Naperville Central will announce the site of the Week 1 opener at a later date; here's what the Warriors will have to face next season:

2009 WAUBONSIE VALLEY SCHEDULE
Aug. 28 at Naperville Central
Sept. 4 vs. Oswego
Sept. 11 at Bartlett
Sept. 18 at St. Charles North
Sept. 25 vs. Neuqua Valley at North Central College
Oct. 2 vs. St. Charles East
Oct. 9 vs. Elgin
Oct. 16 at Lake Park
Oct. 23 vs. East Aurora

All games are scheduled for Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

Naperville Central's stadium situation is unsettled, so the site for its Sept. 4 game against Neuqua Valley will be announced later. Bill Ellinghaus, the Neuqua assistant football coach and assistant athletic director, indicated that another location might change but the here's the rough draft of the schedule:

2009 NEUQUA VALLEY SCHEDULE (TENTATIVE)
Aug. 28 vs. Naperville North
Sept. 4 at Naperville Central
Sept. 11 vs. South Elgin
Sept. 19 at Bartlett*
Sept. 25 vs. Waubonsie Valley at North Central College
Oct. 2 at Cathedral (Ind.)
Oct. 9 at. St. Charles North
Oct. 16 vs. St. Charles East
Oct. 23 vs. Elgin

*Except for the Saturday afternoon road game at Bartlett, all games are
scheduled for Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

According to Naperville North athletic director Doug Smith, Harshbarger-Welzel Field will be ready for the beginning of next season. Its renovation pushed the Huskies and linebacker Nick Lifka (pictured) to Benedictine for the first and second rounds of the 2008 playoffs, but coming off a 10-1 season they are expected to have a full slate of home games.

The 2009 schedule includes nonconference games against Neuqua Valley and St. Charles East, an Oct. 2 crosstown matchup versus Naperville Central at North Central College and a new DuPage Valley Conference rotation. The Wheaton Warrenville South showdown has been moved from Week 9 to Week 5.

NAPERVILLE NORTH 2009 SCHEDULE
Aug. 28 at Neuqua Valley
Sept. 4 vs. St. Charles East
Sept. 11 at Glenbard North
Sept. 18 vs. West Aurora
Sept. 25 vs. Wheaton Warrenville South
Oct. 2 vs. Naperville Central at North Central College
Oct. 9 at Glenbard East
Oct. 16 vs. Wheaton North
Oct. 23 vs. West Chicago

All games are scheduled for Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

When the ACC raided the Big East a few years ago, it created a ripple effect across the country. It can still be felt in Lincoln Park, where the DePaul hoops program is 0-13 in the rugged Big East. To make matters worse, its next two games are against Pittsburgh and Villanova, which combined are 43-7.

With that in mind - and on a much smaller scale - we looked at the recent rumblings of defections and realignment within the area's conferences. In the same way that Miami football can set off a chain of events that impacts DePaul basketball, the Western Sun's potential movement could force the DuPage Valley and Upstate Eight to make some decisions.

Before we go any further, let's stress that nothing is about to happen. Last week Metea Valley principal Jim Schmid was gracious enough to field our hypothetical questions before a single practice was held at the school, and said the UEC would require some advance notice.

"It's usually at least a year. I know that when DeKalb left, they let us know about a (year-plus) ahead of time. It's usually primarily because of scheduling," Schmid said. "It's certainly ample time where they're able (to) deal with the nuances of primarily the football schedule, (which) is the most challenging one."

Football may not drive everything at every school, but it's a major consideration. Jim Owczarski and Rick Armstrong mapped out some potential scenarios in the Beacon News. What if dominos start falling and, say, a West Chicago leaves the DVC? Or if Geneva spins out and links up with the St. Charles schools? The Glenbard schools aren't all in the same conference - should District 204 stay together?

This is entirely a game of "what-if." But if you were an area athletic director, what would you be looking for to protect your football program's interest?

Paul Johnson has a nice feature up on Ted Monken, Metea Valley's new coach. In five seasons at St. Charles East, Monken has gone 36-17 (.679) with four consecutive playoff appearances. Coaching runs in the Monken family, as Johnson explains:

His father, Bob, is a member of the Illinois High School Coaches Hall of Fame, thanks in large part to his legendary coaching run at Lake Park. He has also been on Ted Monken's staff at St. Charles East all five years.

If that's not enough, Ted's brother, Todd, is the wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. And his brother, Tony, also has experience starting a program from scratch. He guided Vernon Hills' ascent to varsity football in 1999 and has coached that program ever since.

This nugget is also found near the end of the piece and at the center of what should become a good rivalry:

Monken arrives at Metea familiar with the Upstate Eight Conference, and quite familiar with Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley, the pool from which Metea's talent will be drawn.

Monken went only 1-4 against Neuqua in his five years, two of those losses giving Neuqua an outright conference title and rendering St. Charles East to second place. He did go 3-0 against Waubonsie, however, including wins the past two seasons.

This morning Paul LaTour analyzes the Upstate Eight Conference and how it has historically struggled in the postseason. R.J. Gerber of The Courier News agrees, saying that undefeated Bartlett has something to prove in Class 8A.

The Naperville North program has already earned that respect, but if it is to repeat, then it may at some point have to lean more on its passing game. Its road back to Champaign could go through 9-0 Bolingbrook, which, as Bill Scheibe of The Herald News explains, has a strong secondary.

And finally Stephen Spiewak of MaxPreps shares his three games in 24 hours odyssey, which began at Harshbarger-Welzel Field last Friday.

Waubonsie Valley (3-3) has yet to earn a true road win. It lost at Prairie Ridge and St. Charles East and the win against Neuqua Valley - the night that might have turned its season around - came at neutral site North Central College.

That's the challenge facing Waubonsie Friday night at Bloom Trail High School. The Warriors go out of conference and on the road to face Bloom Township, a team consolidated from two schools - Bloom and Bloom Trail.

"You're going into a strange environment. We've never been there to play," Waubonsie coach Paul Murphy told The Sun's Paul LaTour this week. "We're 0-2 on the road...so we've got to (do) a better job of treating it like a business trip and not like a vacation. We've got to come off the bus ready to go.

"We've already talked to our team about it (Monday) and we talked again (Tuesday): 'Guys, we've got something to prove here. Yeah, we've gone on a nice roll here, but we've been playing at home and at North Central. ... Now we've got to prove that we can do this on the road.'"

After starting out 0-3, Waubonsie (3-1 Upstate Eight Conference) still has a lot to play for - a playoff berth and a share of the conference title. Last season wide receiver Alex Stokowski connected with quarterback Tyler Castro for three touchdown catches in a 34-0 homecoming win over Bloom in Aurora - and that was well before Waubonsie became the passing team it is now.

But beyond the numbers or opponent, the process could have an impact by Week 10.

"This is like a playoff trip. If you do make the playoffs, you don't know where the state's going to send you. We've got to learn how to travel. We've got to learn to come off the bus and be ready to play a football game. And I think it's a great challenge to see if we truly deserve to become a playoff team," Murphy said. "Can we go out on the road now and win a game in a hostile environment against a team that's got the same record as us? I've got to assume they're looking at (this as) a playoff game as well, so we've got to be ready for their best shot."