NORMAL — It was four days later than scheduled, on a bitterly cold December afternoon in the middle of the week,
But the logistical hurdles didn’t matter to fans when three South Side powerhouses were playing for state titles.
Longtime Catholic League rivals St. Rita, Brother Rice and Mount Carmel came to Hancock Stadium on Dec. 3 looking to add to their football legacies.
Mount Carmel wrapped up a 14-0 season by beating Oswego in the Class 8A final for its IHSA-record 17th state title. Just before that, St. Rita and Brother Rice — two schools separated by just a few miles — squared off in 7A with Rice winning 16-0 for its first championship since 1981.
“It’s definitely unique,” St. Rita coach Martin Hopkins said after the 7A final. “You look out in the stands and you know almost everyone out there. … A lot of these kids went to grammar schools with guys on the other team then grew up playing against them. So they all know each other.”
Seven members of the 24-team CCL/ESCC superconference advanced to the state finals. Five — Mount Carmel (8A), Brother Rice (7A), Fenwick (6A), St. Francis (5A) and Montini (4A) — won championships, while St. Rita (7A) and Providence (5A) both finished second.
“It’s a great conference,” Hopkins said. “You obviously can tell that week in and week out we play some of the best competition. And so iron sharpens iron.
“That’s what we talked to our guys about: all it’s going to do is prepare us to be better in the long run.”
The competition isn’t fierce just on Friday nights in the fall, either.
“It does make it hard once it comes to … trying to obtain a team and an incoming freshman class … ” Hopkins said. “There’s a lot of good options around us. There’s a lot of good schools to go to outside of the two here (St. Rita and Brother Rice).
“So I think it speaks to the caliber of football, caliber of coaches and the caliber of players (in the CCL/ESCC).”
For a while this season, things looked bleak for St. Rita. The Mustangs started 2-4 with losses to Mount Carmel, Brother Rice, St. Francis and Class 6A semifinalist Nazareth.
At that point, senior quarterback Steven Armbruster said, “nobody was really picking us to even make the playoffs. But we got (in at) 5-4 and we got here. It didn’t end the way we wanted. But I think just getting here, we proved a lot of people wrong.”
Armbruster and some other key seniors are graduating. But several impact players will return, including junior running back Brandon Johnson Jr. and sophomore linebacker Jack Schapendonk.
Both appreciate the experience gained this season.
“It’s been … a crazy run to come up with these seniors who’ve been on varsity for multiple years,” Schapendonk said. “I just like learning off what they do and how they play, how tough they play. (That) made me the player I am.”
Johnson said the Mustangs will work harder in the offseason coming off this playoff run.
“We started 1-3, 2-4 and that’s when we really got together as a collective and bought in,” he said. “We need to do that from the start of the season next year.”