No more hounding the Fox Valley

About 15 years ago, former Prospect boys soccer coach Wally Bachir had come out to Crystal Lake South for a brief coaching stint. Bachir had been at Prospect during the growth and transition period of the Mid-Suburban League and Northwest suburbs.
As we caught up on old times, Bachir mentioned that it would be just a matter of time before the Fox Valley Conference made big gains and became a conference worth being mentioned with the big boys in the Chicago area and the state. As more people migrated further out, schools grew and new schools were built.
There's no question the Fox Valley (although I'm not a big fan of the division names of Fox and Valley) has become a high-quality conference to be taken seriously. The Dundee-Crown boys basketball team made it downstate. The Prairie Ridge baseball team is defending a 4A state title and nearby rival Crystal Lake Central reached the 3A finals last year. The Crystal Lake schools consistently bring home state tournament hardware.
On Saturday, Huntley junior Marcus Popenfoose had one of the state's all-time best efforts in the discus at 192 feet, 10 inches. Johnsburg senior pitcher Jerad Grundy is drawing scouts in droves with his ability and has a pretty nice fall-back position in a scholarship to Miami (Florida). And Johnsburg monster C.J. Fiedorowicz is a big-time college football prospect.
Those are just a few of the reasons the Fox Valley has become a top-level athletic conference.