The Herald Cup returns to honor the area’s top athletic programs

The Herald Cup is back.

Created by our sports department, and still in its infancy, it debuted last school year as a way to honor athletic excellence among the 80-plus high schools in the Daily Herald coverage area.

As we noted the first year, the Herald Cup is reminiscent of the Paddock Cup, the brainchild of our legendary former sports editor, Bob Frisk, to recognize the top overall sports programs in the Mid-Suburban League.

The Herald Cup takes the tribute a step beyond, and not just by expanding to include our entire coverage area. Instead of looking at conference finishes, the Herald Cup analyzes state tournament performances for all our schools.

We developed a points system to reward schools for top-10 team finishes in individual sports. There’s a separate points system for “team” sports like basketball, soccer, volleyball, etc.

We weigh football a little more because it’s king of the school year. We award fewer points to single-class sports such as lacrosse, swimming and bowling because many of our schools don’t compete in them.

With all the points tabulated through the fall, winter and spring, we rank the schools and separate them into divisions of large and small schools based on enrollment. Because of the abundance of larger schools in our area, the dividing line roughly groups the small schools from football’s Class 6A classification on down. We do not place an enrollment multiplier on the private schools.

Starting Monday, we’ll begin unveiling the 2024-25 Herald Cup honorees by counting down the top five small schools from the Daily Herald coverage area — one school each day with analysis on why they finished where they did. The following week we’ll detail the top large schools with a similar countdown.

We tweaked the point allocation system this year with the realization it’s still not perfect. However, we feel the Herald Cup does a nice job recognizing the athletic programs that showed balance throughout the entire school year. A state title is a big boost to the point total, but that eighth-place finish in golf adds a jolt, too.

We’ll continue to tweak, trying to hone in as close to perfection as we can get. We’re only two school years into the Herald Cup, but we hope to make this a tradition.

One thing about the Daily Herald is we endure, especially with our prep sports coverage. Remember that Bob Frisk, who died in 2020 at 83, covered our high schools for 50 years before retiring in 2008.

Our continual goal is to maintain the legacy of being the top source for suburban prep sports coverage (although my 35 years writing for the Daily Herald is a blip on the calendar compared to Bob).

Between the Herald Cup, our All-Area teams and so much more, we’re giving it our best shot.