2 football seasons ago Amundsen was playing in the Illini conference and riding high after what I feel is one of the biggest upsets in recent CPS history by upsetting Morgan Park. Since then, they have crashed to earth. They have since been demoted to the Chicago Big Shoulders conference where they posted a disapointing 1-7 record. On the plus side, they played in some competitive games last year and look to bounce back this year.
Here are some football teams which showed me some down cycle signs last year and if they are not careful could go further down the abyss of the down cycle.
These teams aren't on the list 100% because they had awful records, but because of the combination of poor records and I had more expectations of them when the season started.
(last year's record)(last year's conference)
Amundsen (1-7)(Chicago Big Shoulders)
Prosser(0-8)(Chicago Big Shoulders)
Little Village(0-8)(Chicago Great Lakes)
Senn(0-8)(Chicago Second City)
Carver(2-6)(Illini Heartland)
Julian(1-7)(Illini Land of Lincoln)
Fenger(1-7)(Illini Land of Lincoln)
Harlan(1-7)(Illini Land of Lincoln)
Kelvyn Park(3-5)(Inter-City 1)
All the teams listed above (and more) could be listed as disappointments. However, the biggest fall of them all could be Fenger. They went from CPS semi-finalist two years ago to a 1-7 record last year including getting schlacked by 2-6 Julian and shut out by 1-7 Harlan 40-0.
Prosser will hopefully find some relief playing in the Inter-City conference this year after playing what could be one of the worse offensive displays of football in CPS history. The Falcolns scored only 6 points the entire season in a winless season that included a 54-0 loss to Inter-City conference Pritzker and a 64-0 pounding by Marshall. Luckily, Prosser did not have to play conference champion Foreman last season due to the teachers strike.
The good news for these teams (if there is any good news) is that this coming football season, most of them will be playing in a lower level CPS conference where the competition is hopefully more to their level.
In the CPS, things can change around rather quickly for the better and the worse. All it takes is an AD to hire one good coach and the program can be turned around fairly quickly and go on an up cycle. On the other side, if a school loses a good coach or if they lose all their major talent to graduation, the program can quickly crash.
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