Polling place

One of my responsibilities in my 13 years here has been to participate in the state football and boys basketball polls for The Associated Press. For football, it used to be one person was responsible for ranking a class - in the old six-class days I had 5A and when the state expanded to eight classes I had 7A. Now it's open to a statewide media vote. Each week I'll post how I voted - although admittedly my "expertise" regarding the smaller classes isn't quite the same as the bigger ones. I'll do the same once basketball season rolls around as well.

Here's my votes this week...

CLASS 8A
1. Mt. Carmel
2. Maine South
3. St. Rita
4. Lincoln-Way East
5. Bartlett
6. Naperville North
7. Homewood-Flossmoor
8. Brother Rice
9. Glenbard North
10. Fremd

CLASS 7A
1. Carmel
2. Wheaton Warrenville South
3. East St. Louis
4. Geneva
5. Glenbard West
6. Lake Zurich
7. Rockford Boylan
8. Wheaton North
9. Prospect
10. De La Salle

CLASS 6A
1. Normal Community
2. Rock Island
3. Joliet Catholic
4. Cary-Grove
5. Morgan Park
6. Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin
7. Richards
8. Providence
9. Danville
10. Prairie Ridge

CLASS 5A
1. Metamora
2. Marian Central Catholic
3. Jacksonville
4. Washington
5. Nazareth
6. Geneseo
7. Montini
8. Pontiac
9. Sterling
10. Morris

CLASS 4A
1. Driscoll
2. Bloomington Central Catholic
3. Mt. Carmel (the other one way downstate)
4. Aurora Christian
5. Mendota
6. Breese Mater Dei
7. Quincy Notre Dame
8. Leo
9. Coal City
10. Chillicothe IVC

CLASS 3A
1. Columbia
2. Aledo-Westmer
3. Sterling Newman
4. Decatur St. Teresa
5. Carthage Illini West
6. Tolono Unity
7. DuQuoin
8. Carlinville
9. Carterville
10. Spring Valley Hall

CLASS 2A
1. Orion
2. Casey-Westfield
3. Maroa-Forsyth
4. Auburn
5. Westville
6. Red Bud
7. Morrison
8. Eastland-Pearl City
9. Momence
10. Minonk Fieldcrest

CLASS 1A
1. Dakota
2. Galena
3. Greenfield
4. Milledgeville
5. Sidell Jamaica Salt Fork
6. Alden-Hebron
7. Cerro Gordo
8. Jacksonville Routt
9. Mt. Sterling Brown County
10. Toulon Stark County