While lawyers and school officials were battling it out in the courtroom, Patrick Cebrzynski and his St. Francis teammates were battling the sand traps and water hazards at Naperbrook Golf Course in Naperville.
Monday was opening day for the IHSA golf regionals and Cebrzynski found conditions tougher than usual.
That’s because St. Francis is among a group of non-boundaried schools bumped up to Class AA by the enrollment multiplier adopted by the association.
“I know we wanted to play in A,” the senior said. “We like the competition in double A, but it’s an honor to go Downstate. We know if we were in single A we’d have a better chance.”
After Monday’s regional, St. Francis now has no chance. The Spartans missed qualifying for next week’s Class AA sectionals by one stroke.
Addison Trail’s Nick Rigitano was the medalist with a 73 and St. Francis senior Connor Dawson shot a 76 to advance to sectionals as an individual. But it’s likely the entire team still would be alive if it were in Class A.
St. Francis coach Brian King blamed, in part, the court fight and indecision that took place last week.
A group of 37 private schools, which included St. Francis, sued the IHSA over its multiplier.
An agreement was anticipated Thursday, then Friday.
After producing what a judge called “the outline of a brilliant agreement” on Friday, the IHSA and the non-boundary schools suing it left court Monday with no solution and yet another court date.
Following about an hour of negotiations in chambers, Judge Julia Nowicki said she believed the parties were “negotiating in extremely good faith.”
But no agreement was forthcoming, and the parties will reconvene Wednesday at 10 a.m. to either announce a solution or continue negotiations.
Whatever agreement seemed near Friday, involving referendums and voting on the multiplier issue, was apparently off the table by Saturday.
The IHSA was set to multiply the enrollments of non-boundary schools with enrollments of 450 or more by 1.65 for slotting in the state tournaments, but 32 private schools filed suit aiming to halt the process.
Five more schools later were added to the suit.
Meanwhile, the boys golf regionals began Monday using the multiplier, though both parties agreed it will not set precedent relating to the lawsuit.
“We, meaning the private schools, felt that we did not want to inconvenience all the schools in the state and are mindful of the effort that goes into such tournaments,” said Peter Rush, an attorney representing the plaintiff schools.
Cebrzynski, Dawson and their teammates finally learned on Sunday that they’d have to compete in the Class AA regional at Naperbrook.
More Top Picks Best Japanese Siphon Coffee Makers
A practice round was quickly organized at the course so Dawson and his teammates would be ready for the competition that included such heavyweights as Neuqua Valley, Naperville Central, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South.
Despite the school’s size–St. Francis has an enrollment of 731 (1,207 with the 1.65 multiplier)–the Spartans were in the picture near the end.
Their score of 321 was good enough to tie Naperville Central, but not good enough to get past Lemont, Neuqua Valley, Glenbard South and Wheaton North, which took the last qualifying spot at 320.
“This was tough to take,” King said. “I think our kids were as capable as any team.”
Dawson, who ranks second in his class and plans to attend Illinois, Michigan, Vanderbilt or Yale, seemed unfazed by whatever was going on in the courts.
“It doesn’t bother me any,” said Dawson while waiting for the rest of the scores to come in. “I like going up against the better competition.”
But he proved prophetic with his next observation: “It’s tougher, definitely, for my team.”
———-