I’ve listened to Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association board members and Illinois High School Association (IHSA) executives tell me year after year for 16 years that high school boys soccer was on the rise.
On Monday the sport received a reality check.
Next school year, every major high school sport in Illinois — baseball, softball, girls volleyball, football, track and boys and girls basketball — will have its state finals on a college campus or at a professional stadium.
Boys soccer will be at Lincoln-Way North. According to IHSA executive director Marty Hickman, the IHSA did not receive a bid from a non-high school facility.
That’s not good.
North Central College in Naperville said thanks but no thanks to hosting the boys soccer finals again, pointing to conflicts with its football program. But what about all the other college soccer programs in Illinois? No one else wanted to host?
That silence is a strong statement.
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And what about Toyota Park?
“When Toyota Park first opened in 2006, we put in a bid to host and the IHSA gave the state finals back to North Central,” said Dan Garnett, vice president of the Chicago Fire. “We began to put together a bid this time, but then we saw the dates the IHSA wanted to host would conflict with a possible Saturday night playoff game.”
When asked who else placed a bid, Hickman did not respond.
But when asked whether hosting the state finals at a high school was a step back for the IHSA, Hickman said no.
You make the call.