Per SWC in a special meeting. this is the last year they will allow ESL to petition up in football. After this year they will be borderline 5A or 6A
A couple of weeks ago, the East St. Louis administration found out during a special meeting of conference affiliates that the Flyers will no longer be able to petition the Illinois High School Association to play in the Class 7A playoffs, beginning next year. East Side is a Class 6A school by enrollment (and sometimes Class 5A), but it has been able to play in the Class 7A playoffs with bigger schools by petitioning the state.
The strange thing here is that neither Southwestern Conference commissioner Bill Schmidt, nor SWC president David Snyder will make a public comment as to why East Side won’t be allowed to do this, despite the fact that the IHSA has been allowing the Flyers to do so for years.
I smell a rat here. The conference allows Granite City to leave on what we now know was a lie, and for Collinsville to leave the conference next year in football only. But they want to punish the black students at East St. Louis.
East St. Louis is a charter member of the Southwestern Conference and it has always represented the conference very well and has been invited to participate in numerous state sanctioned events throughout the country for more than 50 years. But the more I think about this, it smells even worse because league Commissioner Bill Smith is the former Athletic Director at Belleville West as well as its former basketball coach.
And guess who usually ends Belleville West’s football season in the Class 7A playoffs every year?
You guessed right. East St. Louis!
I will have much more to talk about in the future, regarding this situation
A couple of weeks ago, the East St. Louis administration found out during a special meeting of conference affiliates that the Flyers will no longer be able to petition the Illinois High School Association to play in the Class 7A playoffs, beginning next year. East Side is a Class 6A school by enrollment (and sometimes Class 5A), but it has been able to play in the Class 7A playoffs with bigger schools by petitioning the state.
The strange thing here is that neither Southwestern Conference commissioner Bill Schmidt, nor SWC president David Snyder will make a public comment as to why East Side won’t be allowed to do this, despite the fact that the IHSA has been allowing the Flyers to do so for years.
I smell a rat here. The conference allows Granite City to leave on what we now know was a lie, and for Collinsville to leave the conference next year in football only. But they want to punish the black students at East St. Louis.
East St. Louis is a charter member of the Southwestern Conference and it has always represented the conference very well and has been invited to participate in numerous state sanctioned events throughout the country for more than 50 years. But the more I think about this, it smells even worse because league Commissioner Bill Smith is the former Athletic Director at Belleville West as well as its former basketball coach.
And guess who usually ends Belleville West’s football season in the Class 7A playoffs every year?
You guessed right. East St. Louis!
I will have much more to talk about in the future, regarding this situation
