:quality(70):focal(1097x484:1107x494)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/2VAT2QRJ4BEHZMUBTAFR7TDBD4.jpg)
Sandwich High School, a member of the Interstate 8 Conference since 1985, is leaving the league to join the Kishwaukee River Conference beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
Sandwich Athletic Director Tim Gipe confirmed the move in an email Thursday.
Sandwich’s enrollment is listed as 623 students on the IHSA website, but Gipe said the actual figures have been dropping and are now at 550 students. It makes Sandwich the smallest school in the Interstate 8 as currently constituted, and significantly smaller than several of the schools. Sandwich would still be near the bottom of enrollment size in a seven-school KRC league that includes Woodstock, Woodstock North, Harvard, Marengo, Richmond-Burton and Johnsburg.
But the schools are much more comparable in size to Sandwich, with Woodstock the largest school at 1,003 students according to the IHSA website.
“We’re in a bad spot with our size; we’re decreasing numbers,” Gipe said. “This is not necessarily ideal, but it gives our kids a good opportunity with good quality schools. We’re not dropping quality at all. The competition is still state level.
“We’ll see what we can do.”
Gipe said the process started back in August, when his school board reached out to him and requested he explore what potentially was out there. Sandwich sent letters to different conferences in the area and expressed an interest to talk. The KRC extended a formal invitation in October, with the idea of a deadline to make the decision by Christmas.
“We’re looking for the best opportunity for Sandwich High School. If Plano comes with us, so be it. If Rochelle comes with us, so be it. Our main focus was to look out for the best opportunity for Sandwich High School and the Sandwich community,” Gipe said.
“It’s been a whirlwind since August, but here we are. We are grateful for the opportunity. It takes a little bit of stress off that we’ll have a home.”
The Interstate 8 and the Kishwaukee River began a football-only partnership this past fall, combining the two conferences into groups divided by enrollment size. Sandwich did not field a varsity football team this past fall, although Gipe said the plan as of now is that the school will resume varsity football in 2023.
Gipe did not indicate whether Sandwich’s move to the KRC for all sports would have an effect on the football agreement between the two leagues. But he did note the agreement was set up such that it would be re-evaluated after two years.
Sandwich’s move is the latest shift for an Interstate 8 Conference that has undergone quite a facelift over the last five years. In 2019, six schools from the now-defunct Northern Illinois Big 12 – Kaneland, La Salle-Peru, Morris, Ottawa, Rochelle and Sycamore – joined the league. That came after Coal City, Herscher, Lisle, Manteno, Peotone, Reed-Custer, Streator and Wilmington left to create the Illinois Central Eight Conference.
Together, those changes made Plano and Sandwich the smallest members of the league, and both have struggled to compete against schools dwarfing them in size.
Plano, the lone remaining charter member of the Interstate 8 going back to 1979, could potentially follow Sandwich’s move to the KRC, although no decision has been made at this point.
Gipe indicated there is still much work to be done ahead of Sandwich beginning competition in the KRC next school year. A schedule has to be put together with officials arranged, it has to be determined what days of the week they will play and whether in a double round-robin format or single rotation. He met with KRC officials Thursday to introduce himself, with another meeting set for January to review those items.
“It was kind of an eye-opener for us with the football situation,” Gipe said. “We wanted to make a decision earlier rather than later, whether or not we have football.”