IHSA - Regional/Sectional sites annouced

[jeawagne]

http://www.ihsa.org/activity/ie/2009-10/1site.htm

Seems to be pretty much the same as last year -- and I think assignments will also be similar. Again, three significantly strong and three significantly weak sectionals. Top two are Elk Grove and DGS sectionals (oh surprise, DGS is hosting a sectional.)

[eaglecats]

It will be interesting to see how the Regionals between Wheaton North and Glenbard West are split. I believe they usually end up together. Doesn't really matter come Sectional time I guess.

[TrueBlue92]

It will be interesting to see how the powerhouses who dont go to the DGS sectional do

[bwspeechteam]

http://www.ihsa.org/activity/ie/2009-10/1site.htm

Seems to be pretty much the same as last year -- and I think assignments will also be similar. Again, three significantly strong and three significantly weak sectionals.

........ :-)

[Mikefife]

I'll be interested to see where Wheaton South ends up, because sometimes they are in the DGS sectional and sometimes not. If they are it will be considerably harder (though it was pretty hard to begin with) and it will make the Elk Grove Sectional much more manageable.

I think it's always pretty clear that Warren will end up in the northern most sectional (Elk Grove), but seeing as they lost a head coach and a lot of talent, it might not make that much of an impact on the E.G. Sectional.

Another interesting thing to note is that 2 Naperville schools are hosting a Regional, when usually all Naperville schools are in the same Regional. I think this might be telling us that the IHSA is reevaluating the boundary lines that they previously had, which may mean there are some more surprises to come in Regional/Sectional assignments.

[eaglecats]

I'd like to see some realignment, but I'll believe it when I see it. It seems like lately all the big schools are in 2 Sectionals and then you have DGS by themselves as if they need any help. Hopefully there will be some changes, but I am not holding my breath.

[Mikefife]

I think its a stretch to say that DGS is "by themselves" in that sectional. Hinsdale Central, DGN, and Nequa Valley are more competetive than most of the schools you find at the Reavis sectional...Sandburg. I don't understand why that sectional is hyped up soooo much on here when the results clearly show that Reavis and DGS sectionals are virtually the same in difficulty and Warren is by far the hardest. Could we please take a look at how many of the Reavis sectional teams were in the top five at state? Zero. How about the top ten? one. Hmmm sounds pretty tough.

[bwspeechteam]

I think its a stretch to say that DGS is "by themselves" in that sectional. Hinsdale Central, DGN, and Nequa Valley are more competetive than most of the schools you find at the Reavis sectional...Sandburg. I don't understand why that sectional is hyped up soooo much on here when the results clearly show that Reavis and DGS sectionals are virtually the same in difficulty and Warren is by far the hardest. Could we please take a look at how many of the Reavis sectional teams were in the top five at state? Zero. How about the top ten? one. Hmmm sounds pretty tough.

I have similar questions about three sectionals being "significantly" weaker than the other three, but I realize it's all a matter of perspective. :rolleyes:

[Mikefife]

I can understand why you would have those questions! Belleville West and Charleston had a lot of success last year. While I must admit I believe the 3 sectionals in question are the toughest, it's foolish to completely discredit all the southern IL teams.

[bwspeechteam]

I can understand why you would have those questions! Belleville West and Charleston had a lot of success last year. While I must admit I believe the 3 sectionals in question are the toughest, it's foolish to completely discredit all the southern IL teams.

Absolutely. I do think that the 3 northern sectionals are the toughest from top to bottom, AND if we're talking about which teams in the sectionals have the best chance to win a trophy at state, then I concede that too. I just was having a little "semantic fun" with the term "signifcantly weak." I'm not really upset or offended. :D

Last year I knew that the IHSA advisory committee was going to discuss the way that the regionals are divided because there was so much discussion in the speech community, so after the state tournament I broke down how many state finalists came from each of the 6 sectionals. Unfortunately, I cannot find those numbers anymore...must have deleted them, but to ESTIMATE them, it was something like this...

3 northern sectionals each had 20-24 finalists and 2 or 3 champions. (maybe one had 4?)
southern sectional had about 18 finalists and 2 champions
northwestern sectional had several finalists, including a 2nd or 3rd place finish, but 0 champions
central sectional had just one finalist, and he won impromptu

I wanted to go back several years to see if there are any trends here, but I learned quickly that it would take me quite a while to look at the sectional assignments in the north from year to year to figure out where different schools were assigned. If anyone else wants to break down those numbers for the three northern sectionals, though, I could figure out where schools in the other three are assigned fairly easily because they don't change as often.

We discussed this same topic some time last year or the year before, and again, I'm NOT arguing that any of the southern 3 sectionals are stronger than the northern 3. I just like to remind people that they tend to discount teams that they don't see on a regular basis, much the same way that the national circuit competitors on this site sometimes discount people from Illinois because they never see them all year. And in my four years of attending nationals, Illinois has had finalists every year.

