| Southwest Suburban Conference | |
| Color: | black |
| Font Color: | white |
| Founded: | 2005 |
| Conference: | IHSA |
| Teams: | 9 |
| Sports: | 17 (14 boys', 14 girls') |
| Region: | Southern Chicagoland |
The Southwest Suburban Conference is an athletic and competitive activity conference consisting of public secondary schools located in the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.
The conference was formed in 2005 when most of these schools split off from the South Inter-Conference Association (SICA). The division resulted in a lawsuit claiming that schools that were majority white in population were abandoning the schools which were majority black. The lawsuit was eventually settled and paved the way for the conference to expand.
For 33 years prior to 2006, most of the public high schools in the south and southwest suburban Chicago area were a part of the South Inter-Conference Association (SICA) which by 2005 had reached a membership of 33 schools split into five divisions.[1] The conference covered a large geographic area and sociological spectrum "from the Indiana border to Joliet, from impoverished Ford Heights to affluent Frankfort, from virtually all-black Hillcrest to almost all-white Lincoln-Way Central and from Joliet, enrollment 4,993, to 1,066- student Rich South"[1] In 2004, the athletic directors voted 30–3, the principals' board of control voted 6–2, and the district superintendents voted 16–3 to approve a new conference realignment which was to take effect in 2006.[1] The realignment had been pushed because of long travel times and a reduction of sports offerings at some schools. The realignment split the association into three roughly equal and geographically contiguous conferences, one of which, the southeast, contained most of the predominantly African–American schools (compared to one school in the remaining two conferences).[1] It was from these schools that a majority of the votes against the realignment had come.[1] Leaders from these schools demanded an investigation from the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, and petitioned the Illinois State Board of Education to investigate as to whether this action violated rules on equity.[1]
In March 2005, ten schools announced that they were unilaterally leaving SICA to form a new conference, the Southwest Suburban Conference.[2] Those schools included; Andrew, Bolingbrook, Bradley, Homewood-Flossmoor, Joliet Township, Lincoln-Way Central, Lincoln-Way East, Lockport, Sandburg and Stagg. These ten schools collectively were among the largest in student population.[2] Shortly after the announcement, Lincoln-Way Community High School District board member Maureen Jagmin, whose district represented two of the schools leaving to form a new conference, was forced to resign after she left racist statements on a reporter's voice mail.[3]
Shortly after this, twelve more schools split off to form the South Suburban Conference.[4] Those schools included; Argo, Bremen, Eisenhower, Evergreen Park, Hillcrest, Lemont, Oak Forest, Oak Lawn, Reavis, Richards, Shepard, and Tinley Park,.
In April 2006, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against the schools which had left claiming that "(an) apartheid-like realignment used public funds to regress to separate but equal".[5] The suit was settled out of court with the three schools of Thornton Township High Schools District 205 joining the Southwest Suburban Conference, and the two schools of Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 joining the South Suburban Conference.[6] The remaining six teams would be known as Southland Athletic Conference.[6] Those schools included; Bloom, Crete-Monee, Kankakee, Rich Central, Rich East and Rich South.
Starting in 2019–20, Thornridge High School, Thornton Township High School, and Thornwood High School left the conference to join the Southland Athletic Conference.
Starting in 2024–25, Bolingbrook High School will leave the conference to join the Southwest Prairie Conference.
| School | Town | Area | Team Name | Colors | IHSA Classes (2/3/4)[7] [8] | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderbolts | AA/3A/4A | [9] | ||||
| Eagles | AA/3A/4A | [10] | ||||
| Vikings | AA/3A/4A | [11] | ||||
| Knights | AA/3A/4A | [12] | ||||
| Griffins | AA/3A/4A | [13] | ||||
| New Lenox | Warriors | AA/2A/3A | [14] | |||
| Porters | AA/3A/4A | [15] | ||||
| Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School | Boilermakers | AA/3A/4A | [16] | |||
| Amos Alonzo Stagg High School | Chargers | AA/3A/4A | [17] | |||
This timeline represents the current schools within the Southwest Suburban Conference that were a part of the SICA..
bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Bradley (1972-2005) bar:2 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Homewood-Flossmoor (1972-2005) bar:8 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Lincoln-Way (1972-2005) bar:12 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Sandburg (1972-2005) bar:21 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:22 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Stagg (1972-2005) bar:22 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:23 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Thornridge (1972-2005) bar:23 color:AssocF from:2005 till:2019 text:Southwest Suburban (2005-2019) bar:23 color:OtherC2 from:2019 till:end text:Southland Athletic (2019-Present)
bar:24 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Thornton (1972-2005) bar:24 color:AssocF from:2005 till:2019 text:Southwest Suburban (2005-2019) bar:24 color:OtherC2 from:2019 till:end text:Southland Athletic (2019-Present)
bar:27 color:OtherC1 from:1972 till:2005 text:Thornwood (1972-2005) bar:27 color:AssocF from:2005 till:2019 text:Southwest Suburban (2005-2019) bar:27 color:OtherC2 from:2019 till:end text:Southland Athletic (2019-Present)
bar:32 color:OtherC1 from:1977 till:2005 text:Andrew (1977-2005) bar:32 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:33 color:OtherC1 from:1982 till:2005 text:Bolingbrook (1982-2005) bar:33 color:AssocF from:2005 till:2024 text:Southwest Suburban (2005-2024)
bar:34 color:OtherC1 from:1982 till:2005 text:Lockport (1982-2005) bar:34 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:36 color:OtherC1 from:1983 till:1993 text:Joliet Central (1983-1993) bar:36 color:white from:1993 till:2008 text:Consolidated with Joliet West to become Joliet Township High School bar:36 color:AssocF from:2008 till:2016 text:Southwest Suburban (2008-2016) bar:36 color:OtherC4 from:2016 till:end text:Southwest Prairie (2016-Present)
bar:37 color:OtherC1 from:1983 till:1993 text:Joliet West (1983-1993) bar:37 color:white from:1993 till:2008 text:Consolidated with Joliet Central to become Joliet Township High School bar:37 color:AssocF from:2008 till:2016 text:Southwest Suburban (2008-2016) bar:37 color:OtherC4 from:2016 till:end text:Southwest Prairie (2016-Present)
bar:38 color:OtherC1 from:1993 till:2005 text:Joliet Township (1993-2005) bar:38 color:AssocF from:2005 till:2008 text:Southwest Suburban (2005-2008) bar:38 color:white from:2012 till:end text:Schools reverted back to Central and West
bar:39 color:OtherC1 from:2001 till:2005 text:Lincoln-Way East (2001-2005) bar:39 color:AssocF from:2005 till:end text: bar:39 color:AssocF from:2007 till:end text:Southwest Suburban (2005-Present)
bar:40 color:AssocF from:2009 till:end text:Lincoln-Way West (2009-Present)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)
text:^"Southwest Suburban Conference History"
The conference sponsors competition for young men and young women in basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo.[18] The conference also sponsors competition for young men in baseball, football, and wrestling; and for young women badminton, cheerleading, and softball.[18]
The conference sponsors competition in Individual Events, Chess, Drama and Group Interpretation.
Since 2005, the following teams and activities have finished in the top four of their respective IHSA sponsored state tournaments:
competes in not only depends on the school's student population, but on the sport or activity. Some activities divide schools into two classes, some into three, and others into four. The listing here is in the order of two class, three class, and four class. The more "A"s in a class, the larger the schools competing. For more information on this, see Illinois High School Association#State Series Format.