South Suburban Conference (Illinois)

The South Suburban Conference (SSC) is a high school athletic and activity conference which comprises fourteen schools located in the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

South Suburban Conference
SSC
Established2006
AssociationIHSA
DivisionsRed & Blue
Members14
Sports fielded
  • 12 boys, 12 girls
RegionChicagoland

The conference was one of three (the Southwest Suburban Conference (SWSC) and Southland Athletic Conference) to be carved from the long extant South Inter-Conference Association (SICA); a large athletic conference which broke apart in 2005 after 33 years of existence.

History

For 33 years prior to 2006, most of the public high schools in the south and southwest suburban Chicago area were a part of the South Inter-Conference Association (SICA) which by 2005 had reached a membership of 33 schools split into five divisions.[1] The conference covered a large geographic area and sociological spectrum "from the Indiana border to Joliet, from impoverished Ford Heights to affluent Frankfort, from virtually all-black Hillcrest to almost all-white Lincoln-Way Central and from Joliet, enrollment 4,993, to 1,066- student Rich South"[1] In 2004, the athletic directors voted 30–3, the principals' board of control voted 6–2, and the district superintendents voted 16–3 to approve a new conference realignment which was to take effect in 2006.[1] The realignment had been pushed because of long travel times and a reduction of sports offerings at some schools. The realignment split the association into three roughly equal and geographically contiguous conferences, one of which, the southeast, contained most of the predominantly African–American schools (compared to one school in the remaining two conferences).[1] It was from these schools that a majority of the votes against the realignment had come.[1] Leaders from these schools demanded an investigation from the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, and petitioned the Illinois State Board of Education to investigate as to whether this action violated rules on equity.[1]

In March 2005, ten schools announced that they were unilaterally leaving SICA to form a new conference, the Southwest Suburban Conference.[2] These ten schools collectively were among the largest in student population.[2] Shortly after the announcement, a board member from Lincoln-Way Community High School District, a district representing two of the schools leaving to form a new conference, was forced to resign after racially insensitive statements were left on a reporter's voice mail.[3]

Shortly after this, eleven more schools split off to form the South Suburban Conference.[4]

In April 2006, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against the schools which had left claiming that "(an) apartheid-like realignment used public funds to regress to separate but equal".[5] The suit was settled out of court with the three schools of Thornton Township High Schools District 205 joining the Southwest Suburban Conference, and the two schools of Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 joining the South Suburban Conference.[6] The remaining six teams would remain known as South Athletic Conference.[6]

Members

There are 14 members of the conference.[7]

High Schools Division Town Area Team Name Colors County
Alan B. Shepard High School Palos Heights South Suburbs Astros     Cook
Argo Community High School Summit Western Suburbs Argonauts     Cook
Bremen High School Midlothian South Suburbs Braves     Cook
Dwight D. Eisenhower High School Blue Island South Suburbs Cardinals     Cook
Evergreen Park Community High School Evergreen Park South Suburbs Mustangs     Cook
Richards High School Oak Lawn South Suburbs Bulldogs       Cook
Hillcrest High School Country Club Hills South Suburbs Hawks       Cook
Lemont High School Lemont South Suburbs Indians     Cook
Oak Lawn Community High School Oak Lawn South Suburbs Spartans     Cook
Oak Forest High School Oak Forest South Suburbs Bengals     Cook
Reavis High School Burbank South Suburbs Rams     Cook
Thornton Fractional North High School Calumet City South Suburbs Meteors     Cook
Thornton Fractional South High School Lansing South Suburbs Rebels     Cook
Tinley Park High School Tinley Park South Suburbs Titans     Cook

Sports and activities

The conference sponsors competition in the following sports:[8]

References
  1. Temkin, Barry (6 February 2005). "SICA struggling for perfect balance". Chicago Tribune. p. 17.
  2. Sakomato, Bob (1 March 2005). "10 bail on SICA, form new league". Chicago Tribune. p. 6.
  3. Ziemba, Stanley; Greco Jr, Carmen (4 March 2005). "School board member resigns ; Derogatory remarks attributed to official". Chicago Tribune. p. 1.
  4. Ziemba, Stanley (16 November 2006). "Districts likely to settle SICA divisions ; New athletic groupings address diversity issue". Chicago Tribune. p. 1.
  5. Napolitano, Jo (11 April 2006). "Schools allege discrimination ; Suit sees race as key to prep conference split". Chicago Tribune. p. 1.
  6. Napolitano, Jo (30 December 2006). "Dispute ends over athletic league split". Chicago Tribune. p. 24.
  7. "School Info". South Suburban Conference. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
  8. "Sports Terms and Conditions". directory. South Suburban Conference. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
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