By Lesley Solis ’18
Illinois High School Association is a program for high schools to compete against one another out of the Noble Network. The way that the sports are chosen to participate in IHSA is through the record the team holds throughout the season.
At Pritzker College Prep, the sports Girls’ Basketball, Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer and Cross Country compete in IHSA. Although in the IHSA website it names every sport played at Pritzker, only some are allowed to compete against schools around Chicago for competition; that does not mean the sport is bad, it just indicates that their record did not meet IHSA’s requirement.
The tournament is different from the Noble Athletic Conference as stated by the NAC, “The Noble Athletic Conference is comprised of 17 high performing college prep high schools throughout the city of Chicago. All NAC schools are members of the Noble Network of Charter Schools. Noble was the 2015 winner of the prestigious Broad Prize, an award given to the top performing public charter school network in the United States.”
IHSA is different as stated by the association, “The purpose of the Illinois High School Association is to provide leadership for the development, supervision, and promotion of good sportsmanship in interscholastic competition and other activities in which its member schools choose to engage. Participation in such interscholastic activities offers eligible students experiences in an educational setting, which provide enrichment to the educational experience.”
How do students feel about IHSA?
Jocelyn Santos, senior and Cheer captain states, “IHSA is a good way to experience new and amazing cheer teams. IHSA is a very competitive corporation and you can totally see the level of difficult IHSA has aside from the NAC.”
Nanette Perez, senior and basketball player states, “IHSA is a good way to be exposed to a variety of good players and meet new people and see all around players and it is a good thing because it gives exposure.”
Which one is enjoyed best? IHSA or NAC?
Keyla Romero, junior and soccer played states, “IHSA has to do with CPS and Charter schools. I like to win the NAC because we are in a streak, but I rather get further in IHSA because the schools that we face there are way more challenging.”
Santos states, “IHSA is a great and amazing competition the overall experience of being there was like being in a movie and competing on bring it on: fierce, direct, and in your face.”
Pritzker students seem to enjoy IHSA more than NAC because of the level of competitiveness that it stands on. Goodluck to all the sports who will be a part of IHSA this year!
