Lake Park: September 2008 Archives

The Upstate Eight Conference will expand and realign into two six-team divisions beginning in the fall of 2010.

The conference announced the anticipated move on Thursday and it took into account several geographic considerations. Metea Valley, which in scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, will become the conference's new 12th member and join District 204 rivals Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley in the UEC South. The division will also include East Aurora, St. Charles East and St. Charles North.

The UEC North will be made up of Bartlett, Elgin, Lake Park, Larkin, South Elgin and Streamwood.

What's your early take? How will this impact these UEC programs?

For Naperville Central, this is about perception versus reality on two fronts - what its DuPage Valley Conference schedule looks like on paper, and how its spread offense controls the ball.

Every program enters Week 1 with question marks, whether you're the defending Class 8A state champions (Naperville North) or a team that just missed the playoffs (Lake Park) last season. Naperville Central falls somewhere between those extremes, and coach Mike Stine kind of laughed when asked for his impressions off the Waubonsie Valley game film - everyone feels like they have a long way to go on both sides of the ball.