Chicago Public League Sports Blog

TEAM Englewood - IN; North Lawndale - OUT

The Chicago Public League is so large that in football, it breaks up teams in 9 different conferences  and each conference is broken down into 3 separate groups (Illini, Chicago, and Intra-City). The Illini conference consist of the toughest teams followed by the Chicago and then the Intra-City conference. Every year, there are battles to finish first and stay out of last because the winners of a Chicago and Intra-City conference automatically move up the next level conference.

One such battle took place in the Inter-City 2 conference which last year had in it's conference: TEAM Englewood, North Lawndale, Lindblom, Kennedy, Chicago Military Academy-Bronzeville, Washington, Juarez, and Hirsch.

Last season, the conference title for the Inter-City 2 came down to the final week. TEAM Englewood, 5-1 in conference played North Lawndale, 6-0 in conference. TEAM Englewood squeaked out a 20-13 win over North Lawndale. But even though they won, the conference ended up with a three way tie at the top with three teams (North Lawndale, TEAM Englewood, and Lindblom) with a 6-1 record. To compilcate matters all of the teams have one loss versus one of teh other teams. Lindblom lost to North Lawndale, TEAM Englewood lost to Lindblom, and North Lawndale lost to TEAM Englewood.

So at the end of the season, I had no idea who was the conference champion.

Recently, I discovered that TEAM Englewood was given the conference title. The tie breaker that was used was defensive points given up. TEAM Englewood moves up to a Chicago Conference this coming football season.

From 1-8 to 8-1

TEAM Englewood Takes Conference with Win Over North Lawndale

I've never written about TEAM Englewood in this blog. But after their 20-13 win over North Lawndale, I gotta mention them. I am not too familiar TEAM Englewood. I think this is a realatively new school that somehow has emerged from the old Englewood high school that was closed a few years ago.

Anyone that knows more of the TEAM Englewwod story please comment.

I do know that TEAM Englewood only had a football team for two years. A year ago they were a dismal 1-8 and not much was expected from them this year. In fact this team was not even on my radar when the season began. TEAM Englewood plays in the Inter-City 2 Conference, where North Lawndale was the conference favorite the entire year. But TEAM Englewood changed all that with this victory over North Lawndale. The win put TEAM Englewood at 8-1 and earned a promotion to a Chicago Conference next year.

Anthony Harris was the hero for TEAM Englewood, as he came up with an interception return for a touchdown in the closing seconds of the game with North Lawndale getting close to a score.