April 19, 2024
La Salle County Sports
Sports

South Beloit is Marquette's new NAC foe

By Charlie Ellerbrock

Marquette's Jager Reed (23) wards off a North Shore Country Day defender during a 2014 NAC game at Gould Stadium in Ottawa. South Beloit will replace Country Day in the conference beginning in 2016.

The Marquette Academy football program is not one to shy away from a challenge, and it has a new one it will be facing starting in the 2016 season.

The South Beloit Sobos, formerly a member of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference’s Northwest Division, has agreed to join and been accepted as a new member of the Northeast Athlietc Conference.

The Sobos will replace North Shore Country Day, a former NAC power who’se declining numbers forced into playing only a partial schedules in 2014. As South Beloit had to give a year’s notice to leave the NUIC, the one-year void in Marquette’s schedule this season will be filled by Interstate Eight Conference Small Division contender Westmont.

“I think they’ll be good competition, in the upper tier of the conference, for sure,” Jobst said of South Beloit. “They’ve struggled in the conference they’re in because they’re so small, it’s understandable, but they can be tough. They have a state championship not that long ago, so they’ll fit in nicely. … They were chosen over two other schools because they were the best fit for our conference, the most compatible. Part of the reason was that their football is sometimes pretty strong – in cycles, but when they’re good, they’re really good – and the goal is always to make the conference better, so this is a good sign.”

South Beloit, like most small schools, has had a roller-coaster past in regard to success. It qualified for the 1A playoffs in 1982, the 2A postseason in ’84 and back in 1A in 1990. After falling on hard times, the Sobos eventually struck it rich, making the 1A playoffs in 2001, going 7-4, then winning the Class 1A title with a 13-1 mark the very next season. Coach for those clubs was St. Bede Academy graduate Drew Potthoff.

They’ve paid dearly for that crown, not only not having made the postseason since, but also having not won more than three games in any season, and that just twice immediately after the title run.

Last year’s coach, Justin Gumm, went just 2-7 in his first season, against some pretty solid competition in the NUIC. Among those losses were a 55-7 decision to the Class 1A state champion, 13-1 Forreston; 56-16 against a 10-3 Galena club that lost to Forreston in the 1A semifinals; and 52-7 to the Class 2A champion, 14-0 Eastland Pearl City. The Sobos’ victories came over Savanna West Carroll 36-14 and Hanover River Ridge 38-14, a pair of 1-8 squads.

However, Gumm resigned the post to move with his wife, a doctor, to Madison, Wisc., according to Jobst. So far, the position has not been filled.

Jumping in to fill South Beloit’s position in the NUIC, according to Marquette coach Tom Jobst, will be Marquette’s former Big Rivers Conference foe, Amboy-LaMoille. The Clippers reportedly got the nod over other league power, Morrison.

The lengthy trip to South Beloit is at least a year away, but the Crusaders will have to be road warriors to maintain their amazing three-year, 25-2 start in the league. This year’s schedule, said Jobst, includes two trips to Chicago and one each to Alden Hebron and Elgin Westminster Christian.

The Westmont club will visit Gould Stadium in Week 2 this coming fall.