East St. Louis to Forfeit Wins, Drops Out of Football Playoffs

(Note: As of Thursday 10/28, East St. Louis is back in the playoffs after the high school appealed to St. Clair County’s 20th Judicial Court later. A temporary restraining order was granted.)

The Illinois High School Association ruled on Tuesday, October 26 that the East St. Louis Flyers football team was found to be in violation of IHSA residency By-Laws. Two Flyer players were ruled inelgible.

The punishment for violation of the residency By-Laws is the forfeit of victories in which the ineligible students participated in. With this case, the Flyers are forced to forfeit all 10 of its wins from the 2009 season, as well as five of their nine wins during this season. This drops the Flyers' season record to 4-5, and therefore not being eligible for the playoffs.

Information was obtained by the IHSA from the St. Clair County State’s Attorney's Office to aid in the investigation. According to the IHSA, evidence from one of the players' "pre-trial electronic monitoring bracelet" traced the residency of this particular player to Belleville, which is outside of the East St. Louis School District.

With East St. Louis out of the playoff picture, the IHSA ruled that a change of games be made in the Class 7A South bracket. Belleville West, which was scheduled to play the Flyers in the first round, will now play crosstown rival Belleville East. East's opponent, O'Fallon, will receive a first-round bye by virtue of playoff points.

“Certainly, the timing of this matter is less than ideal, but as much as some would have liked for us to move faster with this investigation, to do so would have been unfair to both the student-athletes and East St. Louis High School," IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman stated in a press release. "It was imperative for everyone involved that we gave due diligence to the process and uncovered all applicable information before reaching a decision."

There has been interest in the investigation throughout Illinois. East St. Louis, considered one of the elite football programs in Illinois, had marquee out-of-state regular season games with Indianapolis Cathedral, Ind. and Fort Lauderdale Dillard, Fla. Both of these games were won by East St. Louis, and are thus forfeited. Catherdal moves to 7-3 on its football season with one more week left in their regular season. Dillard moves to 5-3 on its football season with two more weeks left in its regular season.

Cody

Class 1A/2A State Baseball Games Moved, Boyd Promoted

O'Brien Field in Peoria will be the next host for the Class 1A and Class 2A Illinois High School Association State Baseball tournaments.

The IHSA Announced the location of the tournaments during Monday's monthly meeting of its Board of Directors. O'Brien Field will take over hosting duties from Silver Cross Field in Joliet, which was host of the small school state tournaments from 2006-2010.

Located in downtown Peoria, O'Brien Field is home of the Chicago Cubs' Class A affiliate Peoria Chiefs.

"We are very proud and excited to be hosting the IHSA Class 1A & 2A Baseball State Finals at O’Brien Field for the next five years," Peoria Chiefs and O’Brien Field President Rocky Vonachen stated in a press relase. "It is an event we have wanted here since day one. O’Brien Field is one of the best ballparks in all of minor league baseball and will provide both the players and fans with a great experience. It has showcased some of the top talent in Minor League baseball and now will showcase some of the best baseball talent in the state of Illinois."

The reason for the relocation of the tournament had to do with the locations of past schools that qualified for the tournaments in the past few years. Of the eight teams that qualified for the small school baseball tournaments six were from outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.

Silver Cross Field will contrinue to host the Class 3A and Class 4A Baseball State tournaments. The move will also make it easier for IHSA Staff to administrate the small school baseball tournaments. The Class 1A and Class 2A State Softball tournaments are located across the Illinois River in East Peoria.

“We were glad to be able to reward Joliet and Silver Cross Field for their tremendous work hosting the baseball state finals," IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman stated in a press release. "The movement of the Class 1A/2A tournament reflects our Board’s philosophy to try and make our state final events more centrally located based on the location of the participants. With many of the 3A/4A qualifiers coming from Chicagoland, it made sense to leave this tournament in Joliet where it can continue to thrive."

In other IHSA Board news:

*Riverdale principal James Boyd was promoted to Vice President of the IHSA Board of Directors. He replaces Ron Connor of Clinton. Boyd represents IHSA Division 4, which includes the southern portion of the NISB coverage area.

*The issue over football playoff pairings was looked at. The Board made changes to the travel stipulation of games involving a team traveling more than 150 miles for a playoff game.

If any bracket of 16 teams has more than one game with a travel distance of 150 miles or more, the bracket is placed into quadrants. However, if the split into quadrants creates more travel, the teams will now remain in a bracket of 16.

- Cody Cutter

Little 10 & NIB-12 East Scoring Leaders

(Publisher's Note: You'll find Steve's reports on the homepage)

Little Ten Conference Scoring Leaders - *

* -- Statistics not available from Serena / Matches played through Oct. 4


Player (School) Goals Assists Points

1 – Brandon Safranek (Paw Paw) 24 3 51

2 – Ethan Lauritzen (Somonauk) 22 6 50

3 -- Bernie Conley (Hinckley-Big Rock) 15 9 39

4 -- Tim Engel (Hinckley-Big Rock) 15 6 36

5 -- Javier Hernandez (Earlville-Leland) 14 7 35

6 -- Shaquille Crayton (Indian Creek) 14 3 31

7 -- Joel Caldron (Somonauk) 12 5 29

Bret Ostrom (Indian Creek) 8 13 29

Kevin Bond ( Newark ) 12 5 29

10 – Kyle Tuggle ( Newark ) 9 8 26

11 -- C Collins (Earlville-Leland) 8 7 23

Nick Bond ( Newark ) 10 3 23

13 -- Danny Heerhold (Somonauk) 7 8 22

14 – Matt Kyler (Indian Creek) 6 9 21

15 -- Daniel Soto (Paw Paw) 8 3 19

Nick Siemers (Paw Paw) 6 7 19

17 – Greg Hughes ( Newark ) 6 6 18

18 -- Jared Madden (Hinckley-Big Rock) 6 5 17

Tyler Becker (Earlville-Leland) 5 7 17

20 – Hunter Hardekopf (Somonauk) 5 4 14



Northern Illinois Big 12 East Division Scoring Leaders

Player (School) Goals Assists Points

1 – Joe Ferguson (DeKalb) 10 4 24

2 – Sammy Lake (DeKalb) 5 7 17

3 -- Alex Gil (Kaneland) 4 7 16

4 -- Ramon Lopez (Rochelle) 5 2 12

Diego Luna (Morris) 5 2 12

6 -- Justin Kammes (Rochelle) 4 3 11

Cristian Garcia (Rochelle) 5 1 11

8 – Sam Drumbacher (DeKalb) 5 0 10

Trevor Cervenka (Sycamore) 3 4 10

Javier Cervantes (Yorkville) 5 0 10

11 -- Tyler Wallace (Sycamore) 4 1 9

Chava Villanueva (Morris) 4 1 9

Artan Emini (Yorkville) 3 3 9

14 -- Andy Krause (Rochelle) 4 0 8

Anders Winquist-Bailey (Kaneland) 3 2 8

Derek White (Kaneland) 3 2 8

Chad Swiecz (Kaneland) 3 2 8

Adam Westerby (Sycamore) 4 0 8

18 – David Rodriguez (Yorkville) 3 1 7

Jordan Escobedo (Kaneland) 3 1 7

Anthony Parillo (Kaneland) 3 1 7

-Steve Nemeth