Coaches excited for new Heart of Central Illinois Conference

With teams switching conferences, programs not fielding varsity teams and schools moving to eight-man football, there’s a lot of instability in conferences and uncertainty in scheduling for small schools in Illinois.

That led to a merger between two top-notch small-school conferences as the Heart of Illinois Conference and Central Illinois Conference have joined to form the Heart of Central Illinois Conference, which debuts this fall.

“As a small 1A program, we love it,” LeRoy coach BJ Zeleznik said. “It brings stability for scheduling. It is getting more difficult each year for 11-man 1A teams when schools are dropping programs or going eight-man.”

The large division features Clinton, Ridgeview-Lexington, Tri-Valley, El Paso-Gridley, Eureka, Deer Creek-Mackinaw, Shelbyville and Tremont.

The small division includes Fieldcrest, Fisher, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, Heyworth, LeRoy, Meridian, Central A&M, Tuscola and Warrensburg-Latham.

“The addition of CIC teams means that we will be facing teams closer to our enrollment,” first-year Fisher coach Jeff Palmer said. “We are one of the five smallest schools playing 11 man in the state, but those teams are traditionally very competitive and well coached, so it will continue to be challenging for us to find the five wins necessary to be eligible for the playoffs.”

Of the 17 teams in the conference, 10 made the playoffs last season.

“I think the CIC was a strong conference, and the HOIC has been strong forever,” said first-year Heyworth coach Scott Godfrey, who was the coach at Warrensburg-Latham from 2013-17. “So putting those two together, I think it creates one of the top 1A/2A conferences in the state.”

Not only did teams from the CIC and HOIC regularly qualify for the postseason, but they made deep runs.

In the last 10 seasons with playoffs, teams from the two conferences have won four state titles (Gibson City in 2017 and 2018, Deer Creek-Mackinaw in 2016, Tri-Valley in 2015) and four runners-up (Tri-Valley in 2022 and 2013, Central A&M in 2019, Tuscola in 2017).

“It’s a tough league,” Central A&M coach Brent Weakly said. “The idea was that someone from the league was competing to make it to ISU [for the state title game] every year. I think that it could happen year in and year out.”

Fieldcrest coach Nick Meyer said the new league will help teams be battle-tested for the postseason.

“It is different, for sure,” Meyer said. “We won’t play teams we’ve been playing every year since the Mid-State Conference, but we’re very excited. We’re the furthest north team in the conference, so our travel distance has increased, but to play good 1A/2A football teams, that is expected. Adding these talented/well-coached programs from the CIC to an already loaded HOIC just makes your Weeks 1 to 9 even more competitive. If you can get five to six wins in this HOCIC, you should be a team that performs well in the postseason.”

Gibson City’s Chad Augspurger likes the opportunity to play new teams while still having familiar foes on the schedule.

“It’s very exciting to be able to play some new schools that have a lot of football tradition while still being able to play some of our traditional rivals,” he said.