Football: 5 storylines to watch in the Herald-News coverage area in 2024

High school football will be kicking off in a matter of weeks, with the first games scheduled for Aug. 30. Until then, here are five storylines to watch this fall in the Herald-News area.

How good will Lincoln-Way East be?

The high-profile transfer of quarterback Jonas Williams from Bolingbrook added a huge dimension to the Griffins, who even prior to his inclusion on the roster looked pretty loaded.

Williams, a junior, already has thrown for more than 6,000 yards in his high school career and is poised for two more huge seasons in Frankfort.

But Williams is far from the only thing that sparks optimism about Lincoln-Way East, as the program already has three Division I commits in its senior class in TE Trey Zvonar (Miami of Ohio), RB Zion Gist (Western Michigan) and DL Caden O’Rourke (Northwestern).

Parallels will be drawn between Loyola and Lincoln-Way East all season as the two programs have played in the Class 8A title game each of the past two seasons (both Loyola wins), and it isn’t crazy to imagine a third in a row.

What does the conference landscape look like?

West Aurora’s decision to leave the Southwest Prairie Conference started a little bit of a domino effect in some of the conferences in the area.

Bolingbrook moved over to take West Aurora’s place in the Southwest Prairie and took its spot in what already has proved to be a difficult West Division. Bolingbrook’s addition likely will make that division even deeper and tougher to navigate.

With Bolingbrook’s move, that left only nine teams in the SouthWest Suburban Conference, and instead of trying to add one team to restore its 10-team format, the league instead merged (football only) with the DuPage Valley Conference to form the Southwest Valley, a 15-team, three-division league.

The Blue Division consists of Lincoln-Way East, Homewood-Flossmoor, Lockport, Neuqua Valley and Naperville North.

The Green Division is made up of Bradley-Bourbonnais, DeKalb, Lincoln-Way Central, Stagg and Waubonsie Valley.

The Red Division includes Andrew, Sandburg, Lincoln-Way West, Metea Valley and Sandburg.

Catholic League realignment

The league went just one year before realigning.

No new teams were added, but the divisions were realigned, with the most substantial move being a switch in the powerhouse CCL/Blue Division as St. Ignatius moves in to take the place of Marist.

Locally, Joliet Catholic and Providence were moved into the CCL Orange. They will cap the regular season with a Week 9 matchup Oct. 25 at Providence.

Can Wilmington repeat?

The Wildcats were the only one of the three area qualifiers that reached the state finals last season to come home with the biggest hardware after a 28-3 win over Athens in the Class 2A state championship.

The Wildcats lost a good senior class to graduation, but the cupboard is never bare in Wilmington.

If the Wildcats did manage to complete the repeat, it would give Wilmington state titles in three of the past four years after it defeated Nashville to win the 2021 Class 2A crown.

Will the area improve on its 16 playoff bids from a year ago?

Although it’s not impossible, that’s going to be a tough bar to clear.

Joliet West had possibly its best season in school history with eight victories before bowing out in the opening round of the Class 8A playoffs, and Lincoln-Way Central flipped its script by going 8-1 in the regular season after going 3-6 the year before.

The fact that those teams are looking to reclaim playoff slots rather than being a breakout performer makes exceeding 16 playoff teams a difficult climb.

However, there are several teams that are either prime candidates to return to their previous form or break through. Bolingbrook’s first run in the Southwest Prairie Conference’s “Wild West” Division could go a number of ways. And Plainfield East and Plainfield Central, which now is coached by Central alum Robby Carriger, appear to be potential candidates to clear the playoff qualification bar.