Elgin Academy, a longtime competitor of U-High’s sports teams, is closing after 185 years, but the change may open up opportunities for competition closer to U-High.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Elgin Academy will be closing permanently at the end of this academic year because the rates of enrollment and school funding have dropped.
Laura Gill, Lab’s deputy director of athletics, said that U-High sports teams have been competing with Elgin Academy for as long as U-High has been in the Independent School League.
Ms. Gill says the school’s closing will most likely not affect U-High sports in the short term.
“There are enough schools in the ISL, where we still will have an ISL conference,” Ms. Gill said.
Ms. Gill says 10-15 years ago, Elgin Academy was more competitive in the ISL, and that recently, U-High has typically been victorious in games.
“We have sort of slowly seen Elgin’s competition level decline,” Ms. Gill said.
She said that although U-High is losing a competitor, it could be a positive thing for U-High sports.
“In some ways I think it is a positive thing for us in the sense that, that was a really long trip on weeknights, but it obviously is a negative thing for the school and we appreciated being able to compete with them over the years, but the ISL will remain intact,” Ms. Gill said.
Elgin Academy is not the only school leaving the ISL. Morgan Park Academy, another long competitor of U-High recently left the ISL this year.
“Their enrollment has gone down a little bit and their ability to compete at a level similar to the ISL was not there either, so they decided to opt out of the ISL, so we have lost both Morgan Park and Elgin in the past year or so,” Ms. Gill said.
Ms. Gill believes this loss of competition may also possibly open up new opportunities for U-High that are more feasible in terms of location.
She said, “It’s an opportunity for us to pick up competition closer to us that might be better suited for us as well.”
