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Find your niche: IHSA leads the nation with state tournaments in 42 different activities

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Find your niche: IHSA leads the nation with state tournaments in 42 different activities

Byron and Lena-Winslow played in the IHSA Class 3A and Class 1A state football finals last fall.

Of course they did. They are Rockford’s two greatest sports dynasties, with Byron smashing every record for state dominance this year — outscoring teams 823-94 — and Le-Win taking six of the last dozen 1A state titles before slipping to second last year.

But both schools are much more than that. Every school is much more than that. Because the IHSA is so much more than that.

The IHSA is known for its sports championships, especially basketball. Delaware calls itself The First State because its 30 delegates were the first to unanimously ratify the U.S. Constitution. But Illinois is the first state for high school sports.

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The Illinois High School Association first held a basketball tournament in 1908, decades before most states and before any state held any high school state tournament in any sport other than track. In 1939, the IHSA state tourney was first called “March Madness,” 43 years before the NCAA began co-opting the phrase. Two years before “Hoosiers,” when upstart Milan (161 students) beat a school 10 times larger to win the one-class Indiana state tournament, even smaller Alden-Hebron (98 students) did the same thing in Illinois, a state with twice as many high schools as Indiana. Illinois also featured a Rockford West team winning state in 1955 by scoring an unheard-of six points in one second.

But it’s not history that makes Illinois special. It’s variety. The IHSA sponsors 42 state-wide competitions, the most of any state. This ranges from the traditional baseball, football, basketball, soccer type sports to untraditional sports such as girls wrestling and wheelchair basketball to things considered sports by some people but labeled “activities” by the IHSA such as bass fishing, Esports and chess to competitions everyone would classify as activities, not sports, such as speech, drama, music, journalism and scholastic bowl.

“It’s cool and it shows the dedication of the Illinois High School Association and it shows they want as many kids as possible to participate and become not only better speakers, better athletes, better performers but also better people,” said Tim Connors, who has won two state titles and 19 regional championships in his 32 years as Freeport’s speech coach.

“That,” HSA executive director Craig Anderson said, “is one of the things that we are very, very proud of, that our schools have supported this effort to be an activities association and broadly expand upon the interests of students and showcase their talents.

“I get to attend nearly all of our state finals. To see the high level of achievement in activities as well as sports is one of my fondest opportunities. It means so much to be inclusive and invite students who may not have athletic talent but have practiced and achieved in other activities where they can showcase their talents.”

And the IHSA keeps expanding. Boys volleyball is only nine years old in the NIC-10, although the IHSA adopted it in 1997. Last year Boylan became the first Rockford school to add boys lacrosse, an IHSA sport only since 2018. In other newer sports, Rockford has been at the forefront. Freeport and Hononegah have had some of the state’s greatest girls wrestlers, a sport the IHSA adopted in 2022. And most of the NIC-10 will field girls flag football teams when that sport becomes the 42nd IHSA activity this fall.

“I am excited they added flag football,” said Aaliyh Martin, a junior track star at Freeport who also plays basketball. “It’s a new experience. And I know a lot of girls who enjoy playing it, too.”

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Martin was named honorable-mention all-state last year when she played in the Northern Illinois Girls Flag Football League. Now she will compete in the NIC-10 under the auspices of the IHSA. Last year, many of the NIC-10 schools played some of their flag football games just before the boys varsity football games.

“It was so refreshing to see these girls do something they probably always wanted to do but couldn’t because it was seen as a male thing,” said Tim Krzeminski, an all-conference soccer player for Freeport last year. “It was so much fun.”

Krzeminski won’t play soccer in college at Alabama this year. But he will be on the speech team. He was a two-time regional champion in the original oratory at Freeport.

“Speech helped me so much,” Krzeminski said. “It helps you discover what you want to do. Ultimately, it helped me decide to major in International Relations in college.”

The IHSA considers sports to be co-curricular, not extra-curricular, as a vital part of the overall learning experience. Numerous studies have shown that high school athletes go to greater success than those who did not play sports in high school. That difference is even greater for IHSA “activities” such as speech, chess and journalism.

“The grade-point average for kids once they start to play chess goes up half a grade level in every class,” said Ed Schradermeier, who coached Freeport to the NIC-10 boys tennis title this year and also coaches Freeport’s middle school chess team. “They have done extensive studies on that.”

Freeport’s high school chess team often takes away from its tennis team.

“We conflict on weekends for their tournaments and our tournaments,”  Schradermeier said. “It gets a little dicey at times to keep a full team together.”

That’s a small price to pay to give high school students the most chances and choices possible to find their niche.

“We’re so fortunate in Illinois to have talented students who are able to expand on their experiences and secure college scholarships, even in Esports now,” the IHSA’s Anderson said. “We’re proud of the broad scope we are able to offer.”

“It’s amazing,” Krzeminski said, “having the opportunity to pick what you want to do and have all these different opportunities.”

Pearl City junior Kip Martens takes advantage of four of those IHSA activities, competing in baseball, basketball, golf and bass fishing as well as playing saxophone in the school band.

“I love it,” Martens said. “It gives me a lot of different opportunities. I am passionate about new experiences.”

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