Lincoln-Way North awarded title games

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:28AM

It took over a century for the south suburbs to host an IHSA state

championship.

Beginning this fall, there will be two titles decided here, and Lincoln-Way

schools will host both.

Lincoln-Way North will host the Class 2A and 3A boys soccer championship

rounds for the next five years, joining Lincoln-Way East, which began

hosting the boys gymnastics finals two years ago.

"It's a great opportunity for us," Lincoln-Way North athletic director Matt

Lyke said. "It's great for the school, the athletic program and the

community."

The IHSA looked for a new site after North Central College in Naperville,

partly because of date conflicts with home football games, decided it would

no longer host the boys finals. Lyke and other administrators at North put

together a proposal for the 2011-2015 seasons the IHSA found attractive.

"I think that we¹re centrally located, plus the amount of hotels around us

certainly helped in the process," Lyke said. "If you look over the last

couple of years, there are schools from the north suburbs in the finals, but

there¹s always a school from down south, and from the western suburbs."

North's campus, including a FieldTurf-equipped stadium with 3,400 seats and

room for at least 1,000 more fans on a grass berm behind the north end zone,

is in Frankfort, less than two miles south of Interstate 80's Harlem Ave.

exit.

The IHSA's girls soccer finals will remain at North Central. The boys 1A

finals will be played in Normal.

At Monday's board meeting, the IHSA approved District 205's plan to maintain

three athletic programs, allowing Thornridge to field varsity athletic teams

in 2011-12, even as the school becomes a freshman-only academy. Students in

the district will play for Thornridge, Thornton or Thornwood, depending on

where they live, not which building their classes are in.

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