Lake Park
- Thread starter MustangFB
- Start date
LP coach, what's the nature of your disappointment? Is it how long the process is taking? Rumors of a possible hire that you're not happy with? I've got a kid in the district and I'm curious where things are headed.
Yes, when I started at LP they were members of the Tri-County. I didn't coach my first few years, but joined Bob Monken's staff later. We were members of the O'Hare Suburban, then Independent for two years before landing in the Upstate Eight.
First, I have heard no rumors about any hires or even who the candidates might be although I know a little about who is not being interviewed. I'll reserve judgement on the new coach until one is named.
Second, the process seems inordinately long so I worry about the players and preparing for the upcoming season.
Mostly, I am frustrated by the way the present Board/Administration treats people. I have known Chris Roll since I coached him when he was a Sophomore. Enough said.
Wherever things are headed, it will be without me. Even though my recent involvement, after 40 years of coaching, has been peripheral, I can't imagine any future that includes supporting the Lancers even as a casual fan.
I feel bad for you DB. Clearly, you've put a lot into the program and have been heavily invested. I wish I was so lucky in high school. I had 3 varsity coaches over 3 years. Lets hope LP gets the kind of coach you're looking for and the kids need. Now I'm on the other end as a parent and it's very important who steps into that position of influence working with student athletes. Like many here have probably seen, in any sport, a coach can make or break an entire program. Further it's disappointing to see when the privilege of coaching occurs only when the clock is running. Here's hoping they get it right at LP and you can enjoy being a fan.
O’Hare Suburban that barely lasted and had 4 teams briefly 5.They had to play a few teams twice.
The last school year for the Tri-County was 1974-75. It's possible that Lake Park, Fenton, Elmwood Park, and Ridgewood could have stayed with the other four teams for the last year, but they chose not to. So the remaining four teams (Glenbard North, Glenbard South, Wheaton North, and Wheaton-Warrenville) played each other twice in football in 1974 so they would have enough conference games to qualify their champion for the new playoffs. The next year, Naperville Central, Naperville North, West Chicago, and Wheaton Central joined them in the new DuPage Valley Conference.
Lake Park seems to have had a pretty troubled conference history. It seems that they have always really wanted to be in the Mid-Suburban Conference, but if they've been invited, I've never seen evidence of it. For most of the time they were in the Upstate Eight, they were looking for a way out. They were accepted to the DVC on their third application, then the DVC became a 9 team conference with the addition of the D204 schools. Let's hope the DuKane Conference works out for them.
Were the enrollments of the 4 Ohare Suburbans much closer to equal in the mid-70s? I'm thinking EP, Ridgewood and Fenton were higher than today and was Roselle and Itasca more "greenfield"/less built out?
Ridgewood was, at its peak, which would have been about at this time, twice the size that it is now. This would have also been about the time that Lake Park opened its west campus. Not sure Fenton has varied that much in enrollment over the years. Lake Park and Fenton used to have a traveling trophy; not sure what might have happened to it when they no longer played every year. As six of the other members of the DuKane are pretty much matched against each other by geography, let's hope Lake Park and Glenbard North can develop that kind of rivalry.
The Milwaukee Bell, the travelling trophy you mention, resides at LP's East Campus since Lake Park won the trophy in the last year of competition. Maintaining the rivalry became difficult after we joined the Upstate 8 and Fenton joined their new conference (North Suburban?).
Lake Park's conference history wasn't exactly troubled. We were in the Upstate 8 for about 30 years.
The Tri-County disbanded because of the formation of the DVC. Lake Park refused to join the DVC because Fenton was not included when the conference was being formed. As was pointed out, we had a strong rivalry/relationship with Fenton.
The O'Hare Suburban was short lived for lots of reasons but Lake Park's burgeoning population was part of the issue. We actually spent two years as an Independent. During that time, we played the game in our history farthest from home: Ottumwa, IA. After those two years, we joined the Upstate 8.
When Wheaton-Warrenville closed, LP applied for membership in the DVC. The conference chose West Aurora over us. [Some of us were baffled since WA is in Kane County. We teased that we were not chosen because there was an unspoken DVC requirement to have a direction (N,S,E or W) in your school's name]. We then settled in to a pretty successful time in the Upstate 8.
The Tri-County disbanded because of the formation of the DVC. Lake Park refused to join the DVC because Fenton was not included when the conference was being formed. As was pointed out, we had a strong rivalry/relationship with Fenton.
The O'Hare Suburban was short lived for lots of reasons but Lake Park's burgeoning population was part of the issue. We actually spent two years as an Independent. During that time, we played the game in our history farthest from home: Ottumwa, IA. After those two years, we joined the Upstate 8.
When Wheaton-Warrenville closed, LP applied for membership in the DVC. The conference chose West Aurora over us. [Some of us were baffled since WA is in Kane County. We teased that we were not chosen because there was an unspoken DVC requirement to have a direction (N,S,E or W) in your school's name]. We then settled in to a pretty successful time in the Upstate 8.
Regarding the Mid-Suburban: Lake Park was discussed early on but our loyalty to Fenton seemed to get in the way. Some of us were leery about the Mid-Suburban since we would be the only DuPage County school and a lone District easily out-voted by 211 and 214 schools. We generally had a good relationship with the schools in that conference and often played non-conference contests against them (and still do in many sports).