Vernon Hills will be part of the Central Suburban League beginning with the 2016-2017 sports season,
The Cougars were officially invited to join the league and accepted the invitation this week, according to multiple sources. Vernon Hills will be leaving the North Suburban Conference, where it has held membership since varsity sports started at the school in the fall of 2000.
The move gives the Central Suburban League 12 teams for the 2016-2017 season and leaves the North Suburban Conference with eight schools.
The North Suburban had been a 14-school, two-division league, but six of the schools are leaving after next school year to form a new eight-team league along with Grayslake Central and Grayslake North.
That left the NSC with eight teams, of which Vernon Hills, with an IHSA-listed enrollment of 1,316, was the smallest.
Though the moves were done independently, the effect of the moves is that the Central Suburban League and the North Suburban Conference swapped Waukegan and Vernon Hills.
Waukegan (enrollment of 4,402) will be in the NSC with Warren, Stevenson, Libertyville, Mundelein, Lake Forest, Zion-Benton and Lake Zurich.
The CSL has two six-team divisions based on enrollment, and Waukegan currently is in the CSL South Division for big schools. Vernon Hills will be the smallest of the 12 schools in the CSL, so it should wind up in the North (small school) Division. That will require one of the current North Division teams — Niles North (2,156), Maine West (2,055), Maine East (1,837), Glenbrook North (2,073), Highland Park (2,052) or Deerfield (1,642) — to shift to the South Division and play with Evanston, Maine South, New Trier, Glenbrook South and Niles West.
For next year, Vernon Hills will remain in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division and Waukegan will be in the Central Suburban League.
Girls basketball
Martin Pazanin has been named varsity girls basketball coach at Mundelein, replacing Brian Evans, who resigned at the end of this past season after being part of the Mustang program since 1998.
This past season, Pazanin was the girls basketball coach at Illinois Valley Central in Chillicothe, and the team finished slightly below .500. He will teach special education at Mundelein.
Pazanin is a 2005 graduate of Antioch and has a bachelor’s degree in special education from Bradley University. At Antioch, Pazanin played varsity basketball for then-coach Tom Duffy.
Pazanin also coached girls basketball for two seasons at Champaign Central. In two years there, his teams were 31-23.
In addition, Pazanin serves as 15-under head coach for the Illinois Pizazz AAU girls basketball program. “We have played in highly competitive tournaments throughout the Midwest, including multiple tournaments in Chicago,” Pazanin said. “I have also helped develop the players to become very successful for their high school teams.”
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“Martin brings great experience to the table as our new head girls varsity basketball coach,” Mundelein athletic director Perry Wilhelm said. “We’re looking forward to Martin continuing our winning records in the girls basketball program.”
Boys lacrosse
Warren will play Maine South at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Naperville Central in the finals of the Class B postseason boys lacrosse tournament.
Last year, Warren lost in the finals to Naperville Central.
So far, this tourney, Warren has beaten South Elgin 19-2, Downers Grove 11-2, Grayslake Central 12-4, and Geneva 12-5.
In the state tournament for Class A teams, New Trier and Glenbrook North are the finalists. New Trier beat Lake Forest 17-9 in the semifinals.