One of the state’s most successful private-school leagues will disappear next year when members of the East Suburban Catholic Conference will join the boys-only Catholic League and the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference.
The merger, announced on May 5, will create two super-conferences with some of the state’s premier private-school athletic programs. The Catholic League will grow from 17 to 26 teams and the GCAC will expand from 16 to 24 teams.
That includes Marmion, which had been an all-boys school and will transition to coed enrollment beginning in the fall of 2026.
The merger will take effect in the 2026-27 school year, after the ESCC plays one more year as a stand-alone conference.
ESCC teams have earned 96 IHSA team state titles and have produced 91 individual state champions since the conference launched in 1974.
The ESCC and Catholic League have operated as one football conference with multiple divisions for years. De La Salle principal Tom Schergen said the success of that merger led to talks of combining for all boys sports, and for the ESCC’s girls programs to join the GCAC.
The conversation got more serious last fall, Schergen said.
“The ESCC put together an expansion committee, talked about what was best for them,” he said. “Looking at a larger conference brings more opportunity and parity. They couldn’t do divisions (by themselves).”
The ESCC eventually came to the Catholic League and GCAC asking to join, and the vote to accept the new members was unanimous, according to Schergen.
Now comes the work of sorting out a plan to incorporate the new members in team and individual sports. Schergen said the expectation is to consider both competitive balance and geography in drawing up divisions. It’s expected that there will be a two-year cycle for divisional alignment.
The new Catholic League and GCAC will stretch from Chicago Heights and Joliet on the south and southwest to Mundelein on the north and Aurora on the west.
Joining the Catholic League will be Benet, Carmel, Joliet Catholic, Marian Catholic, Marist, Nazareth, Notre Dame, St. Patrick and St. Viator.
They will join holdover Catholic League members Aurora Central Catholic, Brother Rice, De La Salle, DePaul Prep, Fenwick, IC Catholic, Leo, Loyola, Marmion, Montini, Mount Carmel, Providence, St. Francis, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius, St. Laurence and St. Rita.
Providence-St. Mel will continue as a Catholic League associate member for basketball only.
The new GCAC members in addition to Marmion will be Benet, Carmel, Joliet Catholic, Marian Catholic, Marist, Nazareth and St. Viator.
The holdover GCAC schools are Aurora Central Catholic, De La Salle, DePaul Prep, Fenwick, IC Catholic, Loyola, Montini, Mother McAuley, Providence, Resurrection, Rosary, St. Francis, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius, St. Laurence and Trinity.
The Catholic League was formed in 1912 and the GCAC launched in 1974.
The new conferences are expected to be powerhouses in boys and girls basketball, baseball and girls volleyball, among other sports.
“(The merger) is going to elevate the level of play overall,” Schergen said. “It makes both conferences the best in the state, if not in the nation, in terms of competition.”