DuPage Valley Conference football is back, renewing rivalries. ‘That’s a good thing.’ But challenges remain

Football teams from the DuPage Valley Conference are back together following the dissolution of a two-year merger with the SouthWest Suburban Conference.

That setup had combined the six teams from the DVC with the nine from the SWSC, and those were divided into three five-team divisions for the first season in the new Southwest Valley Conference. For the second season, the conference was realigned into two divisions.

Few people were satisfied.

“I like the DVC that’s current,” Neuqua Valley coach Bill Ellinghaus said. “The Napervilles always play each other. That’s a good thing for us.

“I didn’t like the three divisions before, where you’re not playing your sister school and you’re not playing the Naperville schools.”

Naperville teams were often placed in different divisions and didn’t always play each other. Instead, they played unfamiliar teams, often on the road.

“The merger was great for scheduling, but we had three games that were an hour away,” Ellinghaus said. “No fans go there, there is no rivalry, there’s no nothing. It’s just a game. It wasn’t well-attended by our community and our own fans.”

With the return of DVC football, Naperville North, Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley will once again play each other, refueling rivalries and, they hope, fan interest.

“That’s a very good thing,” Naperville Central coach Mike Ulreich said. “We get to play Naperville North, Neuqua and Waubonsie every year, which is great. We’re excited about that.”

One of the driving factors for the merger was scheduling, which was difficult for athletic directors because every team was trying to secure the five wins necessary to qualify for the playoffs.

Beginning this season, the Illinois High School Association is expanding the playoff field from 256 teams to 384 teams, meaning fewer wins will be needed to qualify.

That eliminates one problem but doesn’t solve another for the DVC. With just six teams, the DVC must schedule four nonconference games, which often means traveling long distances, sometimes out of state, to find opponents.

“The fact that we’re at six teams is not great,” Ellinghaus said. “We’ve got to get to eight.

“We’re open to different scenarios, but the bottom line is we don’t have anybody right now, and I don’t think we have anybody that’s hot under the collar for wanting to get out of their other conference.”

Five DVC teams will play Mid-Suburban League opponents in Week 3. Naperville Central will travel to Mount Prospect to play Prospect, Naperville North will go to Barrington, Neuqua Valley will host Hersey, Waubonsie Valley will head to Palatine and Metea Valley also will go to Palatine to play Fremd.

But in Week 7, Neuqua Valley will travel to Normal Community, and Naperville Central will travel to St. Louis to play Missouri power Cardinal Ritter.

Ulreich actually doesn’t mind such trips. The Redhawks have done it before under Ulreich and predecessors Joe Bunge and Mike Stine.

“Since Joe Bunge and maybe before that, we’ve always taken pride in trying to schedule the toughest competition we can,” Ulreich said. “In the late 1990s, coach Bunge was willing to go to Ohio and play Massillon. With coach Stine, we played some of the best teams from Ohio and Kentucky.

“My first year we went and played Detroit Central Catholic. It’s a fun experience for our kids. We’re really looking forward to it.”

Naperville North, which went 6-4 and was the only DVC team to win more than three games last season, doesn’t have to travel out of the Chicago area this season but finishes the regular season by hosting national power East St. Louis. The Huskies will go to Winnetka to play New Trier in the opener on Aug. 21.

“When you’re a six-team league, you’ve got to find four nonconference games, and those get hard to find when it’s Week 3 and Week 9,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “We added two extremely good teams, perennial powers, to play in those games.

“But we’ll deal with those games when we get to them. The big thing right now is you’ve got to focus on the game at hand, and for us that’s getting ready for New Trier.”

The DVC formed in 1975 with eight schools. Naperville North and Naperville Central are the only remaining charter members. Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley joined in 2015, followed by DeKalb in 2019. Efforts to grow have yet to bear fruit.

“I’m sure our ADs and our principals and our coaches have tried to game up scenarios millions of times,” Ulreich said. “Unfortunately, nothing has presented itself yet that we can get anybody to move on.”

While conference alignments and schedules may change, one thing stays the same.

“Our goals haven’t changed much,” Drendel said. “We want to compete for a conference championship and play in the playoffs.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.