Pike Schools split on district decision

By Editor | December 12, 2023 |

By BETH ZUMWALT

The Illinois High School Association is considering eliminating conferences and going to districts in football.
The concept is that seven or eight teams of similar size and picked geographically would be in a district. The result is thought to be teams of equal size would play one another and traveling long districts would be eliminated.
Pittsfield has voted in favor of the idea.
“It would may scheduling easier and eliminate some of the excessive travel,” Angie Gregor, principal of Pittsfield High School, said.
Gregor said Brad Tomhave, Pikeland’s athletic director, attended a town hall type meeting in Jacksonville about the concept earlier this fall.
“It would certainly affect the landscape of football,” Tomhave said.
Pittsfield currently belongs to the Sagamo Conference. Teams,along with their enrollment include: Williamsville, 516, Stanford-Olympia, 500, Petersburg, 445, New Berlin, 444, Pleasant Plains, 402, Auburn, 387, Riverton, 381, Maroa, 344, Pittsfield, 337, Athens, 322,
The affect on the landscape is what has Pleasant Hill voting no on the matter.
“We have a good, solid conference,” Ron Edwards of Pleasant Hill, said.”Our conference hasn’t changed since 1997. All of our schools are within a distance that is not a hardship.”
Pleasant Hill, who coops with Western, belongs to the Western Illinois Valley Conference. which is a combination of the WIVC and the former Western Area Conference. The two combined in 1997,
“It’s a 12 team conference split into north and south districts,”Edwards said. “Every two years two teams roll out and into the other division, so you play different teams,but all within the conference.”
Edwards said that the Wolves have played Carrollton and Winchester since the Pleasant Hill football program started.
“I’d hate to lose that tradition,” Edwards said.
The WIVC has 12 teams, in order of enrollment, Beardstown, 422, Unity 332, Routt, 266, Camp Point, 247,West Central, 241, Triopia, 228, White Hall, 222, Greenfield-NW, 221, Brown County, 215, Pleasant Hill, 214, Calhoun, 193 and Carrollotn, 190.
Edwards said he has seen suggested maps of the proposal and Pleasant Hill could end up playing Belleville Althoff or Dupo, among others.
“I like our conference,” Edwards said.”I like the tradition and the history. Eight-man football is becoming more and more common and that’s going to change things and as more and more teams co-op. But lets wait for that to make a change.”
Adam Gunterman, a standout player for Pleasant Hill, back in the 2000s, is now a coach at South Shelby in Missouri.
He has played in the conference format and now coaches in the district format. He says there are pros and cons to the both systems.
“I’m not sure how Illinois will set theirs up, but, the Missouri system still have conferences,” Gunterman said. “At the end of the season, everybody makes the play-offs and it is more like a regional in basketball. And you end up playing a lot of the teams you played during the regular season.”
Voting on the change in football format started last Monday and will end Dec. 17.
Both Tomhave and Edwards say that based on the Jacksonville meeting and conversations with other schools, the vote is fairly well split.