30 teams end the regular season in IL undefeated

Paul Katula

13 years ago

We congratulate the 30 Illinois varsity football teams that finished the regular season undefeated, 9-0. They are listed below, sorted by the combined wins of all their opponents, which is the first statistic, after the number of wins, that the Illinois High School Association uses to place them in playoff brackets.

(5A) Montini in Lombard, Coached by Chris Andriano, 54
(5A) Sycamore in Sycamore, Coached by Joe Ryan, 51
(5A) Sacred Heart-Griffin in Springfield, Coached by Ken Leonard, 40†
(8A) Bolingbrook in Bolingbrook, Coached by John Ivlow, 40
(1A) Tri-Valley in Downs, Coached by Josh Roop, 39
(2A) Rockridge in Taylor Ridge, Coached by Sam Graves, 37
(2A) Cerro Gordo-Bement Coop in Cerro Gordo, Coached by Andy Kerley, 37
(5A) Washington in Washington, Coached by Darrell Crouch, 37
(4A) Evergreen Park in Evergreen Park, Coached by Dan Hartman, 37
(1A) Maroa-Forsyth in Maroa, Coached by Josh Jostes, 36
(1A) Marquette in Ottawa, Coached by Tom Jobst, 36
(3A) Williamsville in Williamsville, Coached by Aaron Kunz, 36
(7A) Whitney Young in Chicago, Coached by Tim Franken, 36
(7A) Edwardsville in Edwardsville, Coached by Matt Martin, 36
(3A) Greenville in Greenville, Coached by Todd Hutchinson, 36
(3A) Winnebago in Winnebago, Coached by Mark Helm, 36
(6A) Boylan Catholic in Rockford, Coached by John Cacciatore, 36
(2A) Eastland-Pearl City Coop in Pearl City, Coached by Randy Asche, 35
(2A) Clifton Central in Clifton, Coached by Brian Spooner, 35
(4A) Columbia in Columbia, Coached by Scott Horner, 35
(5A) University H.S. in Normal, Coached by Dusty Burk, 34
(1A) Central-Southeastern Coop in Camp Point, Coached by Brad Dixon, 34
(2A) Bismarck-Henning in Bismarck, Coached by Mark Dodd, 34
(1A) Stockton in Stockton, Coached by Chris Thornton, 33
(5A) Highland in Highland, Coached by Jim Warnecke Jr, 32
(1A) Casey-Westfield in Casey, Coached by Jim Sullivan, 32
(3A) Carterville in Carterville, Coached by Dennis Drust, 31
(–‡) Douglass in Chicago, Coached by James Marable, 28
(4A) Harvard in Harvard, Coached by Tim Haak, 27
(5A) Glenbard South in Glen Ellyn, Coached by Jeremy Cordell, 26

† Sacred Heart-Griffin lost the game on Sept 6 to Rochester (now 8-1), 33-38, but the game was reversed by the IHSA because Rochester reported that it had violated an IHSA by-law.

‡ Although undefeated, Douglass High School competes in the Chicago Public, Inter-City 1 Conference. Teams in this conference are not eligible for the IHSA football playoffs.

The number of undefeated teams in the last four seasons in Illinois has been 28 (2012), 24 (2011), 30 (2010), and 24 (2009).

The IHSA announced during the pairings show that there are several remarkable qualities of the undefeated teams. For example, Evergreen Park, Glenbard South, and Winnebago went undefeated for the first time ever this year. Other teams haven’t made the list of undefeated teams for some time: Montini last went undefeated in 2008, Edwardsville in 2005, Highland in 1989, about six years before any player on the field was born, and Harvard in 1988. Sycamore went 9-0 this year for the first time since 1978.

The 29 undefeated teams in the playoffs break out this way: