Yorkville, Kaneland to join new league

Kaneland's Jay Levita is congratulated by teammates after hitting a homer against Burlington Central.
(Michael Smart/Courier News)

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Yorkville athletic director Seth Schoonover expressed hope Monday that his school has found a permanent home in the newly-created Northern Illinois Big 12.

"I think this is the final move," Schoonover said while speaking at a press conference to announce the new league at LaSalle-Peru High School. "I think everybody feels content that this is a home we are going to have for a long time. Hopefully my career ends in the Northern Illinois Big 12. We have 12 community-based high schools with very similar needs."

Yorkville and Kaneland will begin play in the Northern Illinois Big 12 in the fall of 2010. DeKalb, Rochelle and Sycamore will also leave the Western Sun Conference and join Morris in the East Division of the new conference.

West Division schools will be Dixon, Geneseo, LaSalle-Peru, Ottawa, Sterling and Streator. All six will be exiting the Reagan (large school) Division of the historic NCIC (North Central Illinois Conference).

DeKalb, with an enrollment of 1,700, is the largest East Division member. Rochelle (1,060) is the smallest. Yorkville (1,300) and Kaneland (1,250) each would appear to be an excellent fit.

Ottawa (1,550) and Geneseo (920) are the West's high and low, respectively.

"We may rename the divisions depending on student approval in the fall," said Schoonover. "We will have a contest to come up with a logo and maybe different divisional names."

"With two six-school divisions, we've got some room for growth too," Kaneland athletic director Leigh Jaffke said. "We could add two and two if it comes down to that in the future. I think it's a perfect mix with the enrollments, and we're all pretty competitive in all the sports. I think it's going to be awesome."

Competition in each sport has been structured in a preliminary way, and work will be completed in the coming year to finalize the schedules for the 2010-2011 school year.

Boys and girls basketball will be played as a double round -robin (within the division) for a total of 10 games. Four crossover contests, which will not count toward the conference record, will also be included. Those will be played on weekend dates if possible because of longer travel.

Football teams will play their division rivals and also play two crossover games in weeks three and four of the season.

Jaffke and Schoonover were not concerned with any additional travel times, and both cited the divisional structure.

"In the East division, round trip to Morris is about 12 miles farther than Glenbard South," Jaffke said. "The crossover games are not that big of a deal. Most of my teams compete this way anyway because that's where they go for regionals and sectionals."

"In the sports within our division, our travel is reduced," Schoonover added. "We do have to travel for the crossovers, and we're going to try to play those on the weekends. Our administration is concerned with crossovers during the week, and we will try to eliminate those."