Peotone football coach Tolly Tsiamas doesn’t sugarcoat his feelings about the IHSA’s playoff expansion.
“I’ll be honest, I hate it and I hate everything about it,” he said.
After the IHSA approved a proposal on Dec. 16, the landscape of postseason football has been changed dramatically and now teams with 4-5, 3-6 and possibly 2-7 records will be invited to the party. Also, the football season will start a week earlier — Aug. 20 in 2026 — to accommodate the extra round of playoffs.
Peotone finished 3-6 in 2025, which, under the new system, would have put the Blue Devils in the playoffs.
That’s a good thing, right?
Tsiamas doesn’t think so.
“We play in a really tough conference and we wore it as a badge of honor that we were able to get into the playoffs as often as we did,” he said.
“This year, we came a little short and had some close games that didn’t go our way. But I would not take solace in the fact that we have close losses, but we’re in with three wins. It doesn’t feel right to me.”
On the other side of the coin, Tsiamas does approve of the schedule change because he likes playing as soon as possible.
Manteno coach RJ Haines, whose teams have qualified for the postseason 12 of his 21 seasons, sees some good and bad.
On the one hand, he loved the “Drive for Five” format in which almost every team with at least five wins would qualify. But that quest came at a price as some teams seeking five wins were not seeking powerful nonconference opponents for fear of a loss hurting their playoff chances.
“I’m not black or white on it one way or the other,” Haines said. “It’s been a challenge with scheduling, so I don’t think it’s necessarily bad that there are changes coming.”
There has been talk of expansion for years, but now it is a reality after it was passed by school officials 377-252 with 98 no-opinion votes.
It’s going to be here for a while.
“Regardless of what I like and don’t like, we’ll be ready for next season,” Tsiamas said.
Panthers’ Stritar gets 100th win
Manteno girls basketball coach Bethany Stritar earned her 100th career victory with a 67-22 road victory against Newark on Dec. 18.
The dominant win included a 12-point, 20-rebound performance from Maddie Gesky. Peyton Boros added 13 points and Sophie Peterson had 12 for the Panthers (11-1)
Stritar became the coach in 2017 after the Panthers suffered through 10 straight losing seasons. In her first five seasons, wins were hard to come by but in the past three, she guided the team to 15-13, 18-13 and 24-5 records before this year’s fast start.
Manteno falls at state
Manteno Middle School’s eighth-grade girls basketball team qualified for the Illinois Elementary School Association state quarterfinals, but lost 35-28 to eventual state champion Springfield Lincoln on Dec. 15 at Germantown Hills Middle School.
Rylenn Benoit led the Panthers (21-4) with 10 points while Addison Gass chipped in with six.