It will be hard to top the opening week of conference play
It just doesn't feel right.
The start of the conference football season is always exciting, and this season's no exception as the Week 3 league openers prepare to kick off.
Hinsdale Central travels to Glenbard West in a battle between state powers and West Suburban Silver favorites. Naperville North is at Glenbard North in an early DuPage Valley Conference duel. Waubonsie Valley and Bartlett, Glenbard South and Batavia ... the list of this weekend's key conference showdowns goes on and on.
There's no shortage of great conference games throughout the area, at least for now. With the schedule so front-loaded, though, what's left for the end of the season?
It's quite different from a year ago when three of the state's premier conferences saved the best for last. In Week 9 Naperville North played Wheaton Warrenville South for the DVC title while Glenbard West and Hinsdale Central did the same in the Silver. Rivals Montini and Driscoll, which closed in June, played for a share of the Suburban Catholic crown.
Things have changed, and not necessarily for the better.
Defending Silver champion Glenbard West and Hinsdale Central meet Saturday afternoon at Glen Ellyn's Duchon Field in a game that could wind up deciding the conference champion with five league games still to play.
"It's a little odd," said Glenbard West coach Chad Hetlet. "But who's to say we're the top teams anyway? There are still a lot of games to be played after Saturday."
That's true, which is what made the end of the regular season so special last year. Now it's all speculation and a waiting game until six weeks of scoreboard watching determines the champion.
Schedule rotation also moved the WW South-Naperville North game earlier to Week 5. Driscoll and Montini, meanwhile, is a much sadder story with the epic rivalry coming to an end.
Beyond schedule rotations, conference change in general is in the air in every corner of DuPage County. Driscoll's closing coincided with the partial merging of the Private School League and Suburban Catholic Conference. The newly formed Suburban Christian Conference enters its first dose of competition this weekend.
Next year the Upstate Eight Conference will expand from 11 to 14 schools as Batavia and Geneva move from the Western Sun and Metea Valley begins varsity play.
That also means the Western Sun is in its final go-round this season. Seven of the eight schools found new homes, but that leaves Glenbard South twisting in the wind looking for new conference partners.
Will the Raiders be with the four schools of the Metro Suburban Conference? Fenton and the others would love to have Glenbard South as the MSC also welcomes Timothy Christian and Illiana Christian in the non-football sports.
It's a trickle-down effect that may not dry up any time soon. Glenbard South's situation could spur the smaller schools of the DVC, West Suburban Conference and others to join the Raiders in a new league.
During a time of flux like this, nearly anything is possible. As exciting as the changes might seem, though, the stability of the past had its benefits.
You get spoiled by the comfort of the traditional conference groupings, just as you get spoiled by all those Week 9 thrillers.
For now we'll enjoy these phenomenal early games and hope something even better awaits down the road.
Regardless of the matchups this weekend, the best still may be yet to come.
kschmit@dailyherald.com