like we’ve been doing it for 10 years like some of the other schools where maybe it’s lost a little bit of its luster and they wanted to get back. For us, it’s pretty exciting. So the kids are excited about it and that’s the most important thing.”
While Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley play at North Central College this weekend, the Mustangs will return to play the Wildcats there in 2016 and the Warriors and Wildcats will face one another in 2017.
Upon hearing the news in the spring about his team being able to host Waubonsie Valley instead of playing on a neutral field, Neuqua Valley coach Bill Ellinghaus expressed his pleasure with the decision.
Moments after his team avenged a 2014 loss to the Warriors with a 21-point victory, that sentiment certainly didn’t change for Ellinghaus.
“What I do know is that when you get an opportunity to play a team in your backyard, we want to play them in our own backyard,” he said. “So, for that reason, it was fun and the kids responded to that.”
