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| UPDATE- The girls AAA meet in the north will be hosted by Loyola Academy (they have the boys also). As you already know the 2A boys meet originally at Andrew will now be hosted by H-F (they have the girls also). I think this finally has all sectionals assigned to a host. |
 | The announcement from the IHSA website cancelling the Class AAA sectional in the North/Northwest Suburbs.
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For the third time in three years, the IHSA has had to annnounce that a Sectional has been canceled. This time it is a girls Class AAA sectional.
What is suprising about this is that this time it occurs in the Chicagoland Area where there are an abundance of tracks on which to compete. Included among the teams listed in the cancelled sectional are Hersey, Maine West, Elk Grove, Evanston, Glenbrook South, Prospect, Glenbrook North, Maine East, Maine South, Niles North, Niles West, Loyola, and NewTrier. All have competition Tracks suitable to host an IHSA Sectional. In the past, sectionals had been hosted by Hersey, Elk Grove, Glenbrook South, Prospect, and Loyola.
According to IHSA Track & Field Director Ron McGraw, "This has been legitimately canceled, but hopefully someone will step up and realize that there needs to be a host. I feel completely confident that this will happen."
Three schools have contacted the IHSA in regards to the cancellation (New Trier, Glenbrook South, and Loyola) and McGraw is awaiting a decision to be made by one of the three schools to host.
The sectional was listed as TBA for a couple of months before the IHSA marked it as cancelled
on its website.
"We don't like to put the burden on the same school every year." Said McGraw.
Rochester has hosted a sectional for several years now and McGraw cited them as an example.
"One day the coaches and kids from Rochester would like to get on a bus and go to the sectional meet where the coaches aren't running around managing the meet and the kids are getting the attention they deserve. The Coaches and kids of the host
school do not get the same experience as the rest of the schools attending the sectional."
If canceled, the schools would be eliminated from IHSA competition, and would not be given the chance to qualify for the state meet.
According to McGraw, "It is not fair to other schools to distribute teams from a canceled sectional to their sectional. It lessens the chance of
the kids from their sectional cluster to qualify."
McGraw has a potential solution to the problem of finding hosts. "With the idea that the sectional clusters will not change much,
I'm looking for Coaches and Athletic Directors to suggest, offer, and identify potential hosts from within their cluster. That was kind of what was in place when I
came in, but with the addition of the multiplier and the expansion to three classes, we got away from that. I'd like to go back to that now that there is
more stability in Track & Field."
The problem of finding a hosts for sectional meets has always been a problem for the IHSA, but has been accentuated by the expansion to three classes.
"It's getting to be more difficult to find hosts," said McGraw "but with the move to three classes, it spreads the problem out more."
"We've have never had to (follow through with) cancelling a meet, and hopefully we never will." |
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