[jeawagne]

I have similar questions about three sectionals being "significantly" weaker than the other three, but I realize it's all a matter of perspective. :rolleyes:

Ah, I did not express my thoughts thoroughly enough -- apologies. I do not intend to discount or slight or underestimate the talent that comes out of the sectionals outside of the Chicago metro area -- making a state final round is making a state final round. There are hugely talented speakers from all over the state, including Belleville West (where I imagine the state tournament in Missouri is sometimes closer than the Illinois state tournament!)

What I am referring to when I say "weaker" is the depth of the sectionals. The 4th-6th place competitors from the sectionals around Chicago often are talented enough to make a state final round, particularly the 4th place students. But because they have to go through a difficult sectional, they get left out.

Essentially, the difference between first through fourth (and/or sixth) places is greater between 2-3 sectionals up 'north' versus the other sectionals. That is why I think the regional/sectional format that the IHSA uses for speech should be overhauled -- we are not a sport where advancing is determined by a scoreboard.

[lom]

After reading bwspeechteam's post, curiosity got the better of me, so I counted the number of teams in the top 10 and the number of state finalists for each of the sectionals. Here are the results by my count:

South St.: 2009 (Benton) T2/F16; 2008 (Lincoln) T0/F9; 2007 (Belleville W) T3/F11; 2006 (Charleston) T2/F16; 2005 (Waterloo) T1/F10

Central St.: 2009 (Normal) T0/F1; 2008 (Stanford) T0/F6; 2007 (Heyworth) T0/F5; 2006 (Lincoln) T0/F5; 2005 (Heyworth) T0/F3

NorthWest St.: 2009 (DeKalb) T0/F5; 2008 (London Mills) T2/F6; 2007 (Pearl City) T0/F6; 2006 (Rock Island) T0/F5; 2005 (Freeport) T1/F12

N Chgo: 2009 (Warren) T4/F23; 2008 (Huntley) T3/F22; 2007 (Warren) T3/F27; 2006 (Fremd) T4/F23; 2005 (Warren) T3/F19

S Chgo: 2009 (Reavis) T1/F23; 2008 (Oak Lawn) T2/F19; 2007 (Thornwood) T3/F18; 2006 (Marian) T2/F27; 2005 (Oak Lawn) T2/F17

DGS: 2009 (DGS) T3/F24; 2008 (DGS) T4/F29; 2007 (DGS) T3/F24; 2006 (DGN) T2/F23; 2005 (DGS) T2/F25

As everyone knows, the sectional assignments are not strictly geographical and change every year. Some schools seem to get moved around a lot (which made this harder than I thought it was going to be!), so I don't know how valid the comparisons are, but I thought it was interesting. An example of things changing is Lincoln. In 2008 it hosted the sectional which included a lot of the southern schools (i.e., the Bellevilles, Charleston, Carbondale), but in 2006 it hosted one that seems to have included mostly schools from the central part of the state (Bloomington, the Normals, the Peorias, Pekin, Stanford). Hopefully, I counted everything correctly.

I also counted 2004, but I’m setting those results out separately because the sectional assignments, especially for the Chicago area, were VERY different. The DGS sectional included Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove, the Maines, York, Hinsdale C, DGN, Oak Park-River Forest, Marist, Reavis, Sandburg & Oak Lawn, to name just a few. The Warren sectional included DeKalb, Geneva, Huntley, the Glenbards, Fremd, Wheaton N, & Glenbrook N & S. The Morris sectional had the Napervilles, Nequa Valley, Wheaton Warrenville S, Coal City, Sandwich, Marian, Tinley Park, the Thorntons, Thornwood, Thornridge & Homewood Flossmoor. Anyway, here are the numbers for 2004.

Benton (South St.): T0/F7

Heyworth (Central St.): T0/F8

Rock Island (NW St.): T0/F2

Warren: T2/F24

Morris: T3/F24



DGS: T5/F24

[jeawagne]

After reading bwspeechteam's post, curiosity got the better of me, so I counted the number of teams in the top 10 and the number of state finalists for each of the sectionals. Here are the results by my count:

Firstly, wow... that must have taken a lot of time/brain cells. Cheers.

Second, while the numbers are interesting, I just want to highlight one non-numerical aspect that really troubles, the amount of times a Downers Grove school has hosted (and there are only two from which to choose.) The fact that Iom labels one sectional the DGS sectional says it all.

DGS: 2009 (DGS) T3/F24; 2008 (DGS) T4/F29; 2007 (DGS) T3/F24; 2006 (DGN) T2/F23; 2005 (DGS) T2/F25
Food for thought.

[lom]

[QUOTE=jeawagne;129371]
The fact that Iom labels one sectional the DGS sectional says it all.


Oh, dear! I did not mean to imply anything by calling it the DGS sectional. It was just an easy label while I was counting because sometimes trying to figure out which sectionals were kind of equivalent to the prior years sectionals was tough. After reading this, I probably should have called it the West Chicago or South West Chicago sectional.