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New members react to DuKane Conference

When Tom Rogers grew up playing sports at Geneva High School in the 1980s, the Vikings were members of the Little Seven Conference. They still were when Rogers became the athletic director at his alma mater in 1995.

But in the 20 years since, while Rogers has moved from the school's AD to principal, the Vikings have moved to five different conferences - the Little Seven, Suburban Prairie, Western Sun, Upstate Eight and now DuKane.

The latest move became official last month when Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles East and St. Charles North announced they are leaving the Upstate Eight to join with former DVC members Glenbard North, Lake Park, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South to create the eight-team DuKane Conference, which debuts in the 2018-19 school year.

"You always want to try to find opportunities that are most beneficial to the students whether academically or athletically," said Rogers, emphasizing how thankful he is to the Upstate Eight Conference for inviting the Vikings in nine years ago.

"Something Geneva and Batavia and both St. Charles schools want to make sure we reiterate in these conversations is that we are extremely grateful, especially Geneva and Batavia from our perspective, very grateful to the Upstate Eight schools for welcoming us into that conference a number of years ago," Rogers said. "Geneva and Batavia were in a desperate situation and for them to welcome us with open arms, we greatly appreciated that. This was a difficult decision because we were grateful to them."

Rogers said he hopes to continue many of the matchups with the Upstate Eight schools as nonconference games in the future. Now with nine remaining schools, the future of the Upstate Eight also could change again by adding new schools. Elgin, Larkin, South Elgin, West Aurora, Streamwood, Glenbard East, East Aurora, West Chicago and Bartlett make up the current UEC.

"We've been open and honest with them every step of the way as we've been trying to make this decision," Rogers said. "We've been pleased with the relationship we've had with all the schools in the Upstate Eight. And I think it's important to note we look forward to continuing to compete with them. We will schedule them for nonconference games in the future. I would like to think based on the extensive meetings we've had and conversations we've had with the other Upstate Eight schools as we were trying to make this decision, because of the upfront nature, we don't think we are leaving with any hard feelings."

Difficult decision

All four Tri-Cities schools had to consider a number of factors.

It wasn't an easy decision for any, perhaps nobody more so than Batavia.

"We definitely took our time and made sure that we covered all our bases to make sure this is what's best for our student-athletes and our school community as a whole," Batavia athletic director Dave Andrews said. "We were thoughtful about it, and we wanted to make sure this is good for the long haul, it wasn't just going to be a short-term thing. There were no secrets Batavia was taking their time about it. This is something that is going to impact our school and our community for a very long time so we wanted to make sure we made the right decision."

Rogers said the main reason for Geneva making this move is to join a conference with schools that can field the same number of teams at all levels.

"We've had some concerns over the last several years because some of the schools in the (Upstate Eight) conference have not been able to participate in terms of levels of participation that we've been able to," Rogers said. "There's been some situations where some of our students have not been able to compete after school or on a weekend because of that discrepancy. What this new situation will do is increase the opportunities both in terms of academic competition and athletic competition for our students."

Those reasons also played a deciding factor in Batavia agreeing.

"The biggest thing we were weighing is opportunities for students and how will this affect our school culture," Andrews said. "The pros are opportunities for students against schools of like size both academic clubs and athletics. On a bigger scale was just the school culture and climate. The long-term ramifications. Batavia prides itself on sharing athletes and prides itself on making sure athletes support other athletes and we wanted to make sure we would be able to continue that in a conference such as this. There isn't any data you can look at, so we basically had to take opinions from all our coaches, from a lot of students, parents, community members and try to formulate what we thought was the best decision for the school.

"If you talk to one coach they may have a totally different opinion than another coach about this. But what we looked for in those conversations is what is best for the student-athlete. And I think that's what we kept coming back to."

Coaches reaction

Several Tri-Cities coaches spoke enthusiastically about the DuKane Conference, including St. Charles East girls volleyball coach Jennie Kull.

"I am very excited about the new conference, because the volleyball teams are very competitive," Kull said. "Some of the (Upstate Eight) teams we have played were not able to have all levels. I think these schools will fund their programs and will have all levels. It is good for volleyball."

Like the Saints volleyball program, St. Charles North's baseball squad has had plenty of success in the Upstate Eight, most recently winning the title last year on its way to advancing to the Class 4A state tournament for the first time.

Their coach, Todd Genke, said the new conference will help all the North Star programs.

"I personally think the new conference will be a great opportunity for us to grow as an athletic department at St. Charles North," Genke said. "Any time we can improve the level of competition against quality schools, programs and coaches, I believe it's a huge boost for us as well."

Rogers said Geneva's athletic director Dave Carli consulted with the Vikings coaches throughout the process.

"We had a lot of support for the move," Rogers said. "We made sure we had buy-in."

Others are taking a wait-and-see approach.

"I think that the best way I can describe it is saying that I have some mixed emotions," Batavia girls basketball and sophomore football coach Kevin Jensen said. "I am very excited for some of the matchups in any sport. I have built some relationships with coaches in the new conference, and I think it will be fun to compete against them. However, until we see it all of the logistics, I still have some concerns as well."

Jensen's counterpart at Geneva is hoping for stability.

"I am excited about the new conference," Vikings girls basketball coach and assistant athletic director Sarah Meadows said. "It will good competition for us. I have a lot of respect for the coaches (on the basketball side) who we will be joining. I would just like to see this conference stay together for awhile. I feel like since I have been at Geneva our conference has changed so many times."

It remains to be seen how the move will work for the four Tri-Cities football programs. Batavia, St. Charles East and St. Charles North all reached the playoffs this year. Geneva didn't, but the Vikings have 11 of the last 13 years.

Maintaining that type of success figures to be a greater challenge in the new conference for all four programs.

"I think it's going to be a weekly grind in football," Rogers said. "I've had people say to me it must be all about football. This decision for Geneva was absolutely not about football. I think it's going to be a tough conference in football. If it was all about that, I don't know if we would do this. Instead we had to look at the big picture. and if you are looking at the big picture, then you say this is the right move for our kids."

"It is an exciting time because this DuKane Conference from end to end, I don't know if competitive is the right word, but it's the only word I can come up with at this time," Andrews said. "Even the long-standing DVC had a pretty diverse competition wise team structure. There is nobody in this league that won't bring something to the table and I find that pretty exciting as an athletic director."

